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Sending Message To Group members

The Jamroom Network » Forum » Design and Skin Customization » Page » Sending Message To Group members
derrickhand300
@derrickhand300
9 years ago
1,353 posts
Is there a way to specifically send messages/announcements to members of specific groups?
updated by @derrickhand300: 06/09/15 08:52:35AM
Strumelia
Strumelia
@strumelia
9 years ago
3,603 posts
Ah! Excellent question!


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
michael
@michael
9 years ago
7,714 posts
Only the newsletter system:
your-site.com/letter/compose

But it divides on quota, not groups. Are you thinking from the point of view of the group owner being able to send messages, or the admin user.

Seams a little open to abuse if you let the group owner who is not the site admin send emails from your site.

The feature would need to be added, it doesn't exist right now.
brian
@brian
9 years ago
10,148 posts
Just to add to what Michael has posted. In our experience through the years, these are the functions that are going to get abused on your system. As soon as ONE spammer knows they can signup on the site and "send" a notice to other users, you will be in a continual battle on a daily basis to keep it off your site. Same goes for "invite" systems - they WILL be abused.

So we can definitely develop systems to do this (we actually already have), but we've not come up with a solid way to handle it to prevent spam (other than possible forcing all notices to be reviewed by an admin).


--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
Strumelia
Strumelia
@strumelia
9 years ago
3,603 posts
I agree. On my ning site I long ago set all groups the same (except my private moderators group)- so that group members could not send out private messages (emailed) to all the other members of the group. Even a few of my legit members were abusing it by sending out unsolicited self promos and sales offers...that I was not able to see. However, as admin I am still able to send a message to all members of ANY particular group... and that's pretty darn useful. I'd love that feature in JR for admins. :)



--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 05/07/15 07:08:28PM
Asil
Asil
@asil
9 years ago
41 posts
michael:
Only the newsletter system:
your-site.com/letter/compose

But it divides on quota, not groups.

Being able to target by quota is helpful management. Particularly if you're using the Kickbox Email Validation module [https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/forum/my_posts/25647/new-kickbox-email-validation-module] to identify users who no longer have valid email addresses. I plan to move members who fail the email test into their own quota, so I won't email them again by design.
updated by @asil: 05/08/15 08:30:25AM
gary.moncrieff
gary.moncrieff
@garymoncrieff
9 years ago
865 posts
brian:
So we can definitely develop systems to do this (we actually already have), but we've not come up with a solid way to handle it to prevent spam (other than possible forcing all notices to be reviewed by an admin).

Just a thought but how about tying it into the profile daily limits and then for standard members this could be set to a very low number.

I am torn on this aswell but would like to see an invite module at some stage, openinviters integation is broken. For invites you could allow the number of invites per day/week to be limited and that would help reduce spam.
derrickhand300
@derrickhand300
9 years ago
1,353 posts
Mine has always been set so that I was the only one that could message group members
Sure I agree if members are allowed to us it -it gets abused-I learned that years ago....but it would be great if the admin were allowed to easily message members of a group...without having to configure and compose an email
Another way to engage users..
derrickhand300
@derrickhand300
9 years ago
1,353 posts
Also when I created new content on the site a button that says "Share with members' would be great- that auto configs an email using the image from the page and the first paragraph of the content with a link to the content
finish off the email footer with basic info about the site- # of members- #videos#images etc and an unsubscribe
Again only visible and available to the site admin
updated by @derrickhand300: 05/08/15 11:36:14AM
Strumelia
Strumelia
@strumelia
9 years ago
3,603 posts
derrickhand300:
Mine has always been set so that I was the only one that could message group members
Sure I agree if members are allowed to us it -it gets abused-I learned that years ago....but it would be great if the admin were allowed to easily message members of a group...without having to configure and compose an email
Another way to engage users..

I totally agree. Sooo many instances in which this would be insanely useful with Groups. :)


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
brian
@brian
9 years ago
10,148 posts
Let me ask a quick question for Ning users - our assumption has been that on your sites there are going to be a lot of different "group owners" - i.e. each user could potentially create their own groups on their profiles. With this scenario the "invite users to a group" or "send all group members a message" is open for abuse. However, the feeling I get is that a lot of you are running ALL the groups on your site - i.e. your users are NOT creating their own groups. In this case if we limited this ability to admin only, then I can see it being very useful. So if we made a feature like this that was only usable by admins would that be a good compromise or is the expectation that all users would want to be able to use this feature?

Thanks!


--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
derrickhand300
@derrickhand300
9 years ago
1,353 posts
Yes- I am the owner of ALL groups..if there is a request for a group I create it and own it...I dont allow ANYONE to admin anything :)
I think if you configured it so the quota was only for Master admins -it would be well received
updated by @derrickhand300: 05/08/15 12:02:55PM
gary.moncrieff
gary.moncrieff
@garymoncrieff
9 years ago
865 posts
@Brian I remember late last year Paul told me he was working on an invite module but I havent heard anything about it since, maybe that is the answer?
brian
@brian
9 years ago
10,148 posts
gary.moncrieff:
@Brian I remember late last year Paul told me he was working on an invite module but I havent heard anything about it since, maybe that is the answer?

Yeah we actually already have it mostly done - we just have hesitated to release it since we could not come up with a good solution to the spam problem. However it would be relatively easy to make it an "admin only" feature and get it released, so we will definitely check it out.


--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
derrickhand300
@derrickhand300
9 years ago
1,353 posts
I cannot see how an "admin only' invite module would be very useful...
brian
@brian
9 years ago
10,148 posts
derrickhand300:
I cannot see how an "admin only' invite module would be very useful...

I thought you posted that only YOU control the groups, so the invite module would be useable by you - that wouldn't work?


