Hmm, ok. So should I just get rid of the 'This message has been deleted'
and any message deletion action (from the member or from the moderator)
results in the message completely disappearing?

Regarding deleted items - in a group here, we would not want members
editing or deleting their own posts and would not even want it if
proposed edits and deletes had to go to moderators for approval first.

We would like all posts to go to a Pending area as they do on Yahoo, and
to be able to approve, edit or reject the messages (reject with or
without an explanation).

We would like all Files to be in alphabetical order,

and since we are in the U..S. we want dates to be written Month, Day,
Year - and not European style.

I would prefer to see the word "Archives" on the left changed to
"Message Board." To me, archives implies old stuff ("the dusty archives
of the library"), not curent messages.

I am unable to find a place to change email preferences.

I am getting all emails as the messages post, which is fine with me, but
all are coming in plain text and links are unclickable. I am using
Windows Mail on Windows 7.

Most messages from other sources come to me in HTML with clickable
links. These seem to be coming in plain text. I am hoping there's an
option for html emails.

I would like to see an option to read messages threaded or flat (as they
come in, chronologically). There are good uses for both, and sometimes
you want one, and sometimes the other.

Searching: Should be able to search using any word you choose. Hashtags
don't matter in that case.

Hi Susan!

Glad you're here! I just finished reading the entire archives of this Beta group, (yes, 600+ messages), and I'm trying to learn all I can. But I'm asking Mods & Members people to give me all the help they can, because as you know, my elderly parents seem to command a lot of my attention these days. ;)

What I would ideally LOVE someone to do, is to compare this list below from the Blog post of "If You Code it we will come"  to the list of what is available here. Then I could give MM more information about what is already implemented, or will be implemented here, so that they would have more to consider when thinking of moving their groups.

So anyone who wants to help in that way, have at it! The list is below!

Thanks!

Brenda

**********************************************************
modsandmembersblog.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/if-you-code-it-we-will-come/

CREATE FOR US A NEW CLASSIC FORMAT.

Here is what we need for our Groups Platform:

• An interface that is accessible through both mail and website.
• Customizable home pages where we can choose colors, fonts, photos, and sizes for the group pages.
• The ability to have all messages appear in a single list, not in individual forums.
• Message archives that are stored and always available through page view.
• Messages ordered chronologically (newest or oldest first) or by threads as desired.
• Messages that have post #’s and are searchable.
• Controls that are readily visible and don’t require mouse-over.
• Full moderation tools for Group owners for members, messages, attachments, etc.
• A My Groups page where moderators can see all their groups and whatever moderation tasks are needed for each one.
• Ability to access member lists by page view and export the whole list into a PDF file, Excel, database, etc.
• Capability to handle a large number of members (don’t know the limit for Yahoo’s Groups).
• A section to store links.
• A section to store files.
• A working interactive database.
• An event calendar accessible to all.
• Ability to invite members
• Ability to add members.
• Ability to import an existing member list from another group.
• Ability to ban or preban members.
• Ability to have the member’s real name associated with their e-mail on the member’s list for Owner/Mod view only.
• Hosting for photos, with lots of storage, customizable photo organization and sorting options.

Susan,

You can read the messages chronologically or threaded on the group site. Click on individual messages, input the number you want to start from, and hit next to read.

Hope that helps!

Brenda

Hi Mark 

I am still learning my way around groups.io. I hope this is the right place to chime in.

Regarding deleted items - in a group here, we would not want members editing or deleting their own posts and would not even want it if proposed edits and deletes had to go to moderators for approval first. We would like to be able to set an option which prevents members from doing those things.

Regarding approvals for actions, Since all our members are on moderation, but we do require them to upload certain charts to a particular folder, we would like to allow them to do that without having to approve every upload. Same for photos - we would want them to be able to upload photos. 

We would like all posts to go to a Pending area as they do on Yahoo, and to be able to approve, edit or reject the messages (reject with or without an explanation). Editing does not mean changing their sentences it means removing older posts from the message, or signing their names for them or other housekeeping details. Occasionally we write to the member to ask if they would make a change and repost or let us do it and then approve the message.

We would like all Files to be in alphabetical order, and since we are in the U..S. we want dates to be written Month, Day, Year - and not European style. 

We would like the site to work with Windows and Mac Chrome, Windows and Mac Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari 

I would prefer to see the word "Archives" on the left changed to "Message Board." To me, archives implies old stuff ("the dusty archives of the library"), not curent messages. I think a lot of people would think the same thing. When I first saw archives I assumed it was stored files and I kept hunting for something like "Message Board" until I gave up and concluded that groups.io only operated by email. (I wrote to you about that from a help page, asking if it was email only).  Later out of curiosity I clicked archives expecting to see some kind of storage page, and found a message board instead. I did see the word Files later. Another idea - consider renaming the Files to "Library." 

I am unable to find a place to change email preferences. I am getting all emails as the messages post, which is fine with me, but all are coming in plain text and links are unclickable. I am using Windows Mail on Windows 7. Most messages from other sources come to me in HTML with clickable links. These seem to be coming in plain text. I am hoping there's an option for html emails.

I would like to see an option to read messages threaded or flat (as they come in, chronologically). There are good uses for both, and sometimes you want one, and sometimes the other.

Searching: Should be able to search using any word you choose. Hashtags don't matter in that case. If you meant people should only be able to search for tags, I have always found that extremely frustrating. My idea of what the tag should be may be very different from the poster's idea. 

Thank you for considering these comments.

Susan B

Hmm, ok. So should I just get rid of the 'This message has been deleted'
and any message deletion action (from the member or from the moderator)
results in the message completely disappearing?

If I want the group to be moderated (i.e. members can join, but are
moderated until they make their first post, how do I set it up? I think
I've set ours up wrong.

Mark,

Not sure if I'm replying correctly, but I have a question:

If I want the group to be moderated (i.e. members can join, but are moderated until they make their first post, how do I set it up? I think I've set ours up wrong.

Brenda

Nightowl >8#

Should I allow moderators to completely nuke a message so that it's like
it never happened?

- If a user (or group) is moderated, approval will be needed by the
moderators before an edit or deletion happens.

- If a user (or group) is moderated, any calendar, files or wiki action
will also require approval (assuming the person has the authority to do
those actions in the first place). Basically, this changes the
definition of moderated from just posting messages, to any action in the
group.

- And do you want the second phase? I'm happy to do it, but it'll be a
bunch of work.

And for the hard questions, about subjects and threads and hashtags.
Right now, you can't edit the subject of an individual message, you can
only edit the subject of the thread. It's not clear to me what should
happen if we let people edit individual message subjects. For example,
if you change the subject of a message in the middle of a thread, should
that split the thread into two different threads in the archives?

And should a 'normal' user be allowed to do that? Should editing
subjects just be for moderators?

"Right now, you can't edit the subject of an individual message, you can only edit the subject of the thread. It's not clear to me what should happen if we let people edit individual message subjects. For example, if you change the subject of a message in the middle of a thread, should that split the thread into two different threads in the archives?" - I don't think that editing the subject line for individual messages within the archive should be allowed since many of the further replies might be replies to the original message. It simply creates too many complications. I'd probably prefer to restrict editing the thread title to moderators or the original creator of the thread.

"If a user (or group) is moderated, any calendar, files or wiki action will also require approval (assuming the person has the authority to do those actions in the first place). Basically, this changes the definition of moderated from just posting messages, to any action in the group" - I don't want to have to moderate everything. I moderate posts because posts send out emails and I don't want my members to be exposed to emails that aren't up to scratch. If someone posts something stupid to the wiki then I can always undo it after, but you can't undo the sending of an email.