|
Locked
Re: Feature suggestion: Group calendar
Hi Shal, Group calendar is definitely on the todo list. And yes, calendars are a very tricky thing to get right. It's interesting that you mention Google Calendar integration, because that was my original thought as well. But while I think there's definitely some integrations with it that make sense, I think there needs to be a calendar 'owned' by the group. Any integration with G!Cal is in the form of talking with a particular user's calendar. The timezone stuff is indeed really tricky. Thanks, Mark On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 9:04 PM, Shal Farley <shal@...> wrote: Hi All, |
|
|
|
Locked
Re: Feature suggestion: Group calendar
Not to reply to my own email, but I forgot to mention. One thing I'm excited about with doing the calendar, is group scheduling. Integrating functionality from something like http://doodle.com I think could be really neat. http://signupgenius.com is another one. Mark On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 9:22 PM, Mark Fletcher <markf@corp.groups.io> wrote:
|
|
|
|
Locked
Re: Feature suggestion: Group calendar
Mark,
One thing I'm excited about with doing the calendar, is groupOh, thanks for the tips! Especially signupgenius. I've been using forms in Google Drive to organize volunteer donations (food, prizes, etc.) for PTA events. A bit awkward but it works. A built-to-purpose tool sounds like a much better approach. That's a hint that organizing "what" may be valuable as well as "who" and "when". -- Shal |
|
|
|
Locked
Welcome
Hello, A quick update: digest subscriptions were added on Wednesday. I haven't announced them yet, because I'm still tweaking them a bit. They're a little different than 'normal' digests, in that, anything you've muted (threads or hashtags) will not show up in the digests. So, everybody's digest will be a little different, depending on what they've muted. Also, several improvements have been made to the website when viewing it on mobile devices. Viewing it on a phone isn't a great experience yet, but it's better than before. And it's something that'll be continuously improved. I'm also currently working on calendar events, polls and sign up sheets. Thanks, Mark |
|
|
|
Locked
Re: Welcome
Cherrill <cdjamieson@...>
I did not have any trouble joining your group. I have not looked completely over the website as yet; but I see there are quite a few groups already there. At some point, I suspect those groups will have to be categorized to make it easier for people to find the type of group they want.
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
I have small yahoo groups and generally no one is on digest; but we do use the calendar so that will be a nice addition. We do put up pictures often as well. thank you for going to so much trouble to open up a better option to whatever it is yahoo groups are presently doing to everyone. Cherrill I've learned that being kind is more important than being right. On Oct 10, 2014, at 11:15 AM, Mark Fletcher <markf@corp.groups.io> wrote: Hello, A quick update: digest subscriptions were added on Wednesday. I haven't announced them yet, because I'm still tweaking them a bit. They're a little different than 'normal' digests, in that, anything you've muted (threads or hashtags) will not show up in the digests. So, everybody's digest will be a little different, depending on what they've muted. Also, several improvements have been made to the website when viewing it on mobile devices. Viewing it on a phone isn't a great experience yet, but it's better than before. And it's something that'll be continuously improved. I'm also currently working on calendar events, polls and sign up sheets. Thanks, Mark |
|
|
|
Locked
Re: Welcome
Hello
I've just joined the group and had no problems doing so, but I do have two queries: 1. I don't understand what hashtags are or what they are for. Can you explain please? 2. I don't see any mention of uploaded files in the way Yahoo offers. I own a few small Yahoo groups, and this is one of the few facilities, other than email of course, that we use. Some of them occasionally put up photos as well, and in one case the links section is used (again, I see no sign of one here). Am I asking for facilities still on the to do list, perhaps? Thanks, Jim |
|
|
|
Locked
Re: Welcome
Hi Jim, Hashtags are words that start with '#'. In the case of Groups.io, they only apply to the subject of a message. So, if you send a message to your group with the subject 'This is a sample message #test', the message will be categorized with the hashtag '#test'. You can search the archives by hashtags. And you can set hashtags so that any messages tagged with them will be deleted automatically after a specified period of time.. One potential use: intros. Tell people when they join your group that they should post an intro message about themselves, and have them tag it with #intro. Then, you can search on the #intro hashtag and see everyone's intros. Another potential use is for neighborhood groups with people offering things for sale. Those messages can be tagged with #forsale, and that tag could be configured such that messages tagged with it are automatically deleted from the archives after a month. So you're not left with a bunch of for sale messages in the archives that no longer apply. Hope that explains it. They are, of course, completely optional. Clearly I need to do more on the site to explain them, as they're a new concept for email groups. As for files and photos, we do not currently have a dedicated area for those. It's definitely on the todo list. Thanks, Mark On Fri, Oct 10, 2014 at 11:00 AM, Jim Fisher <ejf@...> wrote: Hello |
|
|
|
Locked
Re: Welcome
Cherrill <cdjamieson@...>
Mark,
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Is it possible to put a photo directly into the email. Or a gif of some sort .. I will try here and see if it shows up.
