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New group features

Since we put up the beta of the groups functionality about a week and a half ago, we've steadily launched features and enhancements and have quite a few more coming early tomorrow morning. So here's a rundown of things that have been added since we put up the initial beta or will be put up tomorrow morning.

Posting Directly to a Group:

This was put up over the weekend. Members of a group (who have not been blocked from posting) can make a post directly to a group without it showing up on their blog.

Group Announcements:

Group administrators/founders can now make group wide announcements that will be sent out to all of the group members. These announcements will show up on the members "My Home" page, as well as being sent by email dependant on the members settings.

Group Featured Posts

Group moderators/administrators/founders can now "feature" posts within a group. Featured posts will appear at the top of the groups front page, and have a star next to them. This shouldn't be confused with the site wide featured posts done by moderators of ActiveRain.

Forum View

We added a way for people to view both blog posts, and posts within a group as if it was a forum. That is, the posts are ordered based on which post has most recently been commented on. We plan to merge all of the existing forums on ActiveRain into groups, and phase out the current forum functionality, as the groups will provide all of the same.

Group Search

We added a way for people to search for new groups via keywords. This search will look at both the group title and the group description for matching keywords. This will help people find groups they wish to join as the number of groups grow.

In addition to these enhancements, we have several more on the way based off of user feedback. Most of these revolve around improving the way people can search for groups to join.

-Matt Heaton

Posted by ActiveRain Real Estate Network on 12/07/2006 03:46 PM

Comments (57)

activerain, activerain features, groups

57 Comments on New group features

DEC

2006

Matt.... this looks neat and interesting. Hopefully I will have time to look at this over the weekend. When is that? lol

Thanks to you Caleb, Ben, and yourself. nite...

Interesting...do we "block" people the same way as always or is their a new way to do so?

P.S. Nice improvements...I must get used to them!

DEC

2006

You guys are awesome... and enhancement machines!

Active Rain Rocks!

I like the 'Post to Group' and 'Email Group' features. Impressive how quickly you guys turn these out! How soon can we get 3D modeling to build our own online 'offices'? :)

ditto to John...love the 'Post to Group' and 'Email Group' features.

Been wishing for those features!

See what a little patience can accomplish? Thanks, Guys! I knew these were coming, and they are really excellent and helpful enhancements. As always, thanks for listening and working so DANG hard to make this a better network!

Matt, seriously well done. I'm impressed with your focus and your commitment to continuous improvement! These are all great additions. The groups are going to shake out to be a big winner.

Nice Matt!! Those are going to make the groups far more functional. Another cool addition brought to you by "ActiveRain'.

Thanks for the search functionality. I've been wanting to explore all the groups out there, but haven't had a chance. This allows me to look for types of groups I would be interested in. As usual, you guys rock!!!

It's so interesting to watch the morphing of ActiveRain. Can't imagine what it will look like in a year.

Groups are great, but I really use the Colleagues Blogs buttons, so please don't mess with them.

Very nice Matt and team. Keep it up!

can the moderator be changed? Can there be more than one?

Excellent work. I am so happy to have found this community.

I think I just figured out the answer... question withdrawn

Thanks for adding the post feature. Makes the groups so much more intuitive to use.

Thanks for the upgrades... it will definitely make the groups more pleasurable.

Sharon. How did I miss the colleagues b;ogs? Thanks for pointing that out!

All the above posts pretty much sum it up and I still will say AWESOME! Thanks for the new enhancements and the new groups. I will try to look at all of them later.

MORE TOYS in the rain. If feels like Christmas already!

Thanks Guys.

Thanks for the updates - I think they'll make things much easier and smoother. I love the "Email Group" and "Post to Group" functions...very nice addition.

But I didn't know you could actually block people....

Ann

Blocking is for football? Or Blocking is for Blogging? Why would one want to Block on an Active Rain Blog? I thought the Heaton-ometer took care of folks that did not "behave"!

Great feature guys! I had a photography question and wasn't sure whose post to use to ask a question; then I read this and went right to the group and posted that question! You guys hit a home run with this one, TY!

Tony, The blocking is for blogs posted in the wrong group.

Great improvements guys

Wow!! I am impressed - you guys have been busy!

Thanks for all the hard work!

ines

Thanks for the quick enhancements - seems like things are improving and settling down. Now if we could just get spell check added to the menu! :)

When do you guys get to sleep! Thanks for the hard work- alot of thinking and much effort to get this rolled out I am sure. Thank you from all of us!

I have an idea- was thinking it would be nice to have everyones birthday- since we are like family..

When we register- just a month and date, then every day at the header or something have a Today's Birthday List ?? Too much or something possible ?

