Thank you all for your good advice much of which I have incorporated in my response to the group. I posted this today as a special notice so all see it:
*
ADMIN - A Note About Proper Procedure Reporting Possible Guidelines Violations

Bob -- Another thought:? Do the spam posts have an #email hashtag? If so, they are coming in via an email integration. So if spam posts continue that's something else to look for.

Also, could the post have been sent to the +owner address, rather than the group? Anyone can send an email to that address, not just group members.

Did the message come with [DM] in the subject line? If so, that would have been sent to you via the Directory.

Failing that, I guess you already got rid of the offending member using the bulk delete function, so it's going to be difficult to reconstruct the "can't find him in the members list" problem.

As Shal said yesterday, you really do need to check the activity log, and report back on what it says.?No matter how the spam message made it to your message archive, there should be a log entry explaining where it came from.?Messages to +owner should appear there, too.

If the message landed in your email inbox but never appeared in the message archive, then it wasn't a group message, not matter how legitimate it looked. An enterprising spammer would have no difficulty appending a fake groups.io footer to a direct email. It's as simple as cut-and-paste.

I hope something in there rings a bell.

Regards,
Bruce

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Bob,

They don't appear in the joined when I sort by date joined. Not at
all.
Yes, the groups.io footer does appear in their emails I have gotten.

And the other half of the question: did their message appear in your group's Messages list?

Are there entries in your group's Activity log corresponding to the date and time their spam messages were posted?

Is it possible that their message came to you via a different group than the one you're looking in? Check to be sure that the To: field of the message exactly matches the posting address of your group.

Very odd they won't turn up anywhere in admin tools, ...

So odd that I consider it impossible. Hence the search for a plausible explanation.

no display name to search,

That doesn't matter. I wonder why you keep bringing it up?

Where is it that you are not seeing a Display Name? Are you talking about either the Inbox or an opened message in your email interface? That could be the source of the confusion.

Have they confused matters by putting what looks like an email address in their Display Name? That could obfuscate their actual email address.

But it should stand out like a sore thumb in your group's Members list, an email address in the Display Name column.

Plus, it wouldn't matter. Putting even part of the text you have into the Search box in your group's Members list would find that text in either the Display Name or the Email column.

their email is not searchable

The only way you might not find them by searching the Members list or the Activity log is if you have a typo in the search text you entered.

(I enclosed it wrongly but only to show if it had anything odd about
it that could throw the software off).

There was not (I'm the moderator who redacted it).

How did you copy the address? Copy / Paste the From field of a received message? Or did you copy it by hand? There is a possibility that the address contains characters that look like different characters, leading to an inability to match it.

But the team should know there are emails that can completely hide
from the admin, yet will allow themselves to be deleted by bulk
delete.

I don't believe such hiding is possible. To be a member of the group the person's email address must appear in the Members list.

What Bruce asks is a possibility - posting by a non-member. But such posts are always held for moderation and I assume you would have not approved spam messages.

Plus, what leads you to believe that bulk delete deleted them if you were not able to find them in the first place?

Apologies for the long string of questions, but I'm trying to find the evidence that will tell us what happened. Usually that search begins and ends with the Groups' activity log - a great tool for revealing message posting activity and Memberships joining and leaving.

Shal


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On Wed, May 6, 2020 at 11:33 PM, babygrand wrote:

Sorry, I meant there are members, not emails, that can completely hide from the owner/admin.

Are you allowing non-members to post? See Admin>Settings>Message Policies, first checkbox.

Bruce

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If I am understanding your question correctly, you can send a message to the group from your email program and address it to the posting address that appears at the bottom of the home page.? Now I know you don't have a group here, but it would work like it did in Yahoo Groups.? You need to make sure the first part of the email address is the name assigned to the group when you crated it and then @groups.io .? Depending on the mail delivery settings of your members will depend on who receives it.?

The one problem I have with that is you won't be able to indicated you want the message to go to those members who selected Special Notice as their mail delivery choice. That can only be done through the groups New Topic option or I haven't figured out a way to do it.? .?

Judy F.
SW Florida - USA

On Wed, May 6, 2020 at 06:29 PM, Bob Petti wrote:

So where does the hash tag go?? In the subject line of the email?? If so, I don't think this will help us since we need to simply forward emails, frequently done from a phone in a car - not very conducive to doing that. Darn it!

Try setting up an Email Integration for the group and forward any priority messages to the integration address instead of the group address. If you also set the Special flag on the #email hashtag that might give you what you want.

Regards,
Bruce?

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On Wed, May 6, 2020 at 05:29 PM, babygrand wrote:

there are emails that can completely hide from the admin

No, there aren't.? It may not be visible to some moderators, but can always be seen by the group owner.? I'd still look through the activity log to see who approved the membership.

Duane
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On Wed, May 6, 2020 at 05:29 PM, Bob Petti wrote:

So where does the hash tag go?? In the subject line of the email?

Yes, it must be on the subject line with a space on either side.? I'd suggest putting it in front of the existing subject line, but I'm not sure if there needs to be a space in front of it then.? Someone else may have a different way that I'm not familiar with.

Duane
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GMF's Unofficial Help Wiki: /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki

On Wed, May 6, 2020 at 05:29 PM, Patti wrote:

I thought there was a way to change your own message delivery settings for a group using email.

Sure!? See /helpcenter/membersmanual/1/additional-information/standard-group-email-addresses

Duane
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GMF's Unofficial Help Wiki: /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki

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Duane,

Thanks for the speedy answer.? I am new here and really appreciate it. So where does the hash tag go?? In the subject line of the email?? If so, I don't think this will help us since we need to simply forward emails, frequently done from a phone in a car - not very conducive to doing that. Darn it!

Bob

Hi GMF peeps,

OK, so we already have the "can talk about Covid-19" thread, pinned to top of topic list --
I'm writing a hopefully very calm post to post on that thread, today,
will remind people how to mute topics/threads they don't care to see

One of the issues in this mess is, there really are things our group needs to talk about/educate/etc. around covid-19 --
the group is about cat care, and veterinary service is hugely impacted, some members are breeders, some are rescuers, some do both, and getting vet care, going to manage colonies, etc. is hugely impacted.? Adoptions are very low, many people are relinquishing pets to shelters on the mistaken idea that cats can give humans the virus, many shelters are closed.? It has become very difficult or impossible to get many veterinary drugs and treatments.? Just as with human care, many "non-critically-urgent" medical procedures are being postponed for cats.? Vet practices that still have some open hours, are having people call from the parking lot at the time of their appointment, a vet tech gets the cat-in-carrier and brings into the practice, the cat's human doesn't get to accompany.?

Another issue is the pouncing-members' tendency to label any criticism of government pandemic response, as "this is a political rant" -- which it is emphatically not.? There is no question that our government response is incompetent.?
Two of my best friends from Caltech (they graduated, I dropped out) work for major drug research firms, one of them is working huge amount of overtime since their employer is working to make a reliable antibody test, the other's employer is working furiously on developing more anti-viral drugs (they're a virus researcher).? Other friends work as nurses.? In our urban area, major hospitals are literally begging the public for PPE (personal protective equipment) like masks -- this includes major players like Kaiser, etc.? These folks are on the inside of the battle, and they make my statements seem incredibly mild.?

It isn't a political statement to say (and yep we can include, 'this is our opinion, AND the opinion of the virus researchers we know'), 'our government's response to pandemic has been incompetent', so we need to do more at local and state levels.

Ironically, when we moved this group to groups.io, and set out with the intent to reinvigorate the group, which like so many had lost a huge number of members when yahoo did the neo format, one of our goals was to restore the focus on critical thinking!? which had lapsed in the neo-format years.?

Quite possibly the fussing members may continue to fuss, the complaining-to-groups-io person threatened to quit (while they contribute good information on certain technical vet things, they're very prone to drama)(and a mod commented don't let the door hit you on your way out....)

Thanks for all your thoughts.? In the grand scheme of things these days, this is a very minor problem.? We'll post a mild post, and see how it goes.? Gesine

On Wed, May 6, 2020 at 04:06 PM, KAD wrote:

Is there a way transfer a message (s) from a subgroup to the parent group

No.? All groups, main and subgroup, are totally separate.? You'd have to forward the message to the other group to get it there, but it would be from you and not the original poster.

Duane
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The official Groups.io user documentation is in the Groups.io Help Center.
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On Wed, May 6, 2020 at 04:06 PM, Robert Petti wrote:

Is it possible for a moderator to send a special message by just sending an email to the group?

Yes.? Create a hashtag that has the Special attribute, and also select Use By Mods Only.? Then always add that hashtag to any messages you send, online or via email.? It will go to everyone.? For this to work, you'll need to disable the No Email setting for the group so everyone will be on at least Special Notice.

Duane
--
The official Groups.io user documentation is in the Groups.io Help Center.
GMF's Unofficial Help Wiki: /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki

On Wed, May 6, 2020 at 03:42 PM, Cal wrote:

I was wondering if there is a way to prevent from?getting invites to various?groups from people I do not know.

No.? The question becomes how did they get your email address to invite you?

Duane
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GMF's Unofficial Help Wiki: /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki