Maureen, I hope you are not saying it's not a good thing to start a new group?

Nope

Start a new group!!! 

There were 22 started in the time it took me to write this... one guy started the same group 4 or 5 times last night...

Oh boy...I hear the thunder again. Honestly Maureen...I have been leaving groups not as much because of some of the nonsense but I never post in those groups. I'm really not joining any more groups...I know where I put my blogs and there are plenty of groups.

I quit one group this morning... 

I will probably quit a couple of others too because they have been abandoned and take over by spammers.  Blog Tourists is a good example of that.    I don't get that but I had one of my groups taken over by comment spammers so I closed it.

What a novel idea, start your own group if there isn't one that suits you, hmmm.  I think that Neal has a valid point, if you are not posting to a group why not leave it.

Don wrote "I think that Neal has a valid point, if you are not posting to a group why not leave it." If that works for Neal... Or Don great

but if someone else wants to remain a member but isn't posting to a group why should they leave?  They aren't taking up space are they?  Lots of people lurk on the internet.  Lots more people are members in most groups than participate.

Thanks Maureen,

I have read some boring blogs and some I don't understand why it was written.  I Think there are too many groups on AR that have no substance no basic food of thought.  I have not joined too many because I dont think some of those groups benefit anyone other than to get points.  I hope if more folks are going to start groups PLEASE MAKE IT WORTH THE READ!!!!!!!!!!!

I just don't understand how you have time for this stuff??  I have joined groups for various reasons but then forget about them, but for the life of me I just don't understand what difference it makes??  It's all I can do to keep up with what I want to post on my AR blog for my own purposes, and then keep up with my main blog, Topix, Triiibes, etc., etc., etc. 

Have a great day.

I have to disagree Antoinette what may be interesting to me may bore you to death.  I don't have to approve of the groups, if a group doesn't interest me I don't read it, don't become a member. If it's working for the members who am I to say because the topic or writing style of the members doensn't suit me that it should not be a group.

Group moderators aren't necessarily responsible for how boring the content is either.

You don't get points for joining groups, do you?

Don't  worry about how I spend my time  I have no idea what Topix or Tribes is.  

The one thing I really regret doing is spending time moderating AR groups so I may give it up.  It's a thankless job. It is boring reading and re reading trying to figure out why someone would have posted an entry to a group.  I moderate basically three small groups. Two of them although the submissions are small I really have to read and re read  the posts often looking for clues of why the entry is posted to the group.

"I believe Rich suggested he offer to help moderate one of the groups."

:) and how did that work out? I have noticed the biggest complainers do the least amount of work.

It's the "behind the scenes people" that really keep this site going.

Karen I wish I could find that thread... I wanted to know who the belly acher was... I can't find John Occhi's Localism group either.  He may have shut it down. 

I wanted to know if he had stepped up to help out.

Seemed like one of those people who was offering advice but would NOT be around long... because of his attitude.

Maureen - I love reading your blog.  I read it as much for your comments as for the blog content itself.  You seem to always play devil's advocate which borders on trying to antagonize your own readers.  Conflict is always interesting.  Do you do this by design to "stir the pot" and make the blog more interesting or do you just love a good fight?  Or both?  Whatever the reason - it works very well.

Your blog should say "Comment at your own risk".   

-Al

Hi Maureen, thank you for your post.  I have "unsubscribed" from some groups after having a post removed.  It wasn't that I was upset because a post was removed but after going back into the group and reading their terms I couldn't find sufficient reason for having the post removed.  I have remained with a couple groups that removed my post since it didn't comply with the groups terms.. I certainly understood and accepted that.

John wrote "I have "unsubscribed" from some groups after having a post removed.  It wasn't that I was upset because a post was removed but after going back into the group and reading their terms I couldn't find sufficient reason for having the post removed.  I have remained with a couple groups that removed my post since it didn't comply with the groups terms.. I certainly understood and accepted that."

I take the opposite approach one group a bunch of my content was removed but I am still a member.  I had a post with a lot of comments on a topic... and the groups founder / moderator had a post about the same topic that he featured.  His choice.  No conversation at all.  I remain a member of that group because I enjoy seeing the founder / moderator thrash about.  

This is a perfect example of me feeling:

• They boot YOUR fabulous content from the group (read the group guidelines and follow them)
  
• They allow other group members CRAPPY content to remain in the group

Aloysius  my good friend Teri says I am an "instigator."   It is "stirring the pot" but I do not like debate particularly.  I think it makes for more interesting reading than "Great post, thanks for sharing."

I do it on Sunday mornings most weeks to get

started.

