¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

Date

Re: Custom Invite Question

 

Hi Cindy,

I think giving reasons for asking if there is a way to do that has caused a lot of commotion, a lot of discussion, a lot of debating. I don't know whether the moderators here think that is good or bad as a result.
Generally speaking we're fine with discussing alternative ways to achieve a desired result and their pros and cons. That kind of brainstorming can be helpful to other readers as well as to the original poster.

So given the no you cant take that out answer, I'm just going to hope that the people actually read what I have written ...
One thing that might help, and maybe you've already found it, is the Horizontal line button in the second row of the formatting toolbar.


I've found that putting the group's customized text inside lines can help draw the invitee's attention.

I think this technique also helps draw attention away from the boilerplate text by clearly separating it from the customized text.

Our IO group is set to subscribers require approval.? And IO is assuming we sent the invite to someone we already approve.? If you check on the link you provided for pending subscription notice, it says you cant use it with an invitation.
The Pending Subscription notice won't be sent if the invitee accepts the invitation, but it will be sent if the recipient uses the home page button or the +subscribe command to join on their own. Presumably your are instructing them to use one of those two methods.

Note that there are two ways for the recipient to accept the invitation: they can click the link in the boilerplate or simply reply to the invitation by email. If you look at the invitation as received you will notice that the From address is specially coded to accomplish the acceptance for that particular invitee.

Shal
GMF Moderator
?
--
Help: /static/help
More Help: /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki
Even More Help: Search button at the top of Messages list


Locked Work begins on Groups.io in 2014 - Mon, 01/06/2020 #cal-notice

 

Work begins on Groups.io in 2014

When:
Monday, 6 January 2020

Description:
Mark Fletcher posted in Twitter that this date as the anniversary of his starting work on Groups.io:

¡°I started work on 5 years ago today (launched in Sept 2014). Two truths and a lie: 9,485 commits, ~180k lines of , 0 bugs.¡±
¡ª

On the scale of other software projects, even his lie seems close enough to the truth.


Re: Custom Invite Question

 

On Sun, Jan 5, 2020 at 09:05 PM, Cindy in DE wrote:
I can customize my invitation message
Since it will go above the 'accept' link, make your part long enough to force that way down the page. ;>)? Make your own link larger and bold to stand out.? Wish you luck and hope things turn out well.

Duane
--
GMF's Wiki: /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki
Help: /static/help
Search button at the top of Messages list
A few site FAQs: /static/pricing#frequently-asked-questions


Re: Custom Invite Question

Cindy in DE
 

Hi Everybody! :)
?
What a commotion I have caused, hahaha. I didn't mean to make this become such a big deal.? I just wanted to know if I could take out that "accept the invitation" link.? Then I would deal with the answer I got (hoping yes, haha)
?
I think giving reasons for asking if there is a way to do that has caused a lot of commotion, a lot of discussion, a lot of debating. I don't know whether the moderators here think that is good or bad as a result.? Or as in the beginning should it be requested as a change and talked about elsewhere.
?
I am perfectly happy with the way we can invite people through IO. I think it works well with the testing that I've done. But I've not done it with a huge number of people yet so that's left to be determined...? but I don't expect any problems.
?
I had written the custom invitation message to our members we want to invite using the IO custom invitation method. And we intend to use it with a file that we upload with all of the approximate 10,000 members emails and usernames that we downloaded from YG.
?
I did a lot of testing of the links that we put in for what we would like them to click on and sign up or reply to the invitation to sign up. Both of those work perfectly.
?
However that one Link at the bottom "accept the invitation" surpasses them entering the information that we would like them to see or maybe they would like to see to change, edit, whatever to begin with.
?
So given the no you cant take that out answer, I'm just going to hope that the people actually read what I have written and click on the link I have provided them or reply to the invitation as I say they can also do (and IO says that too in the footer) and they just dont get that far down to read that other link at the bottom.
?
Shal, I've done a ton of testing of the invite with adding and removing 2 accounts (add/delete to both our group and IO) so many times I thought at one point one of them must have been flagged or something because it stopped working.? But I think it was the email server because things got back to normal.? That email address is a Comcast.net address that gets forwarded to an MSN.com address.? (For receiving emails)
?
And Michael, glad to hear there are other freecyclers in the group, and thank you very much for the information.? I have already written my invitation pretty much the way you described addressing it to the old YG members and inviting them personally.? And? taking the time to write it to our particular audience of miscellaneous experience of members as you described. Our IO group is set to subscribers require approval.? And IO is assuming we sent the invite to someone we already approve.? If you check on the link you provided for pending subscription notice, it says you cant use it with an invitation.
?
So, I'm cool with everything.? I like the IO invite, I can customize my invitation message, I can upload my file of approximately 10,000 (and then maybe another for approximately 3,000 TBD for other reasons) all at one time, I can emphasize my links and instructions so hopefully the members will click on those or reply to the invitation sent as instructed to.? And hopefully will not click on the other link but if they do then I'll figure it out.
?
Thanks everybody, all of the suggestions have been great.? I've learned a lot for sure.
?
Happy New Year and good luck with your IO Groups!
?
?o? Cindy ?o?
?
?
?

