Groups on LondonCommons.net

Groups are a new feature on LondonCommons.net, and hopefully the community will find great use in them.

The groups on this site are similar to groups on sites like Google Groups or Facebook.  They are intended to replace or supplement mailing lists as a tool for people to communicate as a group.  Here's an overview of some of the more useful features of groups on this site:

• Posts to a group are private by default, but can be made public too
• Each group gets their own page, just like the front page, that contains all the recent posts to the group
• Each group gets their own events calendar
• You can also post blogs, images, audio, polls and recipes to your groups
• Just like a mailing list, groups can be open for anyone to join or new memberships can require approval
• Group members can choose to get new posts via their email

Joining and Creating Groups

The list of available groups is available at the groups directory, which is also accessible with the groups icon in the left sidebar.  To join (aka subscribe to) a group, simply click on the 'subscribe' link for that group.  You will be asked to confirm that you'd like to subscribe.  If approval is required for subscription, the group admin will need to approve your request before you become a member.

Creating a group is done the same way as posting blogs, images or any other type of content to the site.  Go to the "Organize" menu (underneath the LondonCommons.net logo at the top of the page) and select 'Start a group'.  Simply fill out the form to give your group a name, desciption, mission statement and choose the desired subscription options.  More information is available on the help page 'Groups for Group Admins' (to be written soon).