Cherrill I've learned that being kind is more important than being right. On Oct 10, 2014, at 1:27 PM, Mark Fletcher <markf@corp.groups.io> wrote: Hi Jim, Hashtags are words that start with '#'. In the case of Groups.io, they only apply to the subject of a message. So, if you send a message to your group with the subject 'This is a sample message #test', the message will be categorized with the hashtag '#test'. You can search the archives by hashtags. And you can set hashtags so that any messages tagged with them will be deleted automatically after a specified period of time.. One potential use: intros. Tell people when they join your group that they should post an intro message about themselves, and have them tag it with #intro. Then, you can search on the #intro hashtag and see everyone's intros. Another potential use is for neighborhood groups with people offering things for sale. Those messages can be tagged with #forsale, and that tag could be configured such that messages tagged with it are automatically deleted from the archives after a month. So you're not left with a bunch of for sale messages in the archives that no longer apply. Hope that explains it. They are, of course, completely optional. Clearly I need to do more on the site to explain them, as they're a new concept for email groups. As for files and photos, we do not currently have a dedicated area for those. It's definitely on the todo list. Thanks, Mark On Fri, Oct 10, 2014 at 11:00 AM, Jim Fisher <ejf@...> wrote: Hello |
|
|
|
Locked
Re: Welcome
Cherrill <cdjamieson@...>
lol, yes, it is possible.
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Cherrill I've learned that being kind is more important than being right. On Oct 10, 2014, at 1:34 PM, Cherrill <cdjamieson@...> wrote: Mark,
Is it possible to put a photo directly into the email. Or a gif of some sort .. I will try here and see if it shows up. Cherrill I've learned that being kind is more important than being right. On Oct 10, 2014, at 1:27 PM, Mark Fletcher <markf@corp.groups.io> wrote: Hi Jim, Hashtags are words that start with '#'. In the case of Groups.io, they only apply to the subject of a message. So, if you send a message to your group with the subject 'This is a sample message #test', the message will be categorized with the hashtag '#test'. You can search the archives by hashtags. And you can set hashtags so that any messages tagged with them will be deleted automatically after a specified period of time.. One potential use: intros. Tell people when they join your group that they should post an intro message about themselves, and have them tag it with #intro. Then, you can search on the #intro hashtag and see everyone's intros. Another potential use is for neighborhood groups with people offering things for sale. Those messages can be tagged with #forsale, and that tag could be configured such that messages tagged with it are automatically deleted from the archives after a month. So you're not left with a bunch of for sale messages in the archives that no longer apply. Hope that explains it. They are, of course, completely optional. Clearly I need to do more on the site to explain them, as they're a new concept for email groups. As for files and photos, we do not currently have a dedicated area for those. It's definitely on the todo list. Thanks, Mark On Fri, Oct 10, 2014 at 11:00 AM, Jim Fisher <ejf@...> wrote: Hello |
|
|
|
Locked
Re: Welcome
Oh, I just remembered one other cool thing about hashtags. Members can mute specific hashtags, which means they'll never see messages tagged with the muted hashtags. If someone isn't interested in #forsale messages, for example, they can mute that tag and they'll never see the messages. And you can combine this with integrations. If you've using the Feed integration to get blog posts into your group, those posts can be tagged with a specific hashtag. Members who aren't interested in seeing the blog posts can just mute that tag. Mark On Fri, Oct 10, 2014 at 12:27 PM, Mark Fletcher <markf@corp.groups.io> wrote:
|
|
|
|
Locked
Re: Welcome
Hi Mark,
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Thanks for the explanation. Sounds like your hashtags are similar to tags on Tumblr but with a few useful extra facilities attached. Good stuff. Jim On 10 Oct 2014 at 12:27, Mark Fletcher wrote:
Hi Jim, --
http://www.jimella.me.uk - my personal web site covering many subjects http://jimellame.tumblr.com - My thoughts on freedom http://jimella.wordpress.com - political snippets, especially economic policy http://jimella.livejournal.com - misc. snippets, some political, some not Forget Google! I search with https://duckduckgo.com which doesn't spy on you |
|
|
|
Locked
Re: Welcome
Hi, another newbie!