Maureen, as others said it all is about time. Limited time we have to devote to many things, worrying about who gets booted or featured in a Group is usually not the most important thing in our day. I have no idea how Founders do more than one Group and work it properly. Maybe they don't sell any real estate.

Moderating a group takes waaaaaaay less time than posting content does for me. Except when a deranged  member started a phone and email hate campaign other than checking the groups a couple of times a day, booting the real spam and reading some boring content in the "My other blog is ... " group, is it is pretty easy and I think groups (mini communities) are important to a big sprawling enterprise like AR.  Not that I am trying to promote groups... 

don't work for you?  that's OK.

I still don't get "groups".

Never started a group - did not realize i was so much work

Groups are just mini communities.  Break AR down.  That way the people who do not always get featured can find one another, get conversations started because of a mutual interest. 

"did not realize i was so much work"  It is not that much work but it is a thankless job.

Hi Maureen,

You love to stir up the pot.  I'd like to know who those Moderators are.  You know how it is here at AR - We've got the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

Maureen- I had a post featured in a group and it was like ummm ok cool I got a star, no ponts, not even any extra comments YAY lol I agree they should change the name and the "rewards" for being "featured" in a group... maybe call it highlighted or something I like the pointless smiley face instead of a pointless star since the star is for featured and many especially newbies and others who have never been featured before associate being featured as getting extra points as well. Don't get me wrong I'm not entirely points hungry (ok my competitive side does make me lean a little that way lol) but I think if they are going to have the same thing mean different things something needs to be changed lol

The AR moderators that give the real stars... the ones that count for points?  Rich J... and the staff at AR, I am sure. 

They had the volunteer moderators that were not staff which were Rich J (pre ActiveRain hire), Laurie Manning, Colleen K....Bob Stewart? One other?  and I think Brian Brady stepped in towards the end and that was kept quiet..

Maureen

Activerain has gotten strage. If you go to Wisonsinthe number one person has no points, no blog, no nothing, and bumped me back.

Go to Florida and ther e are twp powplw has are phathoms awith 0 points, and no nothing.

What do you make of this.

We wrk hard, and get slapped in the face.

Sincerely

Tom Braatz

I think there are way to many groups... so many of them never even get comments or blogs

Tom is #1 in WI still with 0 points?  There was weIRdNess this morning.  If you lookd at top for AR a number of no points, no picture people were on top this AM.  Neal wrote about it... there are also things on our AR points, about long ago members joining.  I guess something showed up in TX similarly a couple of days ago.  Flukes. AR will fix it. 

Chris if you are featured in a group and get no comments (conversation), no traffic (clicks) you can't really pin that on the moderator who was nice enough to try to encourage people to read your offering IMHO.  Some people here don't write well, they are not going to get read and commented on no matter where it is posted.  The only thing that is going to change that is the blogger (AR member ) trying to make improvements to what they are doing to engage readers. Same is going to be true with writing to consumers on Localism although they seldom comment.  There's still a difference in the traffic a good writer is going to get over a mediocre writer.. or the truly BAD writers.

Tom I saw the same thing you're referring too.  How can that happen?  Doesn't make any sense.  Hopefully someone gets that figured out.

Maureen: I think your comment about your own moderating experience is telling. If there is so much inappropriate content posted to a group, it kind of defeats the group's purpose. I wonder what the procedure is for dealing with that. Do you contact the person and ask them why they posted "x" blog to "y" group? I can see where group moderator would be an onerous, thankless, irritating job. I wonder what the solution is.

I think it is a number management thing. Out of a group of whatever, there is probably a statistically predictable number who write interesting, appropriate content and the rest write uninteresting/inappropriate content.

Maybe there should be an intelligence/writing/other tests before someone can become an AR member.

Thomas wrote : "I think there are way to many groups..."

There are 3 more groups since I posted this...  It is survival of the fittest with groups, blogs and posts. If a moderator is not getting posts they may want to shut down a group or do something to get members involved. 

Deborah I don't think just because groups are abused there is a reason to shut down a group... in most cases.  I did shut down the Welcome group because of comment spam, because I could not control what was going on, on the posts and it was blatant.   The moderators can block the spammers and it is pretty easy to see quickly. 