--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
gary.moncrieff
gary.moncrieff
@garymoncrieff
9 years ago
865 posts
Yes be able to control by quota as like every other module is crucial and then site admins can decide at their leisure how to set it. If there was also a max invites per day by quota it would be good too.

Just a question does this invite module provide a generic invite to site option?
brian
@brian
9 years ago
10,148 posts
gary.moncrieff:
Yes be able to control by quota as like every other module is crucial and then site admins can decide at their leisure how to set it. If there was also a max invites per day by quota it would be good too.

Just a question does this invite module provide a generic invite to site option?

To be honest, this is what we want to avoid. We want to avoid having a site turn it on because they think it is going to be OK only to get nailed - we've seen it many times - that's why the idea is to limit it to admin only use.

I'm not sure about the "invite to site" option - I believe right now it is basically an invite to a specific detail page (i.e. invite to a group, view a song, etc.). Paul developed so hopefully he can answer.


--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
derrickhand300
@derrickhand300
9 years ago
1,353 posts
yeah we are on different ideas- the invite I am referring to allows members to invite people from their contacts like yahoo mail..etc to joining the main site....not to ask already existing users to join groups

The Share thing would allow you to share new content with select members (ie followers) or alll members

For instance if a tsunami just hit Arizona I could post an article about it and click the share with members button to instantly send it to all members via email- this email would contain a truncated version of the page with a link to it- no need to constantly be creating emails-summary email for the weeks new content is on the wish list also
Strumelia
Strumelia
@strumelia
9 years ago
3,603 posts
brian:
Let me ask a quick question for Ning users - our assumption has been that on your sites there are going to be a lot of different "group owners" - i.e. each user could potentially create their own groups on their profiles. With this scenario the "invite users to a group" or "send all group members a message" is open for abuse. However, the feeling I get is that a lot of you are running ALL the groups on your site - i.e. your users are NOT creating their own groups. In this case if we limited this ability to admin only, then I can see it being very useful. So if we made a feature like this that was only usable by admins would that be a good compromise or is the expectation that all users would want to be able to use this feature?
Thanks!

I can't speak for everyone, but I'd be happy with just admins being able to send a message to all members of a particular group. I am the only person who can create groups.
Some groups on my site have over 1000 members, so I can't imagine trying to send them all a message by punching them in individually. ! If someone else owns the group, they could always come to me to have ME send everyone in the group a message. That way no one will be privately spamming a group without my knowing.
On ning we had check box to allow ALL the group MEMBERS to send out group messages to each other ...or not. I had them all set to 'not'. Too ripe for abuse.
But admin only- I'd be happy with that.


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
michael
@michael
9 years ago
7,714 posts
Seam to be 2 ideas vying to be the topic in this thread:
1.) the ability for group owners to send an email to every member of the group
2.) the ability for user x to blast a list he happens to have with a generic message to "come join this site you've never visited because UNKNOWN-PERSON-A happens to have your email address. :) "

I can see #1 could be useful if its just for admins, I hate the idea of #2.
derrickhand300
@derrickhand300
9 years ago
1,353 posts
Yeah lets just make it where it invites all their Facebook Friemds=Twitter followers and Linkedn Connections -:)
Strumelia
Strumelia
@strumelia
9 years ago
3,603 posts
Yeah I'd vote to make it for admins ONLY to be able to send a message to all members of any particular group (whether they created/own that group or not).

"come join this site you've never visited because UNKNOWN-PERSON-A happens to have your email address." .... l o l !


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
gary.moncrieff
gary.moncrieff
@garymoncrieff
9 years ago
865 posts
All the invite systems I have used searched your email contacts for invite purposes, not some random email addresses you may have found on the net.
brian
@brian
9 years ago
10,148 posts
I know that "invite your friends by spamming your contact list" is something sites like LinkedIn do, but in reality does ANYONE actually signup for something on one of these invites? I've never met or heard of anyone that didn't see these types of email as spam. But I'm a developer, so maybe this is common among the facebook crowd.


--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
Strumelia
Strumelia
@strumelia
9 years ago
3,603 posts
It's a mixed bag. Some members would use it legitimately to invite some of their friends to an event in a certain geographical area or with a certain common interest... but other members would just spew out invites to anyone in their contact/follower list to self-promote stuff to death. "Hey I just recorded myself singing in the shower...wanna buy the CD?"


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
derrickhand300
@derrickhand300
9 years ago
1,353 posts
I used to keep track some in Ning- because it also allowed admins to resend the invites after say a week...Really it ran aroubd 3-4% join rate back then...send 100 emails get 4 members
Asil
Asil
@asil
9 years ago
41 posts
brian: ...the feeling I get is that a lot of you are running ALL the groups on your site - i.e. your users are NOT creating their own groups.

I ran dozens of NING sites over the years. My observation and experience was site creators ended up creating their groups because NING never gave them the ability to replace the original creator. So, you'd have the icon of a user who might have left years ago on the group and no way to change that. Very confusing for new users and a cause of resentment for the user the site creator might have elevated to be that group's admin. [They are doing all the work, but someone else is showing as the group's top dog.]

P.S. For small, well-run groups, giving its members the ability to email all the members of the group was very helpful. However, I don't recall it being a mission-critical feature.
derrickhand300
@derrickhand300
9 years ago
1,353 posts
Using the Facebook/Twitter /Linkedn API to send invites still is the best idea IF its possible

If you think about it you are messaging/inviting others who are actually used to social networking AND they can join with one click using the Oneall module

As for me a "SHARE THIS WITH MEMBERS' button on all content ( pages/videos/audio/images etc) and have it auto configure an truncated email thats sends automatically)admins Only) would be the singe most important thing that could be done to improve the platform right now

IMHO
updated by @derrickhand300: 05/10/15 04:23:18AM

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