-------- Original message --------
From: Shal Farley <shals2nd@...>
Date: 1/5/20 6:48 PM (GMT-05:00)
Subject: Re: [GMF] Custom Invite Question
?
Cindy,

?> I can put in a change request but this is basically a 1 time
?> thing for us at this point to get people (10,000) over from YG in 1
?> invite notice to everyone at one time.? And we need to do it now.

Hmm...

I like Dotty's suggestion to use a mechanism other than Groups.io's
invite, but that will be at least tedious to accomplish with over 10,000
addresses. Last time I did something like this (several years ago) Gmail
would only allow me to BCC 200 addresses at a time, so that would be 50
messages. Your experience with other email services may vary.

An advantage (or maybe disadvantage) of Dotty's suggestion to direct the
"invitees" to the group's home page is that when the person clicks the
Request button they are taken to a page where they enter their email
address for confirmation. The person could take this opportunity to
abandon an old address in favor of a their preferred address. The
downside is that if they do so it will be more difficult for you to
track them for approval.

?> We use default settings like everyone else.? One we use is set to
?> individual emails.? The majority of our members use this but others
?> get upset about this filling up their inbox and either dont know how
?> to change it ...

A true advantage for your use case is that (if I remember correctly)
upon confirmation of their email address they will be taken to a page
where they can set their subscription options. This puts the choices
before them, so they don't need extra instruction in how to find and set
their subscription.

It will initially show what you've set in the group's Default Sub
Settings page but each person can override that choice in favor of
Digest (or whatever) if they choose. And this happens while they are
still Pending (not yet receiving any group messages).

?> The other is the signature part because everything is FREE and people
?> arent allowed solicit their business in their signature.

The signatures that Groups.io can optionally apply to members' messages
are part of the member's Subscription, but I don't recall for certain if
they are included in that landing page from the Request button.

?> Those younger members who are still working and may have their own
?> businesses. They tend to put in their business information in the
?> signature even though the are giving away free items.? So we want to
?> head that off from the beginning.

Those members probably have their work signatures set in their email
interface. Groups.io doesn't have a capability to strip those out of any
messages they post by email.

?> And the display name is from an issue in YG that we just want filled
?> out now here on IO.

I believe you can adjust that as needed while the member is still
Pending approval.

I'd like to say I've re-tested all of this for you, but I haven't. To
truly test it I'd have to go create a new email address which hasn't
been seen by Groups.io before, or delete the account associated with one
of mine which has.

Shal


Re: size of my group

 

Jim,

Where do I go to determine the size of my group? How much space my
group takes?
At the bottom of the Admin collection of links on the left, click on Upgrade. Or, if your group has already upgraded it will be called Billing.

