Social Groups are here!

[Cynthia Mosher]

Social Groups

Interested in a new Due Date Club? Scroll to the bottom of this post for more information. 

Social groups allow forum members to create "clubs" to discuss topics of shared interest. Forum members with similar interests have a place to gather and share information, banter away, or find other forum members in the same geographical area.

Social Groups can be Open or Closed:

Open Membership: Anyone may join by clicking the "Join" button.

Closed Membership: Membership is by approval. Clicking the join button initiates a PM to the Group Leader requesting membership. The Group Leader must approve all new members.

How To Start a Social Group

Read the information, guidelines, and rules below.

Post to this thread to propose a new Social Group and apply to be its leader. In your post, include the name of the Social Group and whether it will be open or closed. Each group should have two volunteer group leaders.

How Social Groups Work

Social Groups are moderated by a Social Group Leader. Group Leaders are responsible for upholding the integrity of a group by making sure that participation by members follows the User Agreement. 

Each Social Group will have its own forum and the group page will list the members of the group and include a "Join" button to allow new members to join.

All content in all Social Groups is visible to the public, but only group members may contribute content and participate. For example, only members of the "Minnesota Natural Birthers" group can post in the "Minnesota Natural Birthers" group forum or upload photos to its gallery.

How to Use Social Groups

After you've joined one or more Groups, they'll show up in a box on your profile page. When you tag Groups, they can be promoted as "Related Groups" in relevant areas of the site in the same way that Related Forum Threads and Related Articles now appear in the right column of various pages.

Group Leaders

Group Leaders are the members in charge of a Social Group; the member who creates a Group is the first Lead and may appoint additional Group Leaders.

What can a Group Leader do?

       Receive join requests (for closed groups) and approve or deny them.

       Edit the Group description and change the thumbnail image.

       Ban a member, making it impossible for that member to re-join the Group.

                   Remove images from the shared gallery.

                   Send a PM to all members at once.

       Promote other members to Group Leader (there can be more than one leader in the same Group).

      Demote him/herself to a regular Group member.

What a Group Leader can’t do?

       Change the name of the Group 

       Demote another Leader back to a regular member (this must be done by the member or a Mothering Administrator).

       Act as a moderator within the Group forum (e.g., delete/edit others' posts and threads, etc.).

Social Groups Rules



We follow the same User Agreement for the social groups as we do for the rest of the site. Respect fellow forum members and you won't have any problems.

Remember, your posts are public and are visible to fellow members. Group members should not place posts to discuss other members or other forum or group threads. 



The following types of groups will not be permitted:

1. Hate groups
2. Duplicate groups
3. Spam, advertising, or other self-promotional groups (e.g. It's okay to create a group like"Earth Mama Angel Baby Lovers" so long as you're not an Earth Mama Angel Baby employee).

Due Date Clubs/Finding Your Tribe

Going forward, all Due Date Clubs (DDCs) will be created as Social Groups and they will remain active rather than archived. DDCs that are now closed and archived may apply to create a Group. To create a Group please read the information at the beginning of this post. 

Tribes in Finding Your Tribe and tribe-like threads in other forums will be encouraged to move over to Social Groups. The advantage for tribes is that they will have more of a forum-like atmosphere where they can create threads and have a list of all members. 

[trekkingirl]

sounds exciting! I really miss my DDC and it's only been a few months.

[~Adorkable~]

so where do we find the Social Groups?

[Cynthia Mosher]

When we start placing them you will find them at www.mothering.com/community/groups

[Kyamo]

What about currently active DDCs that haven't closed yet?

[Cynthia Mosher]

Originally Posted by Kyamo 

What about currently active DDCs that haven't closed yet?

Currently active and even the closed and archived DDCs can open a Social Group. 

[Adaline'sMama]

how do you start one?

[~Adorkable~]

I could see where groups could take the place of tons of sub sections around here, but might stifle cross conversation because you have to join before asking a question (even if it's open to everyone it is an extra step)
Can you let us know what kind of things you don't see turning into Social Groups?

[AndtheStars]

I can see this idea working well for the tribal areas but it makes me a little nervous that there will be many, many groups and information won't be easy to find.  I also second Adorkable in that it may stifle communication.  An interesting idea, though?  I hope that it doesn't become clique-y. 

[Honey693]

Originally Posted by AndtheStars 

I can see this idea working well for the tribal areas but it makes me a little nervous that there will be many, many groups and information won't be easy to find.  I also second Adorkable in that it may stifle communication.  An interesting idea, though?  I hope that it doesn't become clique-y. 

I can see this quickly turning into a crunchier than thou competition.  It just seems like a bad idea.  I mean I hope it works, but I don't see it happening.

[philomom]

This seems like a bad idea... designed to exclude others who may need our parenting and Ap advice.

[~Adorkable~]

i dont think as a general thing it is bad at all, i just think that there are places it belongs and some it does not. also wondering if post will show up under new post like usual, i think that is important because that is where a lot of folks hear about new areas of the website in general and then go there for the first time.

• in the case of Finding Your Tribe areas, it is already very hard to find what is there unless it is a location based one. so i dont think that social groups is any more removed and if they can be looked through somehow more orderly to see what is available it might be better. and if it allows a small amount of sub threads within the tribes then that would be the best reason of all, since i can think of a few times that would come in super super handy.
• in DDCs it seems it could be perfect fit as long as post still show up in New Posts,

but hmm would i need to join a DDC just to offer the answer to a question posted in it? that would be silly, "DDCC" is a great past time around here and the BTDT advice is often really helpful to the newly preggo.

on the other hand

if folks start breaking life with babe up into 40 sub groups or the parents of "this kind of kid" and the parents of "that kind of kid" start to break of into groups you need to join to chat and learn from, i think it will be a huge disservice to the community at large.

specially since i may learn a great deal from how someone takes on challenges with a particular child, but i'm not going to join the group that is called something very specific that since my child does not fit the description and so i would feel strange and intruding. i would probably never comment on those threads in that case = less community involvement.

[CI Mama]

Originally Posted by ~Adorkable~ 

i dont think as a general thing it is bad at all, i just think that there are places it belongs and some it does not. also wondering if post will show up under new post like usual, i think that is important because that is where a lot of folks hear about new areas of the website in general and then go there for the first time.

• in the case of Finding Your Tribe areas, it is already very hard to find what is there unless it is a location based one. so i dont think that social groups is any more removed and if they can be looked through somehow more orderly to see what is available it might be better. and if it allows a small amount of sub threads within the tribes then that would be the best reason of all, since i can think of a few times that would come in super super handy.
• in DDCs it seems it could be perfect fit as long as post still show up in New Posts,

but hmm would i need to join a DDC just to offer the answer to a question posted in it? that would be silly, "DDCC" is a great past time around here and the BTDT advice is often really helpful to the newly preggo.

on the other hand

if folks start breaking life with babe up into 40 sub groups or the parents of "this kind of kid" and the parents of "that kind of kid" start to break of into groups you need to join to chat and learn from, i think it will be a huge disservice to the community at large.

specially since i may learn a great deal from how someone takes on challenges with a particular child, but i'm not going to join the group that is called something very specific that since my child does not fit the description and so i would feel strange and intruding. i would probably never comment on those threads in that case = less community involvement.

I agree that it will be helpful in many areas, and I share your concerns about the cliqueyness. On the other hand, if the threads are still visible to everyone, but you have to be a member to join, that might help deal with the current phenomenon I seem to see a lot around here, which is random new person with super low post count showing up and de-railing a thread with a completely outrageous or inappropriate comment. If you can read for information but you have to actually *think* a bit before you post, that might be good. Or it might limit conversation. It will be interesting to see if it plays out.

[CI Mama]

Question: will things like "working & student parents" & "queer parenting" stay in their current forums, or will that switch to the new social group format?

[Adaline'sMama]

Hmmm...I dont like the idea of ddcs being social groups. I thought it was going to be more like Tribes, only with the ability to start threads about stuff. For example, the radical feminist tribe has like 600 posts, and it would be nice to just be able to start a new thread in a "radical feminist" social group. I started a skinny babies tribe, but it constantly gets lost and I see moms posting about being scared about their babies not gaining enough and it would be helpful to have a sub group that they could just go to about that issue.

[~Adorkable~]

the skinny babies tribe is a possibly good example of the kind of thing that if moved out of the life with babe area and into tribe or social group area, will anyone know to to look for it that has not already seen it? im guessing there will still be tons of posts like you have always seen, the only thing better with the social groups is that you will have a quick link to show them there is a place to go.

can i ask why you dont like the idea of DDC as social groups? i can think of pros and cons, and im interested to hear your thoughts

[Adaline'sMama]

I like the ddcc system and think that its great that anyone can comment without having to join. I think its likely that first time moms will miss a lot of good advice without non dccers being able to post. Personally, I know ill post a lot more in Im Pregnant if I need advice from the whole board.

[Baby_Cakes]

I think it'll be helpful not to have DDC Social Group posts show up in New Posts.  A lot of times mamas are just looking for support from their close friends in their DDC but get bombarded by outside opinions from mamas who mean well but don't know their stories.  

August '11 DDC would like to form a group.  How do we go about starting it?  

[Cynthia Mosher]

Originally Posted by Adaline'sMama 

how do you start one?

You can PM me with your request or post to this thread.

Originally Posted by ~Adorkable~ 

 Can you let us know what kind of things you don't see turning into Social Groups?

We don't plan to turn any of our subforums into Groups. DDCs are the only forums we plan to do that for.  

 

Originally Posted by CI Mama 

Question: will things like "working & student parents" & "queer parenting" stay in their current forums, or will that switch to the new social group format?

They will stay as they are. We don't want to open Groups for forums that are already in place. 

Originally Posted by Baby_Cakes 

I think it'll be helpful not to have DDC Social Group posts show up in New Posts.  A lot of times mamas are just looking for support from their close friends in their DDC but get bombarded by outside opinions from mamas who mean well but don't know their stories.  

August '11 DDC would like to form a group.  How do we go about starting it?  

PM me or post to this thread. :)

[~Adorkable~]

so i see that Leaders can not change the name of a group, i was wondering if the name can be changed by a request to a moderator, if the group as a whole feels it needs a more appropriate name? in my FYT we are talking about what to name a new social group and feel pressured to find just the right balance that will make folks feel welcome and be descriptive of what we cover in our chats. Knowing that we could start with what we have and rename it in 6 months if it evolves or we get a better feel for things would take the pressure off and let us move forward.