Easy to add the subscription but then I decided I wanted some kind of digest so I am not inundated by messages throughout the day. I am not sure about the wording of the option - Group messages together as one email instead of individually. I am assuming you mean "daily digest". All the day's messages come together. Perhaps you don't want to use that term, but perhaps something such as: Get daily messages as one email instead of receiving individual emails. Maximum of one email per day or Get the day's messages in one email instead of individually. or Daily digest: Group messages together as one email instead of individually. Otherwise, it isn't clear how often you get them, if there is traffic every day. Grouping also just sounds like threading which some people hate! |
|
|
|
Locked
Re: Welcome
Thanks for the suggestion Frances. I've changed the text. Mark On Fri, Oct 10, 2014 at 2:06 PM, Frances <travel@...> wrote: Hi, another newbie! |
|
|
|
Locked
A review of Groups.io
Hi Mark,
I really like your service, so I just wrote up a review. https://medium.com/a-future-together/groups-io-a-modern-take-on-google-groups-83dd0a007b84 In terms of suggestions: Discovery mechanisms are key to enabling groups to form. Featured groups could be useful during the initial growth period since searching is less likely to be useful. Tags aren’t needed right now, but they will become vital once this site reaches a certain size. Integrations have been a huge missed opportunity for other products such as Google Groups and Facebook Groups. There are so many tools such as calendars, wikis, polls and photo albums that would benefit from being shared as a group. An API would unleash innumerable collaborative possibilities. Google groups, Reddit and StackOverflow allow you to star messages and threads. This helps you find that perfect answer that you saw at 2am five months ago, but which you need now. Member profiles would bring people in a group together by allowing them to get to know each other better. It would also cut down on drama by making them feel more like real people. Furthermore, this could provide a useful discovery mechanism for finding other groups. It’d be nice if users had a feed for sharing the most interesting discussions that they’d seen recently. This could eventually provide an even better distribution method than groups themselves. |
|
|
|
Locked
Re: A review of Groups.io
Chris, This is fantastic, thank you so much for your review! One quick question: you mention lack of public groups as a weakness. Are you referring to groups where non-members can post to, or are you referring to something else? I am intrigued by your idea of being able to share interesting discussions. Were you thinking that it'd be just within a group, or would this be a feed of interesting discussions taking place over many groups? Thanks, Mark On Sat, Oct 11, 2014 at 6:14 AM, <walkraft@...> wrote: Hi Mark, |
|
|
|
Locked
Invite flow
1) The Email address box could parse these as equivalent:
Display Name <email@...> email@... Currently it rejects the first with "Display Name <email@...>: Invalid email address " Better, it could take "Display Name" as the tentative name of the member, confirmed or overridden when the member responds to the invitation. 2) The Invite Message box looks like a plain text entry box. When I put simple HTML code in it I saw the literal code, as if editing in a plain-text entry form. However, that code controlled the formatting inside the invitation email. Apparently the handling of that text is HTML-aware in at least some sense, as the text/plain message body of the invite had the HTML tags stripped, whereas the text/HTML part retained my coding. I had expected the opposite: the text/plain would show exactly what I typed and the text/HTML would have the tags escaped so as to show as plain text. I don't suggest that the processing be changed to match my expectation, rather add a hint somewhere to the invite form that lets the user know that (at least limited) HTML is ok in the Invite Message. Or perhaps better still, make that an HTML edit control like the Post composition window. 3) This is an edge case, but in testing I invited an address, accepted via email, then removed that new member. A second attempt to invite the address gave me the error "Already invited". Sure enough, the address still showed on the "Outstanding Invitations" tab, but if I hadn't thought to look there I wouldn't have known what to do. I'm not sure whether there's an action item here or not. It is tempting to suggest that the member should be removed from the Outstanding Invitations list if they leave or are removed from the group. But since "Send Again" is an action in that list I don't know if that is necessary. 