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GroupServer.Org Administration Manual

Introduction

This manual is a guide for Administrators of GroupServer.Org. It provides instructions on how to:

Add Members to a Group

  1. Click on Group Admin, on your Group's homepage, to open the Group Administration page.
  2. Click on Add members to [Group Name] to open the Add Members page.

From this page, you may add members to a group in one of three ways:

Add existing site members to a group

  1. Click on Select existing site members to open the Add Members of GroupServer.Org to [Group Name] page.
  2. Choose one or more members from the list. Use the Control key to select multiple members.
  3. Click the Add button.

Create a New Group Member

  1. Click on Enter the details of a new member to open the Create a New Group Member page.
  2. Fill out at least the Email, First Name and Last Name fields. The Preferred Name field is optional.
  3. Click the Create Member button.
  4. The new member will receive an email message from GroupServer.Org containing his or her login details.

Create Members in Bulk

Create Members in Bulk requires a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file. The CSV file must contain at least the first name, last name and email address of each member.

The creation of a large number of members may take a long time, and you may get a timeout. If this occurs, please do not retry until you have confirmed with the groupserver administrator that the members have not been created, otherwise double the number of members may be created. To reduce the chance of this happening, large numbers of users should be created in smaller batches (eg. 100 at a time).

Other profile values can be set at this time. Most of these are self-explanatory. See Viewing Your Profile in The GroupServer.Org User Maunal.

  1. Click on upload the details of multiple members using a CSV file to open the Create Members in Bulk page.
  2. Browse to the location of the CSV file on your local computer.
  3. Set the column header for each user property you have included in your CSV file.
  4. Click the Create Members button.
  5. The new member will receive an email message from GroupServer.Org containing his or her login details.

Manage Group Members

  1. Click on Group Admin, on your Group's homepage, to open the Group Administration page.
  2. Click on Manage the members of [Group Name], on the Group Administration page, to open the Manage Members page.
  3. If you wish, you may then click on either:
    • List only the managers of [Group Name] to list only the Managers of the group, or
    • List only the unverified members of [Group Name] to list only the unverified members of the group (only if there are unverified members).
    • List only the moderated members of [Group Name] to list only the moderated members of the group (if moderation has been turned on), or
    • List all posting members to list only the posting members of the group (announcement groups only).

From this page, you can:

Set the Participation Coach

  1. To set a member as Participation Coach, select the radio button labelled Make [Member Name] the participation coach.
  2. To remove the current Participation Coach, select the radio button labelled Revoke participation coach status from [Member Name].
  3. Click the Change button.

Set Group Administrators

  1. To set a member as a Group Administrator, check the box labelled Make [Member Name] a group administrator.
  2. To remove a current Group Administrator, check the box labelled Revoke the administrator privilages from [Member Name].
  3. Click the Change button.

Set Moderators (Moderated Groups Only)

In order to set the moderators for a group, moderation must first be turned on. See Manage Moderation.

  1. To make a member a moderator, check the box labelled Make [Member Name] a moderator for this group.
  2. To remove a moderator, check the box labelled Revoke moderator status from [Member Name].
  3. Click the Change button.

Set Moderated Members (Moderated Groups Only)

In order to set the moderated members for a group, moderation must first be turned on. See Manage Moderation.

  1. To moderate a member, check the box labelled Start moderating messages from [Member Name].
  2. To stop moderating a member, check the box labelled Stop moderating messages from [Member Name].
  3. Click the Change button.

Set Posting Members (Announcement Groups Only)

  1. To set a member as a posting member, check the box labelled Make [Member Name] a posting member.
  2. To remove a posting member, check the box labelled Revoke the ability to post from [Member Name].
  3. Click the Change button.

Send Verification Reminder to Unverified Members

  1. Click the link labelled Send a verification reminder to [Member Name] to open the Send a verification reminder to [Member Name] page.
  2. Click the Send button.

Remove Members

  1. To remove a member from the group, check the box labelled Remove [Member Name] from [Group Name].
  2. Click the Change button.

