Social Groups - use 'em responsibly or lose 'em!

[John_D]

We rarely look at Social Groups, and I was surprised to see over 50 of them. That is going to change!

To start with, three of them were mistakes - people who had a question/problem had set up a Social Group and put in their query as its description, instead of actually posting on the forum.

On top of that, there are groups with messages from people who really wanted help and got no response. I don't see how even someone who has never used a bulletin board could manage to find and post on a Social Group and miss the forums, but that's life. Nevertheless, where was the Social Group's originator?

There are groups which have evidently been abandoned a while back, groups where the originator no longer visits the site and groups where the only member is the originator who, in some cases, hasn't even posted a message on his/her own group.

With a few exceptions, it's a mess.

So, here's what's going to happen with existing groups:

Subject to the group's originator contacting us with an exceptionally good reason why their particular group should remain ....

• Any Social Group that has not been active for six months or more at this time is going to disappear.
• Any Social Group where there is only one member (the originator), which was set up more than 1 month ago will disappear.
• Any Social Group that was set up by someone who has never posted on the forum will disappear.
• Remaining groups will become 'moderated' - see further down for explanation - in due course.

If there is any information in any of the groups that could be usefully kept, we'll try to put it somewhere else.

As for starting new Social Groups:

Anyone who wants to create a new Social Group will need to convince us that there is a good reason for doing so, that there are members interested in the idea who will support it and that it will be monitored . If anyone puts up a good enough case, they will be given the necessary access to create one.

Such groups will be one of two types - 'moderated' (by the originator, not us) or 'invite only'.

• The moderated group works by a PT member clicking on the 'join group' button, whereupon they will be informed it's a moderated group and to confirm they want to join. If they do, then a notification will automatically go to the group's originator, for them to approve or reject.
  
• In the invite only group the originator sends invitations to people they want in their group. The PT member receiving the invitation then has the option of accepting or refusing it. If a non-invited PT member wants to join such a group they would contact the group's originator to ask.

Think first:

• Unless you have a few posts (like 25) under your belt, forget it. No more "walking in off the street" and creating them - that's half the reason they've not been working.
  
• Think about what you want to achieve. Looking through, seems that a fair bit of content is so general it could just as well have been in one of the forums, and people wanting to buy/sell would get a wider audience too. There is no point setting up a Social Group to duplicate what is already being done. These groups are for members with a specific interest (such as a specific pigeon breed, or a non-pigeon hobby) who want to chat and throw around ideas and experiences, without it getting fragmented by posts which aren't related.

Finally:

• The above is not negotiable.
• If group originators or potential new group originators want to contact us, please use the 'Contact Us' form and tick 'Other Admin Queries'.