Hey hey, Group Admins!
As you’ve already heard from our friend elfling, we’ve given groups a bit of a makeover. We worked with a small but mighty group of beta testers to iron out some of the wrinkles, and now we’re ready to show it off to you. Without further ado, hop on the tour bus and fasten your seatbelts, let’s take a tour. This Groups redo is part of a larger effort to transform the tags, groups, and user pages into something a bit more shiny and modern. We’ve got such a powerful tool with Groups, we’re hoping this change will help more users discover how cool it is to find a community on Daily Kos.
I’ve broken this guide up into sections, so feel free to skip over any parts that aren’t relevant to your workflow. Please give us your brutally honest feedback and any questions you might have in the comments!
What hasn’t changed?
Several things will (for now...) remain exactly where you expect them to be.
- Your group queue url
- Your group blog view url
- How you publish an original story to your group
- How you reblog a story to your group
- How you start a new group
- Your group Kosmail url and how your Kosmail looks/works
How Do I See These New Groups, Tech People?
Pre-changeover, there are three primary links used by group admins to manage their groups:
Queue URL:
dailykos.com/group/{groupname}
Blog view URL:
dailykos.com/blog/{groupname}
Management page:
dailykos.com/user/{groupname}
The only link that’s changing is the last one, the admin page URL, which is changing /user/ to /groups/.
For example, the elections group here on Daily Kos will still have a blog view just like before at dailykos.com/blog/elections, but the group management page will be dailykos.com/groups/elections instead of dailykos/user/elections. Your bookmarks still work for old group management pages, you’ll just be redirected to the new one when using the old URL.
The Queue Button
I know this is the biggest feature everyone is interested in. You can access your group queue button in a few ways, two of which you’re already used to.
1. The queue button is still at the top of the blog view page for your group.
2. Your queue itself is still at the same url.
3. There’s a new Manage Queue button in the Group Actions on your new group show page.
Groups Pages Overview
New groups pages fall into two types, Group Show, which is the public view, and Group Edit, which is the Group Show page, with administration tools displayed.
Group Show Overview
Matching up with the numbers, here are the features on the new group show page:
1. Basic group information. This includes the group name, the type of group (community or staff), and the list of admins.
2. Group actions. The screenshot above shows a group admin view, so there are several buttons showing. These buttons allow users to follow/unfollow the group or read blog (visit the blog view page, which is unchanged.) All Group members also see the Manage Queue button. When contributors click it, they're directed to seeing only the posts they have put in the queue. When editors and admins click it, they are directed to seeing the full group queue. (The queue view is also unchanged.) Group admins and editors can both see the Messages button; on click users are directed to the group’s Kosmail inbox (this is also unchanged.) Group admins can see the Manage Group button, which opens up the Group Edit view.
3. In between the group actions and group roster is the group founding date. (unnumbered.)
4. Group roster. This is a list of all the group members and their group roles. This list will be ordered alphabetically within group roles, so an alphabetical list of admins, followed by an alphabetical list of editors, etc. This order change is in the development pipeline at time of this writing.
5. Content. The content in the center column can be sorted with the content filter tools under the header.
6. Followers widget. This is a count and list of the group’s followers.
7. Members widget. This is a count and list of group members, which includes admins, editors, and contributors.
Group Edit Overview
Group edit view is accessed when a group admin clicks the “Manage Group” button in the Group Actions section. Group edit will display two additional tools, the group profile editor and the manage members tool, in the left sidebar of the group page.
1. Header image tool. This is where group admins can upload a new group header image. When an image is present here, there will also be a button named “remove image” you’ll meet later.
2. Content Filter. This is how you can sort what appears in the center column. On desktop, this works with tabs, while, on mobile, this transforms into a dropdown. We’ll take a look at mobile view a bit further down. Current group content filters exist for original stories, reblogged stories, all stories, group followers, and group members.
3. Group profile editor. This tool allows you to change your group’s display name (this will not change your group’s slug, which is the text that appears in the urls for your group.) and your group description as a group admin.
4. Manage members. This replaces the Group Roster when edit view is showing. From here, group editors can invite new members, search existing members, change member roles, and manage sent invitations.
Mobile View
Mobile view has a few distinctions compared to desktop view. We’ve compressed most of the left sidebar from desktop view to a single responsive widget, and the content filter is accessed by dropdown instead of tabs. Taking a closer look…
1. Group header. If no header image exists, on all views this area will be color coded orange for staff groups and blue for community groups. This theme is carried throughout the new design, including the new front page.
2. Content filter. Like the tabs on desktop, this is a drop-down that lets you sort which content will be displayed in the main column.
3. Group people. This is the admin list and the group roster.
4. Group name
5. Group actions. These work the same as in desktop view.
6. Group description. For long group descriptions, the blue arrow will expand the group description if it doesn’t fit in the original container.
7. Content
Administrative Features
Invite Users
Inviting a user to join a group is a similar process to the current one. One key difference is that we’re no longer using Kosmail to send invitations. Instead, group invites will be sent to a user’s email address.
To start, click the “Invite Users” link (1) in the right sidebar while in Edit view.
This will open the invite member search modal(2), which requires an exact username to find users.
When the desired invitee is found, click "find user" (3). Then a new modal will appear where a personal message can be added to the invite message boilerplate.
When this invite is sent, the invited user will receive an email that looks like this:
Clicking “Join the Group” (1) will bring the user to the site. If logged in, the user will see a success modal right away (shown below). If logged out, the success modal will show when the user next logs in, and they will be added to the group as a contributor.
Clicking “Okay” (1) will clear the modal, but isn’t necessary to complete the process of joining a group.
Canceling or Resending Invites
Canceling and resending invites is handled by clicking “edit” on an invited user who has not yet responded to the email invitation.
1. Cancel invite will trigger a modal asking for confirmation before disabling the user’s invitation. If the user clicks the accept invitation link in the invite email after the invitation is cancelled, they will be sent to a 404 page.
2. Resend invite will send a second invitation email to a user.. A modal similar to the original message modal will appear, and group admins can add a message to the standard boilerplate text.
Managing Member Roles
If a group admin needs to change the role of a group member, this is done in the same manage member widget as cancel/resend invite. Once a member has accepted an invitation, this pop up will display a list of available member roles and an option to remove a member from the group.
Changing a member’s role or removing them from the group will trigger a modal asking for confirmation before the user’s role is changed.
Change Group Header Image
In the upper right corner of the group header, there will be one or two buttons, depending on if a header image is present. If no header image is present, you’ll see “upload image.” If there is a previously uploaded header, you’ll see two buttons. “Upload image” which will replace the existing image, and “Remove image” which will return you to the solid color header with one button.
Click Upload Image (1) to change, and Remove (2) to remove.
Whew! You made it all the way to the end. We welcome your feedback in the comments, and we hope you like the shiny new groups!
