20. Create Your Own Google Group

BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Browse Through Google Groups
Search Through Google Groups

One of Google Groups' most useful features is that it enables you to create your own groups, which you can make private or public. (A private group is one in which only people who have been invited are allowed to join.) And particularly useful is that you can create groups in which people participate using email in addition to postings on the Web. To post messages, people send a message to an email address. That message is then sent to everyone in the group, who can then read it and respond to it.[click here]

Create Your Own Google Group

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Click Create a New Group

Click the Create a new group link on any Google Groups page. You go to the Create a group page. You can create a group for any reason you wantfor example, to converse with other like-minded people about a topic or to communicate with friends and family.

Fill in the Name, Address, and Description

In the Group name box at the top of the page, type your group's name, for example, Godzilla Lovers. In the Group email address text box, type the email address that is the group email address. An @googlegroups.com is added to the email address you type, so don't include the domain name when you type the address. The email address has the googlegroups.com domain name. This email address is the email address to which people will send mail if they want to participate in the group using email rather than the Web. So, for example, they could send an email message to godzillalovers@googlegroups.com, and the message would go to every member of the group.

Tip

The email address you give determines the exact URL of your group on the Web. All groups start with http://groups.google.com/group/. Appended to that is the email address (sans domain name) of your group. For example, if I specify an email address of preston, the URL of my group will be http://groups.google.com/group/preston. People can also send emails to participate in the group's discussions by addressing them to preston@googlegroups.com.

In the Group description text box, type a description for your group. There is a maximum of 300 characters. As you type, you see how many characters you have remaining.

If your group is going to have content that is adult-only, check the box next to This group may contain content which is only suitable for adults.

Set the Access Level

You can choose from three access levels. Click the appropriate radio button to specify the kind of group you want to create:

• Public The messages and archives for this group are open to anyone. Anyone is allowed to join the group. If someone wants to post messages, he must join the group.

Key Term

Archive A list of messages in a group that are more than 30 days old.

Note

You do not have to do anything special to search or read through archives. But you cannot reply to a message that is more than 30 days oldthat's why those messages are termed archives.

• Announcement-only Anyone can read the messages in this type of group, and anyone can join the group. But only those who have been given moderator rights can post messages.

• Restricted Membership to this private group is available by invitation only. The group, its messages, and its archives don't appear in the Google Groups directory and can't be found using searches. The owner of the group sends you an email if she wants you to join. And if someone tells you the name and email address of the owner, you can send an email to the owner, asking to join the group. After you're a member of a restricted group, you can post and reply to all messages.

Create Your Group

When you've made your choices, click Create my group.

Add Members

From the page that appears, enter the email addresses of people you want to be members of your group. Enter one email address per line. If you want to have people's names as well as email addresses, enter them like this:

Preston Gralla preston.gralla@gmail.com

After listing all the people you want to be members of your group, select the Add option if you want to add these people automatically to your group; select the Invite option if you want to first send an invitation, which they must accept before they can participate in the group.

Select Subscription Type

At the bottom of the page, select the default type of subscription you want to assign to the people who join your group. (They can change the type of subscription afterwards, if they want.) Your choices are

• No Email Members can participate in the group only over the Web, not using email.

• Email Members can participate using the Web and email. As soon as a member posts a message, an email message is sent to all the members in the group.

• Abridged Email Members can participate in the group using the Web and email. Members receive a summary of activity on the group every day, but have to go to the Web to read the full messages.

• Digest Email Members can participate in the group using the Web and email. Once a day, a single digest is sent as an email message; the digest has all the day's messages in it.

Write a Welcome Message

When your welcoming email message is sent to the members you listed in step 5, the group's name, description, and address is included in the email. If you also want to include a welcome message, enter your text in the box at the bottom of the page.

Create the Group

After you've made all your choices, click Done. Your group is created. Members can participate in the group, according to the rules you've established.

Make the First Post

Now that you've created your group, you can create the first post. Go to your group. There are no topics or messages posted yet. Click the Click here link, and you are brought to a page that enables you to create a message. Fill out the subject and the body text boxes, and click Post message to create the first post.

Invite New Members

After you've created your group and invited your initial list of members, you can still add new members to your group. When you're in your group, click the Manage link to get to the group's management page. Click the Invite or Add members button to invite a new member. You see the same screen you did in step 5. Follow the directions in step 5 to add the new members.

Accept New Members

When you receive emails from people accepting your invitation to join your group (or if someone sends you an email asking to join your group), you must approve those people individually before they can join the group and post messages. On the page where you manage your group, look in the Tasks area in the upper-right corner of the page. You see a notification that you need to review a member who wants to join. The message reads 1 new membership to review (or more than one, if there is more than one message waiting for you). Click the link. A page appears that allows you to approve or deny the request. You can also take no action by selecting None, or delete the request by selecting Delete. If you select None, the request still shows up in your Tasks area so you can review it at a later time. If you select Delete, the request is deleted, but no notification is sent to the requester. Use this option if you don't want someone to join your group, and don't want to have any communication with them, even an automated email. When you've made your membership-approval choice, click Update to update the membership roster for your group.

When you approve a member, that person can immediately start posting. An email is sent to the new member, telling her that she has been approvedor that she has not been approved, if you selected the Deny option.