Managing Group Collections
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ControlShift's groups feature allows your members to take the lead in organizing their communities. Groups are created, organized, and powered by members, but supported by admins.
Editing Group Settings
For admins, the first required action is to create the group collection. All groups in ControlShift must be tied to a group collection, and members will not be able to create groups until the collection is created. Learn how to create a new group collection.
Once the collection has been created, it's possible for admins to update some of the collection's settings. To edit the settings, go to the admin homepage > Local Groups > All > and then choose the appropriate group collection. From here, click Edit to update the collection's settings.
Please note that admins are not able to update the collection's basis (geographic shapes, location, or virtual) after creation. However, admins can update the collection's name, description, search radius, welcome email, and organizer questions.
Other content, including things like: introductory texts for new groups, the default group description, etc., can be updated at the platform-level (affecting all group collections) by going to the admin homepage > Settings under Configure > Content > Local Groups.
Finally, if you want to update the settings for an individual group (which includes the group's name, description, and welcome email message) you can do so by going to the group's forum page > Manage.
Moderating Organizer Requests
When a member wants to create a new group, they'll need to submit an application to admins. Similarly, if a member of an existing group wants to become a co-organizer, they'll also need to submit an application.
When an organizer request is received, we'll send an email notification to subscribed users.
Group organizer requests are visible in the moderation queue by going to the admin homepage > Moderation. You can add the Type: Group filter to only see group organizer (and new group creation) requests. Click the Moderate link to open the moderation modal.
From here you can review the application. In the modal you'll see the name and email address of the user, the group they're applying to lead, and their answer to the organizer question.
Once you've reviewed the user's application, you can choose to either Approve or Deny the request.
- If you approve the application, the user will be emailed informing them that you've approved their application, and they'll be given their admin privileges immediately. If the application was associated with a group creation request, the group will also become live and will be included in search results.
- If you deny the request, the user will be emailed informing them that their application has been rejected. If their application was associated with a group creation request, the group will not be visible to the public or included in search results.
As an admin, you can update the messages that we send when an application is approved or denied. These emails are set at the platform level (affecting all group collections) and can be updated from: admin homepage > Settings under Configure > Content > Local Groups.
Viewing Activity Across the Group Collection
Members
As an admin, you can view activity associated with the collection, including group discussion threads, petitions, events, and group members.
To view a list of all group members in the collection, go to the admin homepage > Local Groups > choose the appropriate collection > Members. On this page, you can filter the list by organizers, regular members, and Removed Members. (Removed Members are those who have been removed from the group by a group organizer or admin and will not be able to rejoin the group.) You can also export a list of group members.
If you'd prefer to see a list of organizers/members for an individual group only, you can do so by going to the group's forum page > Admin > Members. Again you can filter by organizers, regular members, and Removed Members. You can also export a list of members.
Events
Admins can see all events sponsored by local groups in the collection by going to the admin homepage > Local Groups > choose the appropriate collection > Events.
If you'd like to see a list of events sponsored by an individual group, you can do so by going to the group's forum page > Admin > Events. From this page you can also associate an event with the local group.
More information about group events is available.
Petitions
Admins can see all events sponsored by local groups in the collection by going to the admin homepage > Local Groups > choose the appropriate collection > Petitions.
If you'd like to see a list of petitions sponsored by an individual group, you can do so by going to the group's forum page > Admin > Petitions. From this page you can also associate a petition with the local group.
More information about group sponsored petitions is available.
Threads
Admins can also view the conversations that are happening throughout the collection. To see new posts, go to the admin homepage > Local Groups > choose the appropriate collection > Forum Threads.
From this page you can also create a broadcast post. Broadcast posts will be automatically posted into the forums of all groups in the collection.
Moderating Forum Posts
One of the main responsibilities of group organizers is helping to monitor their group's forum for inappropriate content. If a group organizer sees an inappropriate post, they can flag it for review by admins.
When a post is flagged, admins with notifications enabled will receive an email notifying them that a post needs moderation. Admins can also look for any posts in need of moderation by going to the moderation queue (admin homepage > Moderation). If needed, admins can filter the moderation queue by Type: Forum Message. From the list, choose the message you want to moderate and click the Moderate link to open the modal.
In the modal, we'll show information about the poster, the context of the message, the message itself, the local group it's been posted into, and the reason that it was flagged as inappropriate.
When you've reviewed the message, you can choose to Approve or Remove the message.
At the top of the modal you'll see two additional options: Require pre-moderation and Remove member.
If the user has severely broken your community's guidelines, you can choose to Remove member from group. This will kick the member out of the group and they'll be unable to rejoin.
If you don't want to remove the member, but are concerned that they'll post other inappropriate messages, you can Require premoderation for their posts. When pre-moderation is enabled, posts from the effected user will not be visible in the forum until they've been approved by admins.
Other members will be able to contribute to existing threads that include the message in need of pre-moderation, they just won't see the message that needs to be moderated. For admins, messages in need of pre-moderation will be included in the moderation queue.
Broadcast Posts
In addition to moderating the forum, admins can also post into the forum. If admins only want to post in a single group's forum, they can do so directly from the group's forum page.
If an admin wants to post a message in all or many groups in the collection, they can use the broadcast post feature. This feature is available by going to the admin homepage > Local Groups > choose the appropriate collection > Forum Threads > Broadcast Post.
At the top of the page, you'll see options for where the post should be made. If you choose the All option, then the same message will be sent to all groups in this collection. You may see additional options that allow you to restrict the number of groups that receive your message. The options here will vary based on your organization's site configurations. Potential options include:
- If your organization is using Labels, you can send the message to only the groups with specific labels or only the groups without specific labels.
Please note: This is a multi-select option, and when choosing labels, we treat them as "or" not "and." This means that if I choose the Groups with specific labels option and select "cats" and "dogs," the message will be posted to any groups that have either a "cats" label or a "dogs" label, not only the groups that are labeled as both "cats" and "dogs."
- If your organization is using Mentors, you can send the message to groups that are mentored by a specific user or that have no mentor.
- If your organization is using Regions, you can send the message to only the groups in specific regions.
After writing your message and clicking to Send, the message will be posted in each group's forum. Members of the group will be able to reply to the message within their forum and it will look like any other post on the platform.
Organizer Announcements
Organizer announcements allow admins with the appropriate permissions to communicate with the organizers of local groups.
Messages will be emailed to the organizers of all groups in the collection or the organizers of the groups included in your chosen filters.
Please note: if the same user is the organizer of multiple groups in the collection or the selected filters, they will receive multiple copies of the message, one for each group that they lead.
To get started sending an announcement to the group organizers, go to the admin homepage > Local Groups > choose the appropriate collection > Organizer Announcements > New Announcement.
At the top of the page, choose which group organizers you'd like to communicate with. If your organization is using regions, you'll see the option to add a region filter.
The next section allows you to customize the address that organizers can send a reply to if needed. This can either be your organization's main contact address or you can have replies sent to you directly.
You can also choose the delivery time for the message – it can be sent immediately or scheduled for later.
At this point, you can draft the message itself. In addition to the formatting options you'll see in the editor, there are various liquid tags you can use to insert information about the user or their local group.
When you're ready, click to Save. This will take you to the page that lists previous and still-to-be-delivered organizer announcements.
Any pending announcements (that have not yet been delivered) can be edited. Click the announcement's subject line to edit the message, audience, or delivery time.
Messages that have already been sent can also be reviewed.