Screening New Members Using the Pending Subscription Notice
NOTE: This option is only available to Restricted groups. See Admin>Settings>Spam Control.
The Pending Subscription Notice is one of the group Member Notices (see /static/help#membernotices).?
It is sent automatically to anyone who applies for membership in a restricted group.
It is not sent to those you invite or direct add.*
The notice marked "active" is the one sent; if no notice is active, none is sent.
Some groups use this notice to ask a series of questions of applicants in support of their application; responses will go to the group owner address and be recorded in the member¡¯s page under "+owner messages."
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Screenshot shows active Pending Subscription notice in Admin, Settings, Member Notices tab.
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The potential group member receives a message from Groups.io asking the person to confirm they have applied.
The group owner receives an email about the request to join.
The screenshot shows the email that the owner receives by email about the request. You must reply to this to trigger the Pending Subscription notice.
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After the group owner / moderator replies to the message, the Pending Subscription notice is sent to the potential member.
The screenshot shows the email the potential member gets. There are a few questions. The recipient must reply to the email with the information.
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Now the semi-automated part for the owner is over.
The owner receives the email in their own email account and has to assess whether or not to accept the member.?The message also goes into Activity in Admin. You can click on the subject line to open and read it here.
If the member is acceptable, the owner / moderator must choose from the dropdown menu.
The screenshot shows the options.
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If they don't reply: you can resend if they don't reply within 2-3 days. If they don't reply to the second probe either or don't meet your criteria, reject their request.
What if they try to login in? In the Group member list, the member shows the potential member.
But if the unapproved member tries to login, they get this message:
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If you don't approve the person, they disappear from your Members list.
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*The logic here is that you have previously vetted them in some other fashion and?want?them to join, otherwise you wouldn't have invited them. If you need to gather information from every subscriber no matter how they join, you'll have to find some other way to do it.
The official Groups.io user documentation is in the Groups.io Help Center.