I set up a new account in order to test this process. Now I’m even more confused. Nowhere does it mention setting up a password.

This was so much easier 2 years ago.

After I signed up with a new email address I saw this:

> An email has been sent to you with a link to log into your account and confirm your email address. Look for a message from Groups.io with the Subject: "Confirm Your Groups.io Account".
>
> If you don't want to log in to Groups.io, you may reply to that email instead and that will confirm your email address without logging you on.
>
> When you confirm your email address your membership will be completed. The group may send you further information about the group.
>
> Here is some information that may be helpful when you have confirmed your email address:
>
>       • All messages posted in this group will be sent to you at yahoo@....
>       • To post to the group, send an email to TakomaDC@TakomaDC.groups.io or visit the Post page.
>
> To change your delivery and subscription options, or to unsubscribe, click the Subscription Options bar below.

50% too many words. I suggest:

> An email has been sent from Groups.io to confirm your email address and activate your membership.

To say where messages will be received and sent, and to set delivery options before confirming email address and activating the membership seems out of order.  I would put this somewhere else

> To change your delivery and subscription options, or to unsubscribe, click the Subscription Options bar below.


The email to confirm my subscription seems too long. When readers see lots of words, they expect lots of information. Anyone who has signed up for any email group or website has done this confirmation process so they know the routine. And everyone over 5 or at least 10 our under 80 has done this.

I think this is all you need:

> Thank you for your interest in joining the TakomaDC group at Groups.io. If you did not request or do not want to join TakomaDC@groups.io, please ignore this message.
>
> If you only want to send and receive messages from TakomaDC@groups.io, reply to this email to confirm your email address and activate your membership.
>       • Messages will be sent to you at yahoo@....
>       • Send messages to TakomaDC@TakomaDC.groups.io

> If you want to use the resources and read messages on the TakomaDC Groups.io website, please click on the link below to confirm your email address, set up a password, and choose other subscription settings:

> Confirm Membership


So I click on the "confirm membership” then I see a page that says:

> Your Account Has Been Confirmed! Here are your next steps.
>
> Visit Your Groups!
> Here are the groups you are subscribed to. Check them out:
>       • TakomaDC
>       • updates
> Set Up Your Profile
>       Edit your identity information to add your full name, user name, and a profile photo.
> Find Groups
>       Find groups to join. Joining and participating in groups is completely free.
> Create Your Own Groups
>       Create a public group. Public groups are completely free. Interested in private groups? See which plan is best for you.

Even if I had seen “password" on the confirmation email message, I would still be trying to find where to set up a password. Finally I explore "Set Up Your Profile”, (a page I would never visit) and find “Edit your identity information to add your full name, user name, and profile photo.”

Still no mention of passwords.

“Identity information” is an uncommon use of words. Usually don’t sites say Membership Information unless it is a commercial site? Identity as in war games?

Is a “profile" different than an “identity”? The instructions use both words. Why?

Then when I go to “Set up your Profile,” it doesn’t ask for "full name, user name, and a profile photo" — it asks for password and sign-in information, which is what I was looking for in the first place. No mention of it anywhere else.

In the left hand menu, under "Other Services" I see "Oauth Logins” ? Are "other services" the same as “integrations”?

Under “preferences" people are able to make different choices than the list is set up for. Will members think they can post in HTML if they want to when the list is set to plain text? If the list was set to HTML and they choose to receive plain text, they would see gibberish, right?

I’ve noticed Billing and Payments appearing frequently. What would an individual account holder be paying for? Why ask for a credit card number? My people are going to freak. Many have already refused to subscribe to Yahoo by going to the website because Yahoo wants their phone number — I have to enroll them directly so no other information is recorded. I’m promising them no marketing on Groups.io and they see billing.

Detail people are weird and I don’t want to give them anything to be weirder about. Two words that mean the same thing is a lot of emails to explain.

I’m a writer and a former academic, so don’t take offense. I do this in my sleep.

Sharon
-----
Sharon Villines, Washington, DC
"Focus means saying no to the 100 good ideas out there. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things." Steve Jobs

On Feb 12, 2018, at 2:01 PM, Ian Gillis <tessel.bas@...> wrote:

About the only criticism of my transferred former Yahoo group of retired Marconi (UK) engineers was the date format. Absolutely no-one likes mm-dd-yyyy, everyone would be happy with the European dd-mm-yyyy but a fair few would be prepared to accept the ISO 8601 yyyy-mm-dd. I understand that to a US developer mm-dd-yyyy is familiar and doesn't yell "Change Me!" - but to a retired UK engineer it's very irritating and a potential source of schedule errors…

hmmm, what do you propose different for each region?

EG: Ygroups has U.K. groups.

Is the date there 
European dd-mm-yyyy ?