--
J

 

Messages are the sole opinion of the author, especially the fishy ones.

I wish I could shut up, but I can't, and I won't. - Desmond Tutu

anyone can opt out by sending an email to updates+unsubscribe@groups,io
--

Bob Bellizzi

Founder, Fuchs Friends ®
Founder & Executive Director, The Corneal Dystrophy Foundation

Welcome back, and have fun playing catch-up.

Is it really necessary to have every user to be a member of the "Update" group?  Maybe we are unusual, but the vast majority of our users don't have any interest in system updates.  I would suggest that a button be added to the Subscription page for membership to the Update Group, and the default be NO.  That way those who are interested can opt-in, and the rest can blistfully go on unconserned about updates and what they might be.

Leave the update information to the moderators and those who have an interest.

For what it is worth.
Tom

Hi All,

I'm back from vacation. I'll be working through Yahoo Group invites (there are just under 400 of them to go through) and support emails, and then back to GDPR stuff. I hope to launch a full group export feature before the end of the week, replacing the existing archive export function.

Jetlagged, Mark

Here is potentially a fix for this.  It would not work for a group who have people uploading hundreds of images, but for those who generally load only a few at a time, have the option to require the user to "Name" the image.

It would be a new option under the Photos settings for "Photo name" with 2 options:
       Use downloaded file name as photo name (default)
       Require user to name each image 

As it is today, the name field would be prefilled with the file name, but it would either have to be changed, or a checkbox checked to say "Use this name."

Just a thought.
Tom 

I agree with John, with a couple of additions.

 

As he said, the wording of the default message is misleading/wrong and should be corrected.  Replying to the message does not activate the account if it is a restricted group.  This is misleading the user, and likely at a time when they are new to Groups.io, leaving them asking why their membership did not get activated.  To me this is not something that is a “let’s consider for the next release,” but an error which should be fixed.

If they do “reply” to the initial email they get a response that says “If any of the groups you subscribed to require approval before joining, you will be notified when that happens.”   That assumes they understand the difference between “confirmed” and “approved.”  Which I would submit is not very likely for someone new to Groups.io.

 

Additionally, if they click on the “Confirm account” link, it can be even more confusing because they are taken to the confirmed page, but they still need to be approved if it is a restricted group, and there is nothing on that page about the approval process.  Then if you click on the group you just joined, it takes you to their “home” page, but still says nothing about the approval process.  Only when you click on one of the side tabs do you get the “Your subscription has not yet been approved.” message.  There should be a separate page for public and restricted groups.

I agree also that different messages should be sent out depending on the type of group.  And having a very short and sweet response if there is an active "Pending Subscription" in place gives the group the ability to guide their users through the process they have in place.  Maybe a better option is to send out an email to just confirm the email address, and then once that is received, send out the group’s Pending Subscription message. This would present a more logical flow for the user and give more control of the communication with their users.

For what it is worth,

Tom

On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 03:20 pm, Michael Dunn wrote:

We have 700 albums! Being able to search on descriptions and filenames would be a lifesaver.

OK; you have 700 albums; we had 256, containing perhaps 2500 photographs (No - I didn't count them) most of which were "named" largely as Duane described: IMG_20160920_154327096_HDR.jpg or similar. It was, and in many respects still is, an alphanumerical soup, and that includes many of the Album names.

I have spent a lot of time trying to bring some order to the whole thing, with at least a degree of success, but it is tedious. One thing is for certain; it was totally unsearchable.

I had to create a whole new batch of albums, and rename many others to provide broad subject headings and then sub - headings to try to ensure that even if individual photographs aren't indexed their likely location could be. (FWIW as the Photos section has no index of its own I created one in the group wiki with each subheading being hyperlinked to the album concerned.) I have also (in some cases, not all) re - titled photos so that they appear in the album in some sort of sensible sequence.

The one thing that would have been of major benefit would have been the ability to move photos between albums (as one can with Files in Folders in the Files section) without having to download them and then upload them again; the big problem with this is that it changes the photos' attibutions so I have have to reattribute them to their originators in the "text area".

Perhaps you are luckier in the way your members upload photo material, but I strongly doubt it! At least we are down to about 200 albums and maybe half the original number of photos, having stripped out the near duplication and, frankly, the complete dross.

Yes; it has been and still it a lot of work, but perhaps that is the price of being a Moderator.

Chris

On Wed, May 2, 2018 at 03:20 pm, Michael Dunn wrote:

What?!? How so? We have 700 albums! Being able to search on descriptions and filenames would be a lifesaver. Sheesh.

Do you know that the photo you're searching for is named IMG_20160920_154327096_HDR.jpg?  Or that the poster described it as LFTtllt?  Those are actual items from one of the photos on one of my groups.