Excellent new features Matt. thank you. It's hard to believe that so many things have happened in less than a week. I'm impressed!

Matt - Thanks for all your hard work to continue to improve an already great Active Rain!

Matt, what control do you give a member as a moderator or administrator?

I think I'm gonna try featuring a post and see if there is any response from members.

Great additions.

Yes, there may be multiple moderators/administrators of a group. We'll put up a post shortly on administrating a group.

Anyway to keep this on the dashboard a little longer than you normally do? It would give more members the chance to see it. Can give it a 24 hour roll? :) TLW...ROAR!

Thanks for the additions / improvements!

(The rest of the people in my office better sign up soon...!)

Matt, Caleb, Ben

Just so you know, I just go a contact message from a group mod, but I could not open it from my home page. Here is what it said...

You don't have permissions to view this message.

But the email arrived shortly there after so I did find out what the message was.

Awesome!!

Maureen: Will be fixed tomorrow morning...

I appreciate how you're always working to make Active Rain better for its members. Thanks for the hard work.

These are developing into elegant solutions to what have been a very complex set of requirements and user demands. Good job!

Question: Will we still be able to set any form of post to "Members Only" viewing?

SO appreciate the on-going creativity...still really like the dashboard...too

Got another batch of changes going up tomorrow morning. Should clean up the UI quite a bit and make finding groups easier.

Thanks for making the enhancements to Active Rain. It has been a kick to see how fast the Groups have been started. I was able to add a new AR member this week when I showed the Group feature to her.

WOW! So many new functions and so many new things. How do I keep up with you guys. Raining cats and dogs! If you sneeze, you might lose out on a new function here. Thanks for making A/R an enjoyable place to come to on a daily basis.

DEC

2006

It feels like Christmas has arrived early this year, thx again Matt.

Thank you Matt for the amazing technology and tool box you have given to us to play with. It just keeps getting better and better!

Matt, This is amazing! Anything that helps to stimulate communication and the sharing of ideas is a very good thing. AR's response to the needs of the members is very encouraging. Thanks.

Every time I switch to a new page or function in AR I'm discovering new features! Again, thanks for your efforts.

A couple points of confusion I currently have...

I just noticed the "Online Members" display feature, which I like. But I was wondering if you will continue to allow anyone, including non-members to see who is logged in?
Or will you be displaying a message saying something to the effect that it is available to members-only (and which may also serve to encourage joining to access features)?

With the ability to post just to the group, are those group-only posts viewable to the public, including the search engines?
(If yes, will we still be able to make them members-only?)

Hey, good questions. Are the on line members that aren't part of the Group lurking? :) TLW...ROAR!

My question was actually referring to non-AR members, I wasn't focusing as much on the "group" member/non-member aspect. But, could that also be an issue related to privacy concerns that some group members may have?

Lawrence,

There are no plans to hide the group members unless you are logged in. There are plans for individuals to block their presence.

Caleb, that works for me.

When you come back up for air, could you clarify as to what types of posts are private and what are public and/or searchable. I know that has been mentioned before, but with all the changes it would be helpful to have a 'refresh'.

Thanks.

Lawrence,

When you are posting a blog you can set visibility levels. This isn't implemented within the feature where you can post directly to a group.

You can still post to that group as "members only" if you like. Then only those who are logged in can see it.

Only you can see "draft" posts.

You and associates can see "associates posts."

Any logged in person can see "members posts."

Of course anybody can see public posts.

There are some posts that were public that members have changed to members only. But by that time Google had already saved a copy.

Thanks, Caleb. That helps!

DEC

2006

Matt.... kudos to you and your team....Caleb, Ben,and anyone else. I was able to look at some of these new features now... and I am very impressed....thanks for all of the hard work.

I like the fact that we can get other people to help out as a moderator for our groups....and feature posts within.

thanks

I have really started using the features of ActiveRain and I think it is one of the best sites out there for us.

DEC

2006

OK, how do I feature a post within a group? I do not seem to have the option no matter what I do.

I am trying to feature a post in the Photography group

HELP!

Jessica,

Moderators, administrators, and founders can feature posts. If you're not one of these then you can't feature a post.

OK, that makes sense! Craig sent an group e-mail to "Stage it Forward" which said:

So here we all are... gathered around this great tool called Active Rain. AR has GIVEN (YES GIVEN!) us this wonderful tool. And they made it better... they created the Group Feature.

Like outside in the BIG AR, Groups within can now Awarding Gold Stars to posts WITHIN the group! HOW cool is that?

So expect to see stars.

That's what confused me :) Thanks for the clarification

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