closed Adding Members To Groups Administratively?

Are there any plans to add this functionality in the near future? I realise that it may not be a top priority BUT it is enormously useful. As a recent refugee from Ning 3 I have a personal agenda. My backup files were from March 2014 so all of my group membership figures have reverted to that date. Adding members administratively would allow me to restore those groups to their former glory

The ability to add administratively is also useful in a more general sense. I occasionally run competitions on my site and these are based on individual groups and entries (short stories, poems etc) are added as individual discussions in group forums. I have lost count of the number of times that site members have complained to me that they were unable to add their entries simply as a result of not having joined the appropriate competition group. Administrative addition allows admins to solve this problem easily and diplomatically.


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Ceri Shaw - AmeriCymru
updated by @adolygwr: 03/07/16 03:55:00AM

Kind of feels like you expect that I understand what it is your after, but I'm not totally getting it.

What would be easier would be if it was phrased as a suggestion of what you would like to see so that I could have a guide to building what you want rather than me building 'something' then getting feedback on that.

What I'm getting is:
* I want a way for the admin users to be able to add users to groups

As the admin user could you describe HOW you would like to do that? from the ACP? from the group itself?

What would be easiest.

--edit--
Looking at it now, it looks like a + button on the members page would be a good way to go about it.

That then leads to a "browse users" type screen with checkboxes that allows the group admin to add people to the groups.

Concerning issues:
* If I don't want to be added to a group, what happens then?

Say a new user creates a new group, adds everyone in the site to it, does that have any negative impact on them. Say the group is "People who like snakes" and everyone gets added, then it looks to anyone viewing the group members list that some people like snakes when they really might not.

Is this an issue....?
updated by @michael: 11/22/15 11:11:02PM

Ning 3 does this from a dropdown list on the members list page in the dashboard. Not the most convenient way imho. I was thinking more along the lines of an option to invite or add administratively from within the group itself . Dont know how practical that is.


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Ceri Shaw - AmeriCymru

Your too fast, I was just editing above.


updated by @michael: 11/22/15 11:11:56PM

Absolutely yes! Which come to think of it is probably why the option was only available on Ning to site admins on the members list page. BUT...might it not be possible to offer an invite button on the group page and administrative addition (for site admins only) via the ACP?

The idea being that if a site member creates a group he/she can invite other members ( maybe even a mass invite? ) BUT only site admins could add members or groups of members administratively.

This obviously presupposes that site admins can be trusted not to use this capability irresponsibly. Which, hopefully they can


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Ceri Shaw - AmeriCymru

We do have an 'Invite' module that we have never released as we have always been concerned that it might be used for spamming.
As it stands, users can invite their followers to page item (including one of their groups) with a message ("Please rejoin my group", say). Admins can invite anyone to any page.
Wonder if this might be useful in this case?


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist
updated by @paul: 11/22/15 11:38:45PM

Must admit I wasn't aware of that. How does the admins invite process work? Is it possible to start a new group and send out a mass invite to all members?


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Ceri Shaw - AmeriCymru

No - Its not been released so you wouldn't be aware of it
Only admins can send out mass emails. Users can only message their followers, so yes, an admin could create a group then 'mass email'.

I'll blow the dust off the module and check it out to make sure what I'm saying about it here is true (it a long time since I developed it lol). Could then maybe put it on your site for you to check out?


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

If paul dusts off the group invite module, would you still need the group member add feature?

I can see it could be useful in some cases, but open to abuse if not done right. (Like adding people to mailing lists, grrrrrr I hate getting emails from automated systems with an 'unsubscribe' link when I KNOW I never 'subscribed' in the first place. Looking at YOU linkedin. )

Would love to try out the Invite module Although I wont be going live until late December or early Jan.

As far as the member add feature is concerned....yes I believe it would still be enormously useful.Having said that I can see the potential for abuse.It would need to be limited to site admins and not available to group creators imho


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Ceri Shaw - AmeriCymru

OK - Have added the Invitations module to the Marketplace Beta Channel so you should be able to get it from there.
Install it and see what you think. It should be a good solution to what you want to do as I, like Michael, get really annoyed when I find myself added to groups and events etc. that I didn't want to be added to (listening Facebook? ). Much better to be invited and have the choice imo.

Tip - As this module sends emails to users and you are not live yet, be sure to set your Active Email System to 'Debug Log' -
ACP=>Communications=>Email Support=>Active Email System
That way, emails will be dumped to the debug log and not be actually sent to users. You can then view the debug log in the normal way to see the emails.


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

The invitation module looks good..I have it active on my test site.. just curious where does the invitation ends up at..As a private note. I only activated invitation to be sent to followers only.. not email address..still not showing after 1 hour after refreshing. .login back into account

Have you actaully sent the invite. Its a sort of two part process. You create an invitation then send it to selected followers.
Invitees can select in their notifications whether they receive any invites by email or private note.


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Hi Paul, I tried 2 invitations 1 from Admin to a follower that his name drop down..it does show the invitee right next to the invitation after it was sent..and the 2nd invite from a member to admin and that member follower..it displayed that it was sent and the name of both invitee showing next to invitation...I'll try again and see if it's at my end
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Ahhhh..notification. .will check that out..
Ok it did work and ended up at my Gmail and hotmail...looks slick Paul...
With a nice little comment in the bottom saying thank you for accepting the invitation
You guys just keep on amazing me!

updated by @boplive: 11/23/15 04:24:18PM

Is there maybe a way to adapt/expand this invite module's options to include allowing Admins and/or Group Owners to send out a message/notification to all members of a particular group? Several of us have been asking for something like that, and I'm wondering if this invite module could be expanded to cover that function as well...just a thought!
If not, no worries.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

You're after an extension to the newsletter module I think. (or something similar).

We're in a not-so-stable period right now, with 5.3 coming out. It will likely go that that needs to be out and stable before we get back to building new features/modules.

Its a good idea, just need a bit of time to get to it.

Yes I do understand. In fact, I've been holding back this month from bringing up too many little issues, knowing you guys are working on constructing and refining some pretty big projects right now. It goes against my nature to keep quiet, but I am making the attempt. :D
l o l



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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 11/23/15 06:55:41PM

its not lost, bring em up. hate for your ideas/suggestions/issues to get forgotten about.

Thanks, you all are so great. Don't worry, if it's important I will bring it up.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Just want to chime in here about the "bigger picture" in Jamroom.

In JR when it comes to things that a USER does (i.e. rate an item, like an item, comment, join a group, etc.) these aren't actions that an admin can perform - i.e. an admin cannot make a user "follow" another user. I think this is a good security model to have in JR, and is one I'd be reluctant to work around.

So in this case the "Invitations" module is going to be your best bet. Note that I have some concerns over it's ability to be used to "spam" other users, so please let us know how it works for you.

Thanks!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net