This will show details of your group's storage usage.

Shal


--
Help: /static/help
More Help: /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki
Even More Help: Search button at the top of Messages list


size of my group

 

Where do I go to determine the size of my group?? How much space my group takes?

Jim Allen


Re: Member in membership not recognized by Groups.io

 

On 2020-01-05 at 11:31:04 AM, Duane <txpigeon@...> wrote:

To GIO, joe.smith and joesmith are 2 different people.? Better to be safe
than sorry I guess.
Not all email systems treat joe.smith@... and joesmith@...
the same. Even JoeSmith@... can be different than
joesmith@.... All these decisions are left up to example.com, and
there's no standard way--that I know of--for the various systems to
advertise their handling rules. Very much better safe than sorry here. :-)

In fact, section 2.3.11 of the SMTP RFC [1] addresses this discrepancy among
email systems explicitly (in the jargon of this RFC, local-part is everything
before the @):

Consequently, and due to a long history of problems when intermediate
hosts have attempted to optimize transport by modifying them, the
local-part MUST be interpreted and assigned semantics only by the host
specified in the domain part of the address.
[1]:

--
Christopher W. <lists@...>


Re: Making an established group.io a sub group of another existing group.io

 

On Sun, Jan 5, 2020 at 07:15 PM, Jim Allen wrote:
Can i make a current groups.io a sub group of another without loosing anything?
Not currently.? Mark has been asked about this a few times on the beta group, but hasn't had time to write the needed code to do it with the YG meltdown.? And then it will depend on how high the priority is for him.

Duane
--
GMF's Wiki: /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki
Help: /static/help
Search button at the top of Messages list
A few site FAQs: /static/pricing#frequently-asked-questions


Re: Making an established group.io a sub group of another existing group.io

 

Yes it is.? I am sorry for that.? Didnt find either my message or the reply until after i had posted the second.??

But you didnt answer part of the last question.? ?

Can i make a current groups.io a sub group of another without loosing anything?

Jim Allen


Re: Making an established group.io a sub group of another existing group.io

 

This is pretty much what you asked 2 days ago, /g/GroupManagersForum/topic/69408593? The answer is the same.? If you received messages from the group or read the replies posted, you wouldn't ask again.

Duane
--
GMF's Wiki: /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki
Help: /static/help
Search button at the top of Messages list
A few site FAQs: /static/pricing#frequently-asked-questions


Re: User name

 

On Jan 5, 2020, at 6:00 PM, Frances <frances@...> wrote:

There is a user name and a display name.

You can change your own Identity.
You can change display names - yours and members.
However you may not want to do it unless you can actually see the person's name in their email address.
For other members, you can change it in Admin, Members.
This is one reason a Restricted Group may use a "Pending Subscription" Member Notice is to ask for a person's real name to fill in for their Display Name (in case it is not done automatically or accurately).
A Member can always change it (to a nickname or whatever), so you may want to also put it in a Member's Notes to have a record of it (to change back).
Admin > Members > click on Member's row > click on Notes button

You can also send a message to an unidentified Member asking for their name, but I prefer the leverage of getting before subscription approval than removing a Member. I would never allow an unidentified Member to post messages.


Making an established group.io a sub group of another existing group.io

 

I have two groups.? I would like to make one group a sub group of the other.? Is that possible without loosing anything?? Does the storage space of sub groups add up into the total storage of the parent group? or is each group and sub group storage accounted for individually?

Jim Allen


Re: Custom Invite Question

 

Cindy,

I can put in a change request but this is basically a 1 time
thing for us at this point to get people (10,000) over from YG in 1
invite notice to everyone at one time. And we need to do it now.
Hmm...

I like Dotty's suggestion to use a mechanism other than Groups.io's invite, but that will be at least tedious to accomplish with over 10,000 addresses. Last time I did something like this (several years ago) Gmail would only allow me to BCC 200 addresses at a time, so that would be 50 messages. Your experience with other email services may vary.

