Writing.Com 101

Group Management

Selected items require extra tools to fully manage their capabilities. Group items do not have a Manage Group link in their Item Tools menu. Instead, these capabilities are accessed through the Group Links drop menu located at the upper right corner of the Group header section just below the item header of the Group item. Certain of these Group tools can be made available to group members or to any viewer.1

Group Management
All groups need to be managed, whether the Group consists of one member, such as a Group used as a Gift Point bank, or consists of hundreds of members, such as "RAOK Upgrade Brigade Group"  or "SIMPLY POSITIVE GROUP" . Additional information is available on the linked Group Tool pages.

Gift Point Log:   This page contains a log of any Gift Points received or given by the group during the past six months (approximately). In the edit page for the Group item, you can use the Show Gift Point Funds To: setting to specify at what Group level a member can view the Gift Point totals or logs, or whether this page can be viewed by any visitor to the Group item. This setting is useful for public accountability for member-run contest/activity banks.

Disperse Gift Points:   This tool allows you to send Gift Points to all members of this group. You may provide one Gift Point amount, which will be given to each member, and identify from which account to send the funds. The dispersed Gift Points can come from either the group's Gift Point funds or from your own account. You may only use the group's funds if you have the specified membership level within the group. In the edit page for the Group item, you can use the Control of Gift Point Funds: setting to specify at what Group level a member can use the Group Gift Points.

Group Bids:   Groups may use their available Gift Points to advertise or sponsor their items or links under any of Writing.Com's genres or item types. Using the "BidClick System: Sponsored Items, Links & Genres"  enables all Authors and Angels (those who promote works that are not their own) to highlight those items for a small fee. Follow the directions listed under this link. You may only use this tool if you have the specified membership level within the group. In the edit page for the Group item, you can use the Control of Gift Point Funds: setting to specify at what Group level a member can use the Group Gift Points.

Give/Spend Gift Points:   You can give from ten to one million Gift Points from the Group (provided your Group balance allows) to an individual member or to another Group by placing the username or item number, respectively, in the appropriate box. A confirmation screen will appear before the transaction can be processed. If you are not the Group owner, you may only use this tool if you have the specified membership level within the group. In the edit page for the Group item, you can use the Control of Gift Point Funds: setting to specify at what Group level a member can use the Group Gift Points. When a member has access to a Group's Gift Point funds, that Group will be listed in the drop menu at various places around the site where the option of using Group Gift Points is provided, such as purchasing Merit Badges, AwardIcons, or C-notes, or rewarding public reviews.

Mail Group:   You may send one email to all active members of your group using this link. The "Send" area has a drop menu that allows you to mail only those members above a specified access level, thereby giving you flexibility in your mailings. No copy of the sent email is stored. The email signature of the member using the tool is loaded in the email form. This tool may only be used by group members who have a group membership level of 9 or higher.

To avoid problems with spam, the Group should have a written policy about what type of content will/won't be included in Group emails. If a member feels that the Group emails are spam, they can delete themselves from the Group with the Leave Group tool on their My Account/Group Memberships page. Members are not obligated to inform the Group of why they are deleting themselves. The Group owner and Group leaders have the ability to deal with a spamming problem by lowering the Group membership level of the member responsible for the spam, removing their ability to use this tool.

Manage Members:   Below the explanation of group membership levels, you can enter (or edit existing) group members using the text boxes on this page. You must use the member's username. The username can be copy/pasted from the right-click handle menu of the userlink. The username is shown in the mouse-over of their userlink suitcase; it is not the handle they may use in front of the suitcase. Assign a group membership level for each group member according to what you want them to be able to do within the group. Then click Update Members to store the changes.

When you click to Update Members and a new member is added to a Group, they will be emailed the welcome email identified in the GROUP SETTINGS section of the Group's create/edit page, or the standard email if such an item is not specified, and the Group item will be added to their My Account/Group Membership listing. Except when a Group item has a Trinket lock, the members of a Group always have automatic access to the Group item; the access restriction setting for the Group item does not matter. See "Access Levels Within Groups"  for more details regarding member management. See "Beta: Trinkets"  for more information about using Trinket Locks.

An Exportable Group Username List is shown below the Manage Members form. This list of usernames can be copy/pasted and used in other areas of the site.

Purge Group Items:   Items that have been set to Group-only for this group are listed below the membership lists in the Group item. When you click the link, this tool checks this listing of items, and resets the item access restrictions to Private on items whose owner is no longer a member of this group. It also emails these owner(s) to notify them that the items have been reset. The automated email notification is sent from Writing.Com Support . Finally, the tool shows you a page summarizing what the tool did. This tool can be used by group members with a group membership level of 14 or higher.

Manage Levels:   You have the option of naming the different levels within your group. If set, the applicable level name is displayed beside the member's userlink in the membership list. For example, such labels can inform group members and viewers about the role a member has in the group, so people know whom to contact about particular matters.

Managing a group can be both fun and rewarding. These tools have been created to help you manage a group of any size, and they give you the option of enlisting the help of other responsible members.

Recommended Reading

1. Group
2. Create/Edit a Group
3. Group Edit for Items
4. Group Leaders and Members
5. Access Levels Within Groups
6. Group Only Items
7. Free and Paid Membership Benefits

Footnotes
1  Updated by northernwrites; written by JACE