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acebrock
06-29-2009, 05:44 AM
Just because things like the 1000+ club would work best for this sort of thing

Though some have already found this, I think an explanation would work well for those unfamiliar with vBulletin software

To find the social groups area you go through the community menu at the top of the page and click social groups. From here you have several things showing up:

Categories: Varous categories of social groups, useful for narrowing down the grroups to a specific type. At this time it seems that users cannot add more categories

Random group: displays a random group

Groups you created: (only if you have created any) from here you can see the number of actions taken in various categories, including posts and picture uploads, as well as moderation

Your groups: Groups you have joined (click on the group to review the group's activity)

Create new group: create a new group (explained in detail below)

Advanced search: Particularly helpful if there are a lot of groups and you're searching for one in particular, and very straightforward

Group subscriptions: Manage any group discussions you have subscribed to
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Joining a group: To join a public or moderated group you simply click on the group page and click join group in the upper right hand corner of the group page If a group is Invite only, then you can send a request to join the group, or wait until you're invited

Creating a Group: After you click the create group link near the bottom of the page, you select a category from the list, enter the name of said group, give it a description, and then set it to one of the filllowing three options:

public-anyone can join and leave at will and there are no limits on posting
moderated-anyone can join and leave, but posts must be approved by the group creator, a moderator, or an administrator. Best for small, highly specialized groups with a highly active creator, or groups with a large potential for abusive or off-topic messages
invite only-people either have to submit a request to join and have it approved, or recieve an invite to join, but they are free to post what they want

enable messages: Essentially, this is the option to allow discussions in your groups. disable it if you want a picture focused group

enable albums: This allows people to upload images to the group. There may be groups that are soley focused on discussion, where images may be considered detracting, but most groups will have this on.

After you're done with this, you have the option to upload an image for your group, and this has its advantages, such as showing up in new groups and random groups, which increases exposure.
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When you're looking at the page for a group you're a part of, there are several things to see:

Members: shows a partial list of members (if the group has grown large enough to overflow the bar, in which cas you can click view all members to see all the members)

Group pictures: Pics that people in the group have uploaded to the group board. If it overflows there is a link to see all pics. Beside that link there is a link to upload your own images. Said Images must first be uploaded to your album, which is pretty straightforward.

Social Group Discussion: Discussions within the social group, the group tools on the right side allows you to subscribe to the group or mark all posts read. At the bottom of the discussion page there is a link to start new discussions, which works like the start new thread button on the main forum

Leave Group: If you'd like to call it quits, then click this.
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If you're the group creator, then you have moderator powers over the group. The options are:

Delete Discussion: delete the discussion

Approve discussion: Allows a discussion in a moderated group to be posted

Disapprove discussion: prevents the discussion from going up

Along the botton bar there are several options for group leaders, that I missed in my first pass.

Edit group: Modify group options, such as the image, description, group type, title, etc.

Pending and invited members: Invite mebers, and approve or disapprove members who ahve requested to join

Manage members: kick people out, useful for abusive people and liars

Transfer group: transfer the leadership of the group to someone else, which is important if you are no longer able and/or willing to manage the group

Thus far I have not found a way to moderate images

Oldschool
06-30-2009, 11:41 PM
Nice post and excellent idea applying it to Srythian endeavors like the 1000+ point club - rep boosted.

There are a few groups already formed folks - to check them out and join go to community then social groups (along the top bar).

acebrock
07-04-2009, 08:06 PM
I'vee added more info on managing members, changing group details, and changing the leadership

Oldschool
05-31-2010, 02:47 AM
Noticed this with the last two created social groups - ZM's Fang Ridge Cleavers and TG's 2k+ mp club. And I actually tried to tinker around with ZM's - to no avail.

Trying to link a photo doesn't work now. Either file too large (which was seen before) or more likely upload failed due to writing temporary file or something similar comes up - which I hadn't seen previously.

I even tried different browsers and free pic sites. The problem at least with the temp file issue seems to be possibly related directly to the url which will have a http..... followed by a colon then another http...... . Again I'm in the deep end of the pool so to speak.

Which kinda makes me think it's not a forum issue.And the only thing I can think of is that's it something "put in place"? due to hotlinking issues which can cause server strain if I'm not mistaken. Or it could have something to do with proprietary issues as well.

Just wondering can anyone shed some light? And thanks in advance.

texlaw1992
05-31-2010, 02:59 AM
A group of one (Lightwielder)? Did at least one other person break 2000?

Edit: Should have read the next Board first. Congrats TG!

Dariel
05-31-2010, 03:01 AM
TG broke it too


EDIT: You're too fast for meh, bro.

thingirl
05-31-2010, 03:03 AM
Yeah, 2100+ for Alanne. :D

EDIT: Dang. Ninjas type fast. :)

Scarbrow
06-01-2010, 10:01 PM
Noticed this with the last two created social groups - ZM's Fang Ridge Cleavers and TG's 2k+ mp club. And I actually tried to tinker around with ZM's - to no avail.

Trying to link a photo doesn't work now. Either file too large (which was seen before) or more likely upload failed due to writing temporary file or something similar comes up - which I hadn't seen previously.

I'm quite afraid it might be a server issue. The forum's server. Which only Havoc has access to. While I'm not sure what is the issue exactly, I've been able to reproduce it. And it doesn't look good, since it happens the group images are inserted into the forum's database, and I can't see the database directly.

For the moment, if you run across this problem, you won't be able to add that image to the forum. I'll keep trying to reach Havoc.

Oldschool
06-01-2010, 11:48 PM
Thanks Scarbrow as I was wondering if it was operator error aka me. LOL.

What about other images like our avatars/profile pics? I'm a bit leery to tinker with mine to check now.

Scarbrow2
06-02-2010, 12:45 AM
Seems you can upload personal avatars from your computer but not directly from remote sites (gives error "Upload failed due to failure writing temporary file."). So download to your computer, and upload to the forum.

Scarbrow
06-02-2010, 12:48 AM
Group images, however, keep behaving erratically. The avatar from my test user, on previous post, was uploaded just before posting

Lightwielder
06-02-2010, 01:50 AM
Perhaps, if you manage to get ahold of Havoc, Scarbrow, you should suggest to him making you an Admin with Havoc's powers, since he has made himself scarce lately.

I'm not sure how that's to be done, if he's able to give you equal powers, or if there can be only one, and he'd have to resign. If it is possible for you to have those powers ALSO, it doesn't seem to be a bad idea.

Again, thanks for all of your excellent work, Scarbrow.

Oldschool
06-02-2010, 01:55 AM
So linking images from other sites via urls is pretty much out except for during posts.

Thanks for tracking that down and the heads up.