An advantage (or maybe disadvantage) of Dotty's suggestion to direct the "invitees" to the group's home page is that when the person clicks the Request button they are taken to a page where they enter their email address for confirmation. The person could take this opportunity to abandon an old address in favor of a their preferred address. The downside is that if they do so it will be more difficult for you to track them for approval.

We use default settings like everyone else. One we use is set to
individual emails. The majority of our members use this but others
get upset about this filling up their inbox and either dont know how
to change it ...
A true advantage for your use case is that (if I remember correctly) upon confirmation of their email address they will be taken to a page where they can set their subscription options. This puts the choices before them, so they don't need extra instruction in how to find and set their subscription.

It will initially show what you've set in the group's Default Sub Settings page but each person can override that choice in favor of Digest (or whatever) if they choose. And this happens while they are still Pending (not yet receiving any group messages).

The other is the signature part because everything is FREE and people
arent allowed solicit their business in their signature.
The signatures that Groups.io can optionally apply to members' messages are part of the member's Subscription, but I don't recall for certain if they are included in that landing page from the Request button.

Those younger members who are still working and may have their own
businesses. They tend to put in their business information in the
signature even though the are giving away free items. So we want to
head that off from the beginning.
Those members probably have their work signatures set in their email interface. Groups.io doesn't have a capability to strip those out of any messages they post by email.

And the display name is from an issue in YG that we just want filled
out now here on IO.
I believe you can adjust that as needed while the member is still Pending approval.

I'd like to say I've re-tested all of this for you, but I haven't. To truly test it I'd have to go create a new email address which hasn't been seen by Groups.io before, or delete the account associated with one of mine which has.

Shal


--
Help: /static/help
More Help: /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki
Even More Help: Search button at the top of Messages list


Re: Custom Invite Question

 

Cindy,

I belong to 2 FreeCycle groups on Cape Cod, one of which is "Official".

There is a tremendous variance in IT capability between users.

Some are like 'novice car drivers who just got their Learners Permit' and don't really know how to drive yet, but are eager.
Some even require some one else to print out email messages so that they can read them, because they don't want to do something wrong on a computer.

Others are so competent and knowledgable and 'know that anyone can do anything', but just don't understand how many have problems because they don't understand the confusing jargon (IT language).

There is a tension between making Groups.io accessible to everyone versus comfortable to those who don't want to be hindered by 'dumbing it down' too much.
I favor using words as they are more commonly used in Real Life (which is not always the same as in the IT world) so that the most people will use Groups.io.
There are so many options which many (including me) don't understand because of the verbiage.


It sounds like you are asking to modify the Invitation feature (which is designed to be like a Party Invitation which is only sent to people you want to attend). I think this use of Invite is intuitive.

I would say you want to ask people to Apply To Join.
Entitle your email message: "Join the relocated FreeCycle group for Delaware" or "Join the new, improved FreeCycle group for Delaware".
Include an explanation of why they would want to join.
Explain how to do it by sending an email to <[email protected]>, or to visit your Groups.io webpage and click on "Apply For Membership In This Group".

Here's information about how to vet people who Apply To Join
/g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/Screening-New-Members-Using-the-Pending-Subscription-Notice


You may or may not want to include more information, possibly:

As it is currently not clearly spelled out I would also describe the process:
1) to 'get started' with Groups.io:
- They will have to reply to a Groups.io Account Confirmation email which only confirms that they are able to receive emails from Groups.io
2) and then to subscribe to your Restricted Groups.io group:
- They will receive a "Pending Subscription" email which asks questions that they need to respond to be approved to join the group (SPAM protection, etc).
/g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/Joining-a-group

Subscription options
/static/help#subscription-options

NOTE: sometimes email messages may be misdirected to their SPAM, Junk, and Trash folders, so:
- users should check their SPAM, Junk, and Trash folders every time they check their Inbox (at least once a day).
- always unmark and move any Groups.io email marked as SPAM or Junk to their Inbox - then read and/or delete it
- never mark a Groups.io email as SPAM or Junk - instead report offending messages to their Group <[email protected]>
- explain about 'being removed for marking Groups.io emails as SPAM' and the restoration process
/g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/Removed-for-spam


Find even more information in the incomplete, but growing GMF WIKI:
/g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/home

Michael


Re: Can group owner change a members email-address?