Boringness is harder for me to deal with as a moderator.  

email gets abused by spammers.  We still use it. 

for those concerned about the wEirdNess on ActiveRain this morning...  here's Neal's post about it. Activerain seems to be running backwards

It doesn't make sense to me to join these varying groups.  Aren't we all part of the larger group -- Active Rain? ~Evelyn

Groups was a total mystery to me when I first joined. I had been familiar with forum type networks and moderated huge online forums but had never ever seen one that allowed the members to start a group just willy nilly. There was always a plan to the madness and the moderating staff would except and then approve or deny "groups" or "forums" (to me that is what groups are - mini forums) The moderating staff then would be the moderators not the person that thought of the group. I think combining both elements would help AR - I think there should be an approval process before a new group is formed. I don't think there should be so many.

Maureen, this one is making me laugh!  Sometimes some of the groups might get a little bit funky, and that's why the Active Rain gods invented the "Leave Group" button.  Geez! 

I own and moderate quite a few large groups and have surprisingly few complaints and no problems.  Personally I think that is as close to a miracle as it gets, lol.  The only problems I have had came from the AR boys not reading the group guidelines and quite frankly it was one of the best laughs we have all had in a while.  Yes, they got the boot, lol...

If you are fair and moderate according to the group guidelines there shouldn't be any issues.

I put a large number of moderators from a cross section of the country and the groups of friends here at AR on the larger groups in order to avoid anybody feeling like it was cliquey, because I didn't want that to happen.  Also, moderating groups is the most thankless job at AR, they get nothing in return and nobody had ever once said thank you.  Why would they?  Being featured in a group has little reward.  You may get a few more eyes on your post and possibly a few extra comments, but no points.

When AR begins to take the groups more seriously and places a reward system for features the importance of groups will rise.  So will the problems as the membership charges in for more worthless points.

I personally think it is good that there are no points involved with groups.   Thanks all for the comments.

"why the Active Rain gods invented the "Leave Group" button."  made me laugh Patricia.  I just left a group I was a member of since January 2007.  A spammer is posting all of his stuff there. I don't really get that.  Blog Tourists

Jo  web 2.0 I am not big on Facebook but a lot of social media is following the lead of Facebook, Myspace etc.  starting groups " just willy nilly" it's what keeps things growing...

I am having the best time here and am always amazed at the level of brou ha ha that ensues at times. I am also surprised at the controversy over points and their significance to various members. Oh one other thing, I do not see a problem starting anew group. It will survive or fail on the merits and members so no problem in my book. I do agree with some of your comments but on the whole I really do like this site it provides the widest amount of discourse and we still manage to have time to sell some real estate!

I'm just sayin'...

I'm cracking up here.  I did a post http://activerain.com/blogsview/627780/I-m-confused-over

Don't mind getting removed when my post is out of line.  I've posted my travel posts in the wrong groups and I can see them removing them.

When the conversation of my posts goes along with other posts --- it makes no sense.

The only think I succees in doing was ticking off some people who don't comment on my posts any more.

Oh well....... life's short and then you die

One thing to consider when you a post you wrote are booted from a group...I have at least once that I know of  hit the trash can when I meant to hit the star...they are so close.... yes I know it gives me a chance to NOT boot the post but I still for some reason made the wrong choice and booted the post and then chased over to the persons blog (I think it was Christine Bohn) and said please repost it, I booted it by accident.   There was nothing I could do from my end. 

This was before the letter about you've been booted, contact the moderator if you have any questions.

Maureen...

As a group moderator, I find the group is most valuable for regular members who want to find each other's post easily. There is no real points benefit, other than an increased number of comments on your posts.

I try very hard to comment on every post to the group, and I change features almost daily. It's hard work, but I always welcome new group members and appreciate their posts.

I think AR needs to incorporate a "time out" button for those who get a little caught up in Cyber community world.  

Maureen - You're like the female version of me (assuming my good traits and subtracting my bad), but you don't hold back.  Mad props to you there.  The whiny crap that oozes from the keyboards will never stop.  It just won't.  AR guys and gals seem to be as fair as the human condition can allow.  Shoot, I haven't even bedded Mr. Jacobson and he still likes some of the crap that comes from my brain through these fingers.

Different groups for different folks... Now for the   That is up to the group moderator of course. The only  that counts for points are those awarded by Active Rain gurus.

Is it all about points.... Not really unless you have a friendly competiotion with another local... LOL.

Hope you are having a great weekend.

Maureen, Now I am paranoid to post anything anywhere. I can accept being wrong, I can accept being occasionall inappropriate--but, I don't want to be thought o as "boring". "Oh, heck, another post from Suzi, yaaawn." 

