On Fri, Oct 22, 2021 at 06:02 PM, Mark Fletcher wrote:

I'd be happy to investigate this specific instance if you'd like; off-list send me the two email addresses and I'll check it out.

For "group-wide info" this has been done.

Chris

On Fri, 22 Oct 2021 18:16:55 +0100, Mark Fletcher <markf@corp.groups.io> wrote:

I'm open to changing the behavior so that if the group name is changed, that we also redo the welcome message with the new name/email. Thoughts?

As it is possible to have several welcome messages defined. Maybe you could rename (and mark inactive) the existing welcome message before creating the new message with the changed name embedded ..?

Chris,

I don't know anything about how merging accounts works.  But it seems to me that some of the things you seem to be surprised about, are normal or ought to be normal.

If this person was already a group member (as I think he was), then it makes sense that the Pending membership would disappear.  He is already a member before, and he is still a member.

It makes sense to me that nothing would appear in the group's Activity Log, because his account and the group are separate entities.  Merging a user's account does not merge the group.

I would think that merging two accounts should not depend on what groups that person might or might not belong to, or is waiting to become a member of.  That shouldn't have prevented the merge from happening.  (That's kind of like saying that two people can't get married if one of them has applied for membership in a local club.  One should not affect the other.)  I would guess that groups.io needs to ascertain that both accounts are owned by the same person before a merge can proceed.

Andy

I started creating a group and used an initial address (eg: xxx@groups.io). When it flagged that address as invalid, I changed it to another (eg: yyy@groups.io).

When inviting people, the invite message they received used the correct (yyy@groups.io) address. However, upon acceptance, the confirmation email they received (ie: "you're in!") used the original address (xxx@groups.io). Very confusing!

Mark; a sequence of events yesterday on the (Restricted) group I co-own has revealed what I suspect might be a bug within the Merge or Edit Account functions. Suffice to say it has left an account holder in limbo and I hope that you will be willing and able to resolve it.

The sequence was as follows:

1. An existing member submitted a membership application with a different email address; he explained in a subsequent message that his actual requirement was to use a different email address.
2. I advised him that it would be better to Edit his Account to achieve that goal and provided him with the relevant section number in the Members Manual (pdf version) and he agreed to do that.
3. I left his new application "pending" which with hindsight was probably a mistake.
4. Later in the day he informed me that he had merged accounts; I checked back with him and he confirmed that he had carried out a Merge, not an Edit. (At this point I started getting a little worried... justifiably as it turned out)
5. On checking I found that several things appeared to have "gone wrong".
   
   His Pending Membership had vanished
   He was now listed as a "full" member with the new email address
   His "old" membership was no longer listed
   Posts made using his "old" membership were still in place with the "old" email address
   There were no entries in the Activity Log corresponding to any changes made.
   He was not "approved" by a Moderator
   
   He has since informed me that he tried accessing his "new" account but was told that it diod not exist. (See note above about his apparent membership being listed) He also told me that he has another membership lurking somewhere but I advised him to make no more changes until you have had to opportunity to clear the matter up.

The "bug" would (IMHO) seem to be that the system didn't stop him merging an existing account into a non - approved application, but converted that application into a sort of "limbo membership". With hindsight I suspect that it would not have allowed him to Edit his membership using an email address that was also in the Pending Approval list; your guidance on that would be (very!) greatly appreciated.

I hope you can help sort this muddle out; I will provide further particulars of the member concerned once I can see that you have picked up this request.

Chris  (with tightly crossed fingers!)

Hi Andy,

No, you misunderstood.  It's not a literal 100% correlation with the mod notifications, we're borrowing the options but not the content itself.  For the mods, yes, the "Email" option refers to receiving emails that contain the notification text themselves, for this (user) notifications section, the same "Email" option would mean receiving the emails that contain the same messages the notifications took them to read.

The options could be rephrased:

Web/App notifications and the emails

Web/App notifications only, skip the emails
No Web/App notifications, just the emails

Not the most elegant, I agree, but we would sneak-in the ability to skip getting the group message emails.

But here's another idea.  I was thinking, one of the the proposed changes for improving the sub settings UI (earlier this year) was a "Web Only" option which if checked would skip the group message emailing part.  So here's the chance to do it now. Add the "Web/App Only" option in the Advanced Preferences as a checkbox.

The default is unchecked so no current user impact whatsoever.  When the app user (or anyone for that matter) checks it, it stops the emailing-out of the group messages to them.  It accommodates the app users' wish, but also gives any user the ability to stop getting the emails themselves but still utilize the message content selections they want, without having to resort to digests or whatnot.  They can now have the "All Messages" setting selected and get notifications for them (if they want), but skip receiving the emails.  Codewise, should be simple as besides the UI & page code additions, it should only need a check for it before the emailing.  The default sub settings screen would also need the UI change.

Cheers,
Christos

 

Hi Mark,

if you change your timezone using the dropdown field at the bottom of the Monthly calendar view, the display switches to List format while the format button still shows Month.

