Group FAQs

<p> Group moderators have additional privileges, such as the ability to edit and delete any post within the group.<br /> <br /> The group organizer can promote any group member to &quot;moderator&quot; status from your group&#39;s member list. </p>

<p> The group organizer can do a few things no one else can do. For starters you can edit and delete posts made to your group. </p> <p> As the group organizer, you can promote any group member to &quot;moderator&quot; status from your group&#39;s member list. Group moderators have additional privileges, such as the ability to edit and delete any post within the group. </p> <p> As the group organizer, you will have an additional option to specify the discussion type. Your choices are &quot;Normal&quot; and &quot;Sticky&quot;, where &quot;Sticky&quot; discussions always appear at the top of your discussion lists. Sticky discussions can be useful for announcements that you don&#39;t want buried under newer discussions.<br /> <br /> If you need to limit group participation, you can do so by setting your group&#39;s privacy control to &quot;Private&quot;. Private groups are automatically hidden from anyone that&#39;s not in your group and are perfect for local organizations.<br /> <br /> If you want to keep your group public but only limit the membership, you can set the &quot;Membership Control&quot; to &quot;Invite Only&quot; or &quot;Closed&quot;. This will prevent outsiders from posting to your group while still keeping the discussions available publicly for viewing. </p>

<p> Any group member can create a new discussion by clicking the &quot;Create New Discussion&quot; link on the top of your group&#39;s discussion list. The only requirements are to provide a subject and message. However, you can add tags (keywords) to help the RealTown search engine find the discussion.<br /> <br /> As the group organizer, you will have an additional option to specify the discussion type. Your choices are &quot;Normal&quot; and &quot;Sticky&quot;, where &quot;Sticky&quot; discussions always appear at the top of your discussion lists. Sticky discussions can be useful for announcements that you don&#39;t want buried under newer discussions. </p>

<p> To help your group get started you can send group invitations from your group&#39;s member list. Additionally, you can send a group invitation directly from any RealTown member&#39;s profile. To search for RealTown members, please visit <a href="http://www.realtown.com/members/search">http://www.realtown.com/members/search</a><br /> <br /> You can also send group invitations to a mailing list by clicking the &quot;Invite Members by E-mail&quot; link on your group&#39;s member list.<br /> </p>

<p> Here&#39;s a suggestion by RealTown Managing Editor Fran Thorsen: </p> <p> I have been writing a step-by-step Web site creation chronicle at one of my other blogs, <a href="http://realtownreport.com/">RealTown Report.</a> Recent addition of <a href="http://www.realtown.com/RealTownReport/blog/community/communitytools#comments"><strong>online discussion forums</strong></a> at my new Point2 Agent web site has sparked some questions about the basic how-to&#39;s of adding a discussion forum to a web site or blog. </p> <p> <strong>Q.</strong>&quot;Frances, I really like your community Blog. My question is, I have a RealTown blog, how do I go about doing a community Blog? Do I have to get rid of the other one? Also, where can I find instructions on how to build one with links to my site as you did? Thanks for all your help! </p> <p> <strong>Q.</strong>&quot;Fran, I&#39;m really intrigued by the Discussion groups that you&#39;ve added to your web site. This is a great way to take a static site and make it interactive. Will you share the mechanics of how to establish a Discussion group? Is there a website I can go to? Do you offer classes on how to do this? Thanks for any assistance you can give me.&quot; </p> <p> I wrote an instructive step-by-step formula for <a href="http://www.realtown.com/nobloggerleftbehind/blog/blogging-q-a/discussiongroup">creating discussion groups.</a> </p> <p> Frances Flynn Thorsen, e-PRO, SRS<br /> Managing Editor, RealTown<br /> <br /> </p>

<p> The new RealTown Groups is perfect for committees. The organizer can set them up as private, meaning that only members can view and participate in the discussions. We are still in beta mode and are developing some instructional pieces, although a number of people have already set up their groups just following the online steps once they click the Create Group link. </p> <p> John </p>

<p> <br /> <br /> A group is similar to a RealTown community like RealTalk, just on a smaller scale. Every RealTown member can create a &#39;Group&#39;. You can invite RealTown members and non RealTown members (they will have to join RealTown in order to join your group). Your group can be for your hobbies, your business, keeping in touch, or pretty much anything you want. E-mail notifications are sent (optional) to members as new discussions and replies are made to the web. <br /> <br /> There are already several user Groups created at <a href="http://realtown.com/Groups">http://RealTown.com/Groups</a>, and most of them are public, meaning anyone can join! If you see a topic that interests you, take a look, join, and invite your friends! <br /> <br /> When browsing the groups, just keep in mind that they are new so we are in Beta mode. Things will change a little as time goes on… and if you have a suggestion for us, please, let us know at <a href="mailto:Admin@RealTown.com" rel="nofollow">Admin@RealTown.com</a>; or even join and post to our RealTown Development group-where we will be letting members know about our updates and newest additions. </p>

<p> The group organizer can elect to make the group private and thus require group membership to view and participate. Members of the public can not join, they must be invited by the organizer, or in some cases, by other members of the group. Only members have access to the discussions. The organizer can click the Manage Groups link to change the structure of the group. </p> <p> Private groups is a popular way to allow committees to conduct their work remotely. </p>