Hashtags

A hashtag is a word or phrase containing no spaces prefixed with the hash character, #, not suffixed to another word or phrase.

Applying hashtags to messages

You “tag” a message with a hashtag by including it somewhere in the subject line of the message. For example:

• My name is Mark #intro
• Seeking #advice for a #rosebush with blackened leaves

Hashtags already in use in the group can be applied to a message by selecting from the “Add Tags” dropdown menu that appears below the subject line. Or, they can simply be typed into the subject line. Typing a hashtag into a subject line will create a new hashtag for the group if it did not exist before. A new hashtag can also be created by clicking on “Create Hashtag” at the bottom of the hashtag list.

A hashtag has an effect only if placed on the first message in a topic, and will be applied to all messages within the topic. (Note that although it is possible to add a hashtag to the subject of an emailed reply by editing the subject, this has no effect; the hashtag will be included in the subject line for members receiving messages via email, but will not be included in the subject line of the archived message or of any other messages within the topic.)

Display of hashtags in the group archive

To make hashtags stand out better in the archive, any hashtags placed at the beginning or middle (rather than at the end) of a message’s subject will be duplicated at the end of the subject, using whatever background color was chosen for the hashtag. Thus, the subject of the message in the second example above would be displayed in the archive as

• Seeking #advice for a #rosebush with blackened leaves #advice #rosebush

Uses of hashtags

Hashtags have several uses within groups.io, including searching and controlling certain behaviors of topics and messages.

Searching: Hashtags can be searched on to easily find all messages tagged with it. If a group uses a hashtag called #intro for new member introductions, for example, then clicking on it in the hashtag list will produce all messages in which new group members have introduced themselves.

Muting: Group members who read their messages via email can click on “Mute” for any hashtag at the bottom of the email to stop receiving messages tagged with that hashtag. (Note: hashtags set to “Special” cannot be muted. See below.)

Automatic time-out: If a hashtag’s Topic Duration is set, topics tagged with it will be deleted (or, if specified, locked) after that period of time. This can be a useful feature when a topic will be obsolete after a certain amount of time, for example messages about items for sale.

Special notices: If a hashtag is set to Special, all messages tagged with it, including the original message in the topic and all replies, will be sent as Special Notices. Note: hashtags set to Special cannot be muted. Also, only moderators and owners can send Special Notices. If a normal subscriber replies, their message will be sent as a normal message.

No Email: If a hashtag is set to No Email, all messages tagged with it will be posted to the web but not sent out as emails.

Moderated: If a hashtag is set to Moderated, messages sent to topics tagged with it will require approval by a moderator.

Replies Unmoderated: If a hashtag is set to Replies Unmoderated, messages in reply to topics tagged with it will be unmoderated, even if members who reply are moderated or the group itself is moderated.

Locked: If a hashtag is set to Locked, topics tagged with it will be locked upon creation.

Reply to sender: If a hashtag is set to Reply to Sender, all responses will go privately to the sender and not to the group. Note: this setting overrides the group setting "Remove Other Reply Options" in a group set to Reply to Sender.

Controlling use and creation of hashtags

Use by moderators only: A hashtag set to Use by Mods Only can be applied to messages only by moderators. This can be useful for sending administrative notices, for example. Such hashtags will appear in the Add Tags dropdown only if a moderator is creating the message.

A hashtag set to