Regards
Andy

Hi Christos,

On Tue, Oct 19, 2021 at 08:44 AM, Christos Psarras wrote:

How about this: The Member Notifications' Messages dropdown is currently implicit in its usage, it doesn't say it but it implies one gets the emails too.  So make it explicit and have it work the same as the Mod Notifications,

your suggestion covers the receipt of notifications and how that is achieved but there is a distinction between the notification about a message and the message itself.  My point is that if a notification is received and the message itself is read via the app (effectively reading it online), then receiving an email with the same message text may be considered superfluous.

Currently Groups.io only sends you a notification about a message when it also sends you the message text by email (either in a digest, individual or special notice - you do not get notifications if you get a Daily Summary because that does not contain the text of messages).  Adding any kind of email option in the notifications list would create the situation where you would get an email to say that a message has been posted and then an email with the message itself.

I use Outlook on my PC and Nine as my mail client on my phone and these already create push notifications when I receive an email. So, choosing an email option from your suggested list would mean I would get two push notifications for each message from Groups.io, one for the notification email and another for the actual message - not user friendly at all.

Regards,
Andy

Hi, 

I was a member of a group and a moderator. Due to circumstances and having one of those really bad days (months), I deleted my account. I rejoined again, however I have a new poster ID. I did ask support if it was possible to merge my former poster ID with my new poster ID and was told it was not available at this time. 

I would like to make a suggestion to see if it would be possible at some point and in very limited circumstances to merge two poster ID's when a person has the same email address and has deleted their account and then rejoins. I do understand any concerns, such as my email account could have been hacked and someone else is now accessing my account and acting as me. 

I did post various messages under my former poster ID and now the name and file uploads are all blank as my old self no longer exists. 

Thank you in advance for any consideration. 

Sandra

On Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 12:14 PM, Mark Fletcher wrote:

I've been thinking about this as well and want to fix it. But I haven't figured out how to tweak the subscription settings to allow for a setting where you get notifications for individual messages but no emails. Do you have any thoughts on that?

How about this: The Member Notifications' Messages dropdown is currently implicit in its usage, it doesn't say it but it implies one gets the emails too.  So make it explicit and have it work the same as the Mod Notifications, something like this:


The current value (and default) of "Web/App Notifications" becomes "Email and Web/App notifications", db updated, no downstream code changes, and the current value of "None" becomes "Email only", db updated, no code changes, so totally transparent to existing users.  App users who don't want the email can now go and select the new "Web/App notifications only" option, and are now able to get individual message notifications with no actual emails, and code is only needed for this combo and wouldn't be much.  Very minimal sub settings page visual changes, & minimal help manual changes. Everyone's happy.

Changing the help blurb from "Whether to be notified of new messages" to "Where to get emails and notifications of new messages" or something similar would help make it pretty obvious.

Cheers,
Christos

Hi,
We have a new group we are setting up.  Two admins have tried to make a credit card sponsorship through our phones.  I have an Iphone 8, not sure of other.  The credit card "+Pay with Credit Card" button is not clickable after all credit card info is added (ie. added payment amount, credit card number, credit card security code, expiry date, and zip code all entered).
The sponsorship button works on computer.
Thanks,

Jason

On Mon, Oct 18, 2021 at 05:11 PM, Tom Vail wrote:

"Remind before deleting."

But it makes sense to me to notify only the originator of the topic. That's not a matter of logic, just of minimizing annoyance to everyone else.
 
--
J

Messages are the sole opinion of the author, especially the fishy ones.
My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together. - Desmond Tutu

On Mon, Oct 18, 2021 at 05:13 PM, Tom Vail wrote:

It would work, but too complicated for our average user.

Why? It seems even simpler than your current scheme (which isn't working anyway). Tell your group members that if they want their ad (or whatever it is they're posting - you're making us guess;) to expire in a year, put the hashtag called #ExpireInOneYear on it.
 
--
J

Messages are the sole opinion of the author, especially the fishy ones.
My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together. - Desmond Tutu

On Mon, Oct 18, 2021 at 05:05 PM, Tom Vail wrote:

That may be logical to you, but no to me.  As an IT professional, the longer retention date would always take precedence

I don't know what being an IT professional has to do with this. I myself did software for 15+ years. This is simple logic. Using your argument, a hashtag with no duration (i.e., no restriction) would take precedence over a hashtag with a finite duration, thus nullifying the entire feature.

If you want to get all technical about it, I'd say hashtag restrictions should be treated as "and"'s,  not "or"s.
 
--
J

Messages are the sole opinion of the author, especially the fishy ones.
My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together. - Desmond Tutu

It would work, but too complicated for our average user.

Tom

If you post something in a topic which you think is out there for whomever to see, and it is deleted due to duration, then it seems logical (to me) that you would remind them it was/will be deleted.  Not a big deal if the duration is 2 days, but a year out would make a difference.  As J said, it depends on the application so maybe it is an option in the Hashtag set up to "Remind before deleting."

Tom