Your controversial title caught my eye. So, I read on.  The same thing with 'groups'. If an catching title or appropriately named group gets my interest, I join.  On the whole, I still haven't figured how the 'groups' work or how the posts within the group are moderated. I appreciate the folks who take the time and efforts to create a group, and/or moderate them, especially those that are educational.  There are many of those.  Since AR has so many members, it's no wonder we get so many different groups.  Each of us can evaluate each group before joining, participating, submitting a post etc., and also leave the group, if so desire, or create a new group.  In my opinion, AR, in this sense, is a great portal for different perspectives. 

I didn't know that I could give members points.  I knew I could star certain posts.  Do you know how I give them points?  I do try  my best to moderate my group fairly.  It gets frustrating to have to keep deleting posts that don't posts from the same member that doesn't follow the rules.

very interesting. I'll keep an eye open for that

Thanks for the post

Travis Newton

Today's Mortgage Group

Anna I like the idea of a time out button.

Roland I think points are ingenious but they corrupt.

Jean not sure what is a poor reflection of our industry but thanks for stopping by...

Suzi you aren't boring... I find a lot of what is posted to "My other blog is... " group very, very boring and it is often hard for me to tell WHY? did they post it there?

DeAnna you can't give points as a moderator... Teri Lussier has a great little post somewhere here about the blog post's  writer having a little pot of discretionary points to bestow on the best comments...that way folks who post comments like  "great post thanks for sharing " or "very interesting. I'll keep an eye open for that.  Thanks for the post"  etc.  might learn to read posts, comment on the post.. carry on the conversation.

Thanks all for the comments.

This must be very diffiult to moderate a group.  I had a post booted, and I really was not understanding exactly why.  sometimes, it is just a matter of interpretation.  I personally wished the moderator had given me a bit more information as I was confused.  At any rate, I try my best to post to groups where it makes the most sense.

Joan it is not difficult to moderate a group, I don't think.  I actually booted more posts before the new letter.  The letter makes me nervous. 

The first person who ever booted me since the letter was myself.  I saw I posted something to the Real Living group and I should not have so I booted it, rather than going in and editing the groups it was posted to then I saw the email saying I had been booted and I thought ... the nerve!!!!  and then realized it was me.

Man, I don't get groups either (as I saw commented above).  I guess they would be a good thing if a person is looking for something particular to read, but can't you just do a search for that?  As far as whinning and moaning about things...folks, this forum is made up of PEOPLE...and in case you didn't realize, there is NO forum on the web that people don't get in fights and complain on.  I guess thats why I just stick to my own little world here.  Trust me though, AR ain't nothing like some forums out there, whew!

Someone should start a group for those just after the points. Then you won't have to waste time reading their articles.

How can one wade through all the groups?  I don't have time to even look at the names of all of them.  I'd hate to be a moderator, I can say that for sure!

If you don't get groups YOU don't have to use them... just like anything else.  For some of us groups are mini communities. 

If you want to use search to find what you want to read knock yourself out.  Personally I think AR's search is pretty weak and I am pretty good at using search.  It is still Google search isn't it?  So it is not going to show you members only posts.  I find going outside of AR and using Google is easier to find things on AR except the members only posts...

I use subscriptions, associates and groups to keep up with reading on AR.

Mark or Wendy those hard core just here for points folks probaly don't have much use for groups but your comment made me laugh.

Barbara I have no clue why anyone would wade through all the groups.

Antoinnette, You do not get points to post in a group. Groups are to talk amongst one another. So I've been told by AR.

Maureen,

I too have posted inappropriately and have removed myself from my own groups as well from those posts,,,I guess that makes us good moderators. 

My cookbook group is a great site with lot's of enthusiasm...The AR Cookbook....enter your favorite recipes here for all to enjoy.

"Post something and move on, right?"

Cant be any worse than the drivel many write that gets featured.

Maureen,

A gal has to do what she "has to do!"  Just do your thing and don't worry.

I have had posts dropped from a group...  I can move on.  There was one time I actually left a group, but it was because they kicked any post that mentioned anyone that might compete with them (they were a vendor).

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - is it not?  What constitutes boring for some readers may actually be of interest to others. I imagine it is difficult to moderate without judgment - isn't that right?

I can't believe you are getting threatening emails and phone calls!  What is the deal with that?  People should be thanking you for taking the time to care!

don't pay much attention to the groups. maybe I should. but I did pay attention to this, and agreed with allof it. we're all bozos on the same bus here, and I don't see any good reason to harp about someone willing to volunteer their time for the rest of us. Know I wouldn't like it if it were me.

thanks for this one, Maureen.

Thanks all for the comments.... well except for...

Not into groups?  That's fine... but if you are here are 7 new groups  so far today.  I have no idea who the moderators are...

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