Should we change the name Archives to Messages?

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I believe that social logins (ie. login via Google or Facebook) are some of the most important features that this site could have.

1. Social logins are convenient for users who forgot their password.
2. Many people use a password manager. If they aren't at their computer, then they can't log into Groups.io.
3. Social logins reduce the friction in signing up for a site.
4. Groups.io bills itself as a "modern" alternative to Yahoo/Google groups. Social logins would help create this branding and hence increase the sign up rate.

This is actually a rather cool idea. I would love to see a real API, but even this feature would make certain integrations much easier.

An interesting question - should there be some visual indication that certain links are external services so that user's know they are going off-site?

I agree with Shal. I would be very disappointed if Groups.io became limited by what Yahoo Groups was. Bringing groups over from Yahoo groups would provide a short term boost for the site, but in the longer term Groups.io needs to develop into its own service.

One point worth remembering is that Yahoo Groups made the decision to drop the database feature, presumably based on metrics of its use. Now this doesn't automatically mean that this was a good decision - even if only a small number of groups are affected, perhaps these were some of the most important groups on the site.

However, it's worth considering a few points:

1. In most cases, the admins maintain the databases, and don't need to provide edit access to normal members. An external service could work well in this scenario.
2. Yahoo groups doesn't offer the databases feature any more, so Groups.io doesn't necessarily need to offer this feature to convince people to switch over as long as it is better than Yahoo groups in other ways. Groups.io definitely is better in many ways.
3. Wikis provide much of the same features. If Mark adds features like sorting, then this would close most of the gap. Some people have more trouble adapting to technological change than others, but if they need a feature enough, they are likely to learn how to use it.
4. Once the feature is added, it needs to be maintained. Further, removing a feature that has been added will annoy a large number of users and reduce the trust of user's who don't even use that feature because a feature that they need may be removed in the future. Therefore, it seems that if a database feature were to be added, it should only be added when it becomes clear that such a feature is necessary. The Wiki will work well for most small groups, larger groups are more likely to need the specific functions of the database. Since there aren't large groups on Groups.io, this need isn't clear.
5. A generic API would solve this use case and so many others.
6. Re the alternative of spicing up the Wiki: The ability to sort tables in a Wiki is cool, even there was a separate database feature as well, so the effort of going down this path wouldn't be wasted.

For all these reasons, I'd strongly recommend against implementing a database feature at a current time.

Hey,

I'm actually quite curious about the use case for a "scheduled files" feature.

- Chris

Duane, if it doesn't also provide a way to send an automatic message to a specific email address, when they are pended, actually join, leave group, denied, etc. that doesn't help those of us that use that feature in Yahoo Groups quite extensively. Example: When someone joins the selling group, they are pended and an email is automatically, sent asking for required information and ask that it be returned within a certain amount of time. If we get it within that time and all of the information is there, I then approve them. If I don't get it in that amount of time, I deny the request to join.

I have some additional information from the member that I referenced in my initial message with this subject. 

It turns out that when she first tried to go to groups.io, she was putting .com on the end.  She has since corrected that and went ahead and registered with groups.io.  She wanted to create a group to be a sister group to the one on Yahoo.  However, after filling everything out and clicking the button to create the group, there was no group. 

I did a search for the group name and did not find it.  So, I offered to create it for her.  I had no problem creating the group and sent her the URL.  When she clicked on the URL,  she had to sign in; but, all she got was a page that showed the URL; but, nothing else. 

She is using Google Chrome for her browser.  Is there anybody else in the group using Google Chrome and not having problems?

I would like to offer her some ideas that might work for her.. 

Donna

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I have some additional information from the member that I referenced in my initial message with this subject. 

It turns out that when she first tried to go to groups.io, she was putting .com on the end.  She has since corrected that and went ahead and registered with groups.io.  She wanted to create a group to be a sister group to the one on Yahoo.  However, after filling everything out and clicking the button to create the group, there was no group. 

I did a search for the group name and did not find it.  So, I offered to create it for her.  I had no problem creating the group and sent her the URL.  When she clicked on the URL,  she had to sign in; but, all she got was a page that showed the URL; but, nothing else. 

She is using Google Chrome for her browser.  Is there anybody else in the group using Google Chrome and not having problems?

I would like to offer her some ideas that might work for her. 

Donna