 

Frances

By "her membership record" I mean that I have found her listed under Admin, Members and have clicked on it.This brings up her details and I can see her Activity History Email delivery History, etc.

Strangely I tried again this evening to change her email address ... and it worked! Not sure why or how ... maybe Gio was undergoing maintenance when I tried before?

Margaret

Margaret,

I can't tell you exactly because I don't have access to a premium account.

However, I am puzzled when you say "her membership record". Do you mean she gave you here password and you logged in as her? If so, you could change it through Account. But the member needs to click on a link in her email to confirm the change.

Hoping someone else with Premium can chime in!

Frances

[excess quote trimmed by moderator]


Re: #BouncingEmails #bouncingemails

 

On Jan 5, 2020, at 3:54 PM, Shal Farley <shals2nd@...> wrote:
or send a reactivate test message.
Put a check mark next to one or more members in the list and scroll to the bottom. In the Actions menu select "Send Bounce Probe".

You can also do that from a button at the bottom of an individual member's page.
Thank you! Hidden menus don¡¯t exist for me. I think I don¡¯t play enough video games to learn all the more popular tricks.

Sharon


Re: Custom Invite Question

 

There are some tools in Admin, Promote.
The signup form can be embedded in a blog or website.
Since it isn't an invitation but a link to the subscribe button, it should use the pending subscription notice.

Perhaps do this in conjunction with some other suggestions?

Frances

?
--
Moving to Groups.io (without easy transfer)


GMF Wiki: (unofficial) Help for members (and would-be members) and group managers


Re: Custom Invite Question

 

On Sat, Jan 4, 2020 at 11:45 PM, Cindy in DE wrote:
When you create a custom invite, io adds a header and a footer to the message...? Even though we want to send out a batch invite to all of our old YG members, we want to have to approve their memberships.
If they click on the link "accept the invitation" they automatically become a member of our group, no approval needed, boom they are in.? That's not good for us. (I know we invited but we still want to do some screening)...We would also like say the invite is coming from the Administrators rather than the particular person that is sending the invitation.?
Cindy,
Rather than using the GIO invitation process, would it work to batch send a custom message from a non-GIO group address to the former YG members with a link to the GIO group homepage, with instructions to click on the "Request to Join" button?? Then you could use the GIO Pending Subscription feature to screen applicants before accepting them as members, and the first message moderation feature to verify their adherence to your signature requirements, etc.? You could create a temporary email account that reflected your Administrators status (rather than use a personal account) to use as the sending address for this purpose.? I don't know if these suggestions will suit your purpose, but I hadn't seen anyone offer this idea yet.

Just another GIO user with limited knowledge,
Dotty
?


Re: User name

 

There is a user name and a display name.

You can change your own Identity.
You can change display names - yours and members.
However you may not want to do it unless you can actually see the person's name in their email address.
For other members, you can change it in Admin, Members.

See this page for instructions - Identity (Your Profile) section.
/g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/Profile-and-Email-Address-and-Merging-Accounts%2C-Subscription
Feel free to send just the part you want to your members.

Frances

--
Moving to Groups.io (without easy transfer)


GMF Wiki: (unofficial) Help for members (and would-be members) and group managers


Re: User name

 

On Sun, Jan 5, 2020 at 05:28 PM, Susan Pitlock wrote:
Under members, the majority under user name indicates user name is not set. How are they set??
Susan -- Each groups.io account holder can set a username for themselves in their primary account profile at?/account?page=profile&member_info_id=0.?However, there is no reason to do so, as it isn't used for anything.

Regards,
Bruce