Edit Group Properties (Site Administrators Only)

  1. Click on Group Admin, on your Group's homepage, to open the Group Administration page.
  2. Click on Edit Group Properties, on the Group Administration page, to open the Edit Group Properties page.

From this page, you can edit:

Edit General Group Properties

This is where the Online Groups Design is applied to the group.

  1. Click on Edit the general properties of the group to open the Edit General Group Properties page.
General Group Properties
Property Description
Title The title of the group.
Subject The start of the subject line for email messages sent from the group.
Owner Person or organisation that commissioned the establishment of the group.
Participation Coach ID The user ID of the Participation Coach.
Real Life Group Text to complete the sentence: "[group_title] is an Online Group for ..."
Purpose Text to complete the sentence: "The purpose of [group_title] is..."
Date Open The date the group was opened, or will open. Will only be listed on the Charter if Date Closed is also specified.
Date Closed The date the group will closed, or closed. If left blank, the open and close dates will not be mentioned in the Charter.
Membership Definition What defines the membership of the group, what makes it unique? Text to complete the sentence: "Membership of [group_title] is open to ..."
Required Protocol Items Items to add to the requirements of participants in the Participation Protocol.
Encouraged Protocol Items Items to add to the encouraged activites in the Participation Protocol.

Edit Group Security Properties

  1. Click on Edit the security properties of the group to open the Edit Group Security Properties page.

On this page, you can specify:

Visibility

You can set the Visibility so that the existence of the group may be seen by:

  • Everyone
  • Only site and group members
  • Only group members

Joinability

You can set the Joinability so that the group can be joined by:

  • Anyone, without approval — anyone can join
  • Anyone, pending approval — potential group members must apply to join
  • Only those invited — potential group members must be invited to joined to the group
Anyone, without approval

To allow Anyone, without approval to join the the group.

  1. Set Visibility to either "Only site and group members" or "Everyone".
  2. Set Joinability to "Anyone, without approval"

This puts the following text on the group homepage:

  • Logged in: "You are not a member of [Group Name]; you can join [Group Name]."
  • Logged out: "You can register and join [Group Name]."
Anyone, pending approval

To allow Anyone, pending approval to join the the group.

  1. Set Group Visibility to either "Only site and group members" or "Everyone".
  2. Set Joinability to "Anyone, pending approval".

This puts the following text on the group homepage:

  1. Logged in: "You are not a member of [Group Name]; you can contact the Participation Coach ([Name]) to request membership.
  2. Logged out:
    • If you are a member of GroupServer.Org, log in. Then, contact the Participation Coach [Name] to request membership.
    • If you are not a member, register. Then, contact the Participation Coach [Name] to request membership.
Only those invited

Setting Joinability to Only those invited puts the following text on the group homepage:

  1. Logged in: "You are not a member of [Group Name]; membership is by invitation only."
  2. Logged out: "You are not a member, and you cannot join, as membership of this group is by invitation only."

View Files

You can set View Files so that files uploaded to the group may be seen by:

  • Everyone
  • Only site and group members
  • Only group members
  • or Same as group settings to set the visibility of the files to be the same as the visibility settings of the group

View Messages

You can set View Messages so that messages sent to the group may be seen by:

  • Everyone
  • Only site and group members
  • Only group members
  • or Same as group settings to set the visibility of the messages to be the same as the visibility settings of the group

Change Moderation

This page allows you to toggle moderation for the group. To specify moderators and moderated members, see the Manage Group Members section.

  1. Click on Group Admin, on your Group's homepage, to open the Group Administration page.
  2. Click on Change group moderation, on the Group Administration page, to open the Change Moderation page.
  3. Choose one of
    • No moderation to allow all members of the group to post without approval, or
    • Moderate specified members only to select specific members of the group to moderate, or
    • Moderate specified members, and all new members that join [Group Name] to moderate all new members and any other members that you may specify.
  4. Click the Change button.