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What are Groups for? [Answered] | Forum

Topic location: Forum home » Support » General Questions
Monica
Monica Apr 23 '13

I think I have everything figured out except for Groups.  At first, I thought this would be a good way to group users together to make them easier to invite to an event, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  Are people allowed to sign up for Groups without being invited first?

 

Is there a working example of someone using Groups in a good way?

 

Thanks!

The Forum post is edited by Alia Apr 24 '13
Purusothaman Ramanujam
Groups can be effectively used to encourage members to meet with like minded people.

For example, you can create a group for "Cars" and people interested in cars join that.
Monica
Monica Apr 23 '13
Are Groups used for anything else?  My site will primarily be for Events and encouraging people to go to them.  I can make forums for discussions about things like cars.  If Groups really aren't for any other purpose then I think I'll remove them from my site unless you know of anything else they could be used for.  Thanks!
Monica
Monica Apr 23 '13

On a related note, do you know of a plugin that allows an admin to create categories or groups of users that can then be used to invite users to a private event all at once?  For example, if I create a private dinner event once a month and I always invite the same 30 people, is there a way to make that easier? 

 

Alternatively, is there a plugin that allows me to copy a private event including everyone who was invited?  That one might be easier.  I guess I could just do it directly in the database by copying an event and its invites.  That might be a good practice plugin for me to write unless you know of something already out there.

Pete
Pete Apr 23 '13
You can make groups about anything that you like
Monica
Monica Apr 23 '13
Thanks, Pete, I know the subject matter is customizable but it seems that an admin can't do much with it once it's there.  If it's just a place to talk about the subject matter it seems that a forum makes more sense because everyone's already a member of the forum.  Having to join a Group first seems like wasted effort.  I am starting to think that Groups don't make sense in my case.
Purusothaman Ramanujam
Plugins can be customized based on your requirement.
Alia Team
Alia Apr 24 '13
>>Are people allowed to sign up for Groups without being invited first?

Yes.
When user creates a group he can specify whether group will have open join or by invitation only.
If group is open join one, then another user just clicks" join" and becomes group member right away.

Note that you can add forum to groups.
Monica
Monica Apr 24 '13
Thanks for the info!
DavidZenry
DavidZenry Apr 25 '13
One of my busier sites (running Oxwall 1.5x) is divided into "Regional Groups" and they have meets in real life. So it works quite well for them. 


We really doe need the lovely Developers to come up with some useful plugins to increas the functionality of groups. It's great it now has a news feed, but Groups & Events need linking together somehow. 


*will pay for a plugin to create Group Events*

Monica
Monica Apr 26 '13
That's a great idea!
Manfred
Manfred Apr 28 '13
Yes, i need Group Event too....
PLEASE
The Forum post is edited by Manfred Apr 28 '13
Alia Team
Alia Apr 28 '13
Demmy Wilson
Demmy Wilson Jun 2 '13
This is my first post, so please be gentle.

I'm on another similar hand-coded site where the groups concept is possibly the most important part. Oxwall's Groups seem to be far less powerful and that's a shame. From what I can make out, I can start a group called "People who live in XXX"" and people living there can join. What then? So I know that fifty people live near me, but what do I do next? There doesn't seem to be any way of communicating with those people unless we contact each other individually.

On the other site, by joining a group, I can hold a discussion with all fifty people. In reality, the discussion is no more than a private forum for that group, but it works perfectly. For example, I can start a thread "Where's the best place to shop for XXX" and everyone in the group can comment.

Although an Events Calendar already exists, Monica could also use the Groups for open discussion about the event and that's what they do on the other site.

If such a plugin exists, can someone point me to it? I can't write it myself.
Demmy Wilson
Demmy Wilson Jun 2 '13
Further to my previous post, I see that Groups on the demo site have a news feed filtered to that group. That's really all I need, but on my site that news feed doesn't exist.

I notice the download in the Store has the news feed, but being written in 2010, I assumed it would be the same plugin supplied with the latest download which I have. Do I need to download it again?
Demmy Wilson
Demmy Wilson Jun 3 '13
Me again! I've actually answered my own question here. I'm still unable to get the newsfeed like the demo site, but when I went back to the admin panel I found an option I must have missed 30 times. I went to Plugins, Installed Plugins and clicked on Groups. Under Groups Configuration there are two tabs General and Additional Settings. (I missed that one). There you will find an option to add a forum to groups. I did it and WOW! It does EXACTLY what I want. Sorry for shouting, but I'm happy!!

The forum is filtered and it works independently for each group. Best still, the posts don't end up in the normal forum.

Thanks Oxwall. I've shown the site to a few friends and they love it. I just hope the spammers stay away.
wykbbb
wykbbb Jul 7 '13
I'm testing both Oxwall and Elgg, and even though I prefer the interface of Oxwall, I'm leaning towards Elgg because it has a much more robust group functionality. 


Oxwall lets each group have its own discussion board and newsfeed.


Elgg lets each group have its own discussion board, newsfeed, blog, event calendar, files, and photos if you download the right plugins.


Downside to Elgg is that while Oxwall has forum, events, and photos built in, you need to download separate plugins  to get those functions in Elgg.