You may think it's an easy task, but you need to consider possible problems, database limitations, future enhancements, other requests, etc.  Mark has many improvements planned and has to schedule his time to benefit the most people for any task.

Duane

Having done some work on the photo archive in the group I moderate I can see that trying any search would be a dismal failure. Perhaps your members are more considerate about how they title albums and photographs. It is taking many hours over a lot of days to sort out.

Chris

Pleeeeeeezzzze add photo searching. We desperately need it, and surely this is something you could do in an afternoon. I don't understand why this hasn't been there from the get go... thx

Any chance we might see LISTSERV import added someday...? thx

The text in the Address Confirmation email implies that the act of replying to the email is all that is needed to complete a subscription request.  This works for Public groups, but not so much for Restricted groups.  I think it is important to set clear expectations for the applicant, to avoid potential upsets because they didn't understand what they needed to do.  I'd like to see the address confirmation email sent to those applying for an account / membership made more explicitly informational.  Below I have two sample proposals, one if the address confirmation email needs to be the same for everyone; a second if it is possible to customize the email a little more.
Thanks - John
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
If everyone needs to get exactly the same email:
Strengthen the subject line:
Subject: Reply required to confirm your groups.io subscription

Hello,

Thank you for your interest in Groups.io and the group groupname@groups.io. To complete your subscription, please reply to this email.  This confirms the request came from you, and not someone simply trying to use your email address.

If you did not request - or do not want - a subscription to this group, please accept our apologies and ignore this message.

If groupname@groups.io is a public group, this will complete your group subscription process. 

If groupname@groups.io is a restricted group, requiring as moderator to approve of your subscription request, you may be sent an additional email from the group moderators immediately following our receipt of your reply to this email.  If so, please follow the direction provided in that email. 

Cheers,
The Groups.io Team

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ideally, the address confirmation email could be a bit more customized:
Subject: Reply required to confirm your groups.io subscription

Hello,

Thank you for your interest in Groups.io and the group groupname@groups.io. To complete your subscription, please reply to this email.  This confirms the request came from you, and not someone simply trying to use your email address.

If you did not request - or do not want - a subscription to this group, please accept our apologies and ignore this message.

Test: if public group:
As groupname@groups.io is a public group, this will complete your group subscription process. 

Test: if Restricted group with an active "Pending Subscription"  "Member Notice" 
groupname@groups.io is a restricted group, requiring a moderator to approve your subscription request. You will be sent an additional email from the group moderators immediately following our receipt of your reply to this email.  Please follow the direction provided in that email.  A group moderator will respond to your request.

Test: if Restricted group with NO active "Pending Subscription"  "Member Notice" 
groupname@groups.io is a restricted group, requiring a moderator to approve your subscription request.  A group moderator will respond to your request.

Cheers,
The Groups.io Team

I'm a newbie, so perhaps this has been discussed before.  I would find it easier to navigate into the Directory and Member lists by letter of the alphabet.  Often I know the first letter of a member's Display Name or Email Address.  Having check boxes that would allow selection of one of (Display Name, Email Address) above a list of alphabetic characters would make positioning into a list very convenient.  From there standard page forward / back functions would apply. 

From: "Bob Edenhofer" <bob.edenhofer@gmail.com>

I've had 2 
email addresses that were spam, subscribe to my windows10discuss list
with in one week.

You are the group owner, it's your (and your other moderators' if any) job
to moderate subscriptions and/or messages. Nobody else will do this job for you.

Hi Mark Fletcher? there seems to be issues on your website, I've had 2  email addresses that were spam, subscribe to my windows10discuss list with in one week.

Would you be able to investagate this matter? Thank you so verry kindly, I greatly appreciate it.

--
Bob Edenhofer, developer for NVAccess!

Mark,

Something is still weird. You can link directly to the complete member page of a banned member from an entry in the group activity log dealing with that member, but not to a past member. Clicking on the past member in the log entry takes you to the member list, whereas clicking on a banned member takes you to the original member page.

So still, it seems there is more access to the past activity of banned members than there is to simply past members, and I am again tempted to ban everyone so that I have this easy access. Can this be made more symmetric?
--
J

 

Messages are the sole opinion of the author, especially the fishy ones.

I wish I could shut up, but I can't, and I won't. - Desmond Tutu

For those who have a premium account, I’m hoping that we can export a list of attendees that also shows how many guests they are bringing. The present download only gives name. 
It would also help to have a time stamp available on the download, for those events where the maximum attendees is exceeded.

speaking of which, it would be great to know how the site handles events where we need a waiting list.

Since there’s no documentation on this, I would have to create a trial event and oversubscribe it to find the answer.