4) The "Send Again" item does not appear to work. It unchecked the box but gave no other indication of sending another invitation. Nor was another received. Probably related to the above edge case. The "Rescind Invitation" action removed that address from the list and allowed me to send a new invitation. 5) The "Password" lacks a second box to confirm the password. Oops? Clicking on "Accept Invitation" in the invitation email brings me to a Join Group page that asks only that I set a Password and select the Email Delivery. Does the Password need a confirmation box? Maybe. I guess the password reset mechanism is an adequate backstop for the (hopefully rare) case of a mistyped password. After all, who doesn't use a password manager these days? It just runs counter to experience, so it seems odd. -- Shal |
|
|
|
Locked
Join flow
Join (using an email address never before registered)
1) After Email Delivery asks for email address and password. It isn't clear whether filling in these is to login or to register. Evidently either, at need. At least, filling it in when I had no prior registration gave me "You are now subscribed to the group. Once you reply to the confirmation email we just sent you, you will be able to participate in the group." This phrase is awkward: "To join any of the groups on Groups.io, you must log in, if you're already a registered Groups.io user, or register, if you're new." How about: "To join any groups you must log in below. If you haven't already registered with Groups.io you can register now by entering your email address below and choosing a new password that you will use to log in to Groups.io." 2) Very clever that you apparently picked up my "Full name" from the Display name field of the confirmation email sent back during registration. This item started out as noticing that there was no place on the Join form to enter my screen name. -- Shal |
|
|
|
Locked
Re: A review of Groups.io
Hi Mark,
I've edited the post. What I meant to say is that was that there aren't many public groups yet. So, it's not like Google Groups or Yahoo Groups or Reddit which already have functioning ecosystems. In regards to sharing discussions, the idea was that you'd be able to share discussions from any group. Basic version: Users see an interesting post in a public group and click share. A list of these posts appear on the user's profile. You can subscribe to these posts via RSS or email. Advanced version: Users gain the ability to follow other users and have the posts of users they follow appear in a newsfeed. An alternative to this would be provide an activity feed (like Reddit or Quora does). Unfortunately, a stream of all of a persons activity is much less likely to be interesting than a stream of content that they have curated personally. This feature wouldn't provide any value now. It would only become valuable once there is a healthy ecosystem of groups. -Chris |
|
|
|
Locked
questions
Cherrill <cdjamieson@...>
my co-owner and I have discussed opening a group here, but I have a few questions.
First off, I hope it is allowed to have 2 group owners. We would like to open a group which is not private in that members have to be either added or sent an invite; but is closed so that people have to be a member to participate but can join by seeing the group name listed. We do not want people who are members of other .io groups but not members of our group to be able to see our messages. I hope this makes sense, because i thought i had read something about people being able to share in interesting topics, and I am not sure I understand this concept. thank you Cherrill |
|
|
|
Locked
Re: questions
Bruce Pappas <bruce@...>
I'm also interested in moving my groups here. A few questions: 1. What will you do to keep your list addresses white-listedf? 2. What will you do when spam is reported to you? 3. What about longevity? What will you do to make sure you don't just fly the coop when you want, leaving owners high and dry? 4. Can you download a list of members and messages for archival purposes? Thanks. -Bruce _______________________________________________ Bruce Colglazier Pappas Email: bruce@... Phone: (H) 763-377-9874 - (C) 763-229-7075 - (F) 763-377-8189 Address: 20 Ardmore Dr, Minneapolis, MN 55422-5208 USA Website: www.brucepappas.com Skype: bruce.c.pappas On Sun, Oct 12, 2014 at 9:23 AM, Cherrill <cdjamieson@...> wrote:
|
|
|