easthampshire.org

Groups can be a wide variety of things – from bands to parish councils, dance classes to local tourist attractions.

Find a group

To find and join one you may be interested in, go to the groups homepage. You will see an actions box where you can:

You can also find a group by clicking on a tag that looks interesting in the ‘Group tags’ box (perhaps your town or village, or the type of group you’re looking for).

Join a group

You must be registered and logged in to join an online group.

Please bear in mind you are only joining the online version of the group on easthampshire.org, to the real group in the real world.

To become part of the real group, attend meetings and pay membership fees etc you must contact a group administrator and discuss how this is done.

Joining the online group does not commit you to anything other than registering an interest in the group, and similarly the group itself is not bound to accept you into its membership in the real world.

1. Find a group you’re interested in

2. Click on ‘Join group’ at the bottom of the ‘Members’ box on the top right (you can also find it at the bottom of the box which contains the description of the group on the top left hand side).

Some groups may have been created as invite only groups, or may only allow request membership which must then be approved by a group administrator.

Leave a group

If you wish to leave, you can by going to the group homepage and clicking on ‘Leave group’ at the bottom of the members box or at the bottom of the top left hand box (the same places the ‘Join online group’ links were before you joined).

Add a message to a group page

You have to be registered and logged in, and have joined a group, to leave a message on the group page.

1. Go to the group’s page

2. Type your message in the ‘What’s new in (..name of group…)?’ box on the bottom left

Add your group

You must be registered and logged in to add your group. You will then find the ‘Add your group’ link in the ‘Actions’ box on the top right of the groups homepage.
The form will ask you to fill in various fields:

• group name
• description
• tags

Tags should include the name of the towns and villages the groups is relevant to, and the type of group (eg ‘theatre’, or ‘gardening’ etc etc). All tags should be lowercase letters of the alphabet only, and use underscores instead of spaces. Use commas to separate the tags.

Once you have added your group you should go to the group homepage and invite friends to join the group, and upload an avatar (see below).

Becoming an administrator for a group

If you create a group, you are automatically an administrator for the group. That means you can do things like change the details and settings.

If you didn’t create the group yourself, to become an administrator you need to:

1. Join the group online

2. Either get an administrator to promote you to moderator or administrator, or contact us and tell us why you should be an administrator

Administrators and moderators

Administrators have access to all admin functions – description, settings and members, and the ability to delete the group.

Moderators only have access to the description and tags.

Edit group details (description and tags)

1. Go to your group’s page

2. Click on ‘Admin’ at the bottom of the top left hand box (below description and pictures)

3. To change or add your group’s name – type in the ‘Group name’ box

4. To change or add your group’s description – type in the ‘Group description’ box. Remember to include how people can contact you to join your group in the real world, and what that involves.

5. Add tags into the ‘Group tags’ box. You should include the towns and villages your group is relevant for, and some key words (for example, ‘gardening’ and ‘plants’ for a gardening club).
Tags should be all lowercase letters, without any special characters (brackets, question marks, full stops etc), and be separated by commas.
If you have any phrases, use underscore instead of spaces – for example, four_marks

6. Decide whether to notify members of the group of the changes by email or not, and click the relevant tick box

7. Click save changes

Edit privacy settings

You can decide whether your group is public, private or hidden.

Public groups

• Any site member can join your group
• Your group will be listed in the groups directory and in search results
• Group content and activity will be visible to any site member

Private groups

• Only users who request membership and are accepted can join your group
• Your group will be listed in the groups directory and in search results
• Group content and activity will only be visible to members of the group

Hidden groups

• Only users who are invited can join your group
• Your group will not be listed in the groups directory or search results
• Group content and activity will only be visible to members of the group

Change or delete your group profile picture (avatar)

You can upload a new avatar and/or delete the old one.

1. Go to your group and click on ‘Admin’ at the bottom of the top left hand box

2. Select the ‘Avatar’ tab in the Group Admin box

3. Click ‘Choose file’ to select a picture from your computer

4. When you have found one you like, click ‘Upload image’

5. You can crop your selected image by expanding and contracting the square by clicking and dragging one of the small squares at the corner of the selected area. All the grayed out area of the image will not be in your avatar. You can move the square around by moving the cursor over the image until you see a white cross with arrows on each point and then clicking and dragging.

6. Once you are happy with your selection click ‘Crop image’. You should get a ‘Avatar successfully uploaded’ message in red in the top box.

If you want to delete the current avatar but don’t have a picture to replace it, click on ‘Delete My Avatar’ and it will revert to the default image of the easthampshire.org logo.

Members

Administrators can manage members, either promoting them to administrators or moderators, or kicking and banning them from the group.

1. Go to your group and click on ‘Admin’ at the bottom of the top left hand box

2. Select the ‘Members’ tab in the Group Admin box

3. Find the person you want in your list of members, and select:

• Kick & Ban (removes them from the group)
• Promote to Mod (promotes them to moderator, which means they can edit group description and tags)
• Promote to Admin (gives full administrator rights, including the ability to delete the group)

Delete

Use this button to delete the group. All information associated with the group will be lost.

1. Go to your group and click on ‘Admin’ at the bottom of the top left hand box

2. Select the ‘Delete’ tab in the Group Admin box. You will see a message that says: WARNING: Deleting this group will completely remove ALL content associated with it. There is no way back, please be careful with this option.

Add an event for your group

To add an event for your group:

1. Go to your group’s page on easthampshire.org

2. Click ‘Add an event for this group’

3. Fill out the fields in the form (includes title, description, time, date, cost, address etc)

4. If you are logged in it will automatically fill in your contact details in case we have any queries about the event. If you are not logged in it will ask for some contact details. The details you give us won’t be used on the site, unless you have included them in the description or specifically asked for them to be used

5. Click on the submit button at the bottom of the form

If there are any errors, it will highlight them on the form and ask you to resubmit the form.

Once successfully submitted, our web team will review the event and add it to the site as quickly as possible.

Add a news story for your group

To add an event for your group:

1. Go to your group’s page on easthampshire.org

2. Click ‘Add a news story about this group’

3. Fill out the fields in the form (includes title, description, picture etc). Please tell us as much as you can about your story, including a quote from a key contact if possible.

4. If you are logged in it will automatically fill in your contact details in case we have any queries about the event. If you are not logged in it will ask for some contact details. The details you give us won’t be used on the site, unless you have included them in the description or specifically asked for them to be used

5. Click on the submit button at the bottom of the form

If there are any errors, it will highlight them on the form and ask you to resubmit.

Once successfully submitted, our web team will review the news story and add it to the site as quickly as possible.  All news stories are either written or edited by our journalists to ensure a consistent quality of writing and style.

Invite your friends to join the group

To invite your friends to join your group:

1. Go to your group’s page on easthampshire.org

2. Click on ‘Send Invites’ at the bottom of the top left hand box (below description and pictures)

3. Select the friends you wish to invite from your list of friends by clicking in the tick boxes on the left

4. Click on the ‘Send Invites’ button