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J,

What are the ramifications of changing a group title and/or email
address here? Removing the underscores is not a huge deal, but I'd
prefer to get rid of them.

I don't believe there would be any ramifications to changing the group's Title. Since the Title is now shown in the Group Search page, if having people find and join your group via that page you may want to pick a title that goes well with the group name and the snippet of description that are shown there. That is, if the group name is short-hand for the topic of the group, you might want to spell it out in the Title.

The email address though is another matter. That address is also used as the group name (shown first on the Group Search page) and as a part of the group's address (URL) on the web. So changing it can't avoid having some impact on the members.

Say I had the "my_example" group and wanted to change that to "MyExample".

The most obvious impact is that the address "[email protected]" is contained in all the prior messages out there (individual or digest) which a member might use to form a reply. After the change their replies would be rejected for "no such group" or some message like that. Too, members may have that old address stored in their contact lists or in the auto-complete function in their email service.

The next is that the group's web address "/g/my_example" is similarly "out there" in prior messages and possibly bookmarks or browsing history; none of which will work after the change.

A way to mitigate those impacts would be, after clicking the "Update Group" button on the changed email address, to immediately create a new group under the old address. Members would end up at the wrong place, but that's friendlier than an error. This also prevents any malcontents from "squatting" on your group's old name to cause trouble.

My suggestion is to do the following:

1) Create the new group "my_example_temp". This will later be changed to "my_example", but it helps to get it all set up ahead of time so that there's no time pressure later. Give it the following settings:

Description: Text that serves as a "We've Moved" billboard to direct members to the new MyExample email and web addresses.

Website: "/g/MyExample"

Announcement Group: NOT checked, and
Allow Non Subscribers to Post: checked
These will cause errant messages to the old address to be accepted rather than give an error message. See Moderated, below.

Privacy: "Listed in directory, publicly viewable archives"
This means that people searching on the exact text of the old name will still find your group, but this the "we've moved" billboard.

Moderated: checked
Don't approve any messages that arrive, but use the Reject feature in the pending list to inform (or remind) the member of the new group address, and ask them to repost their message to the new address.

Restricted: checked
Don't invite or approve anyone. This group is just the we've moved billboard.

Calendar and Wiki: anything except Public can view...

Most of the rest I don't think will matter.

2) Post one message in the group, using the group's Post function so that you can select the +owner address in the From field. Like the group's description this can also be in the form of a "we've moved" notice, perhaps with more detail. Give whatever explanations and directions you feel appropriate for a group member who happens to wander to the old group address.

3) Warn the group members of the upcoming change, give them a date and time for it.

4) At the announced date and time, go to my_example and change it to "MyExample". Click Update Group.

5) Immediately go to my_example_temp and change it to "my_example". Click Update Group. Doing these two changes in rapid succession helps minimize the probability that someone else will accidentally, or maliciously, grab your old group name when it is freed. You might be vague on the changeover time (or even wrong) if you fear there may be a malcontent out there eager to snag your group's name.

Optionally send a welcome message to your group members at MyExample.

Shal

J,

Yegads! I would have stopped you from going to all this trouble if I'd
known it was going to be complicated! I think I'll pass on this.
Thanks, I'll think about it.;)

The basic process isn't complicated, only step 4, the change itself, is actually needed.

If your members are basically savvy, and can be expected to understand an cope with the change in address by themselves then 3 and 4 together, warning and change, should suffice.

The rest is going "above and beyond" in mitigating the ramifications for the benefit of a membership of mixed or unknown level of understanding. It is a collection of ideas that have been discussed over the years in Y!GMF and Y!YGOG, gathered together and rewritten for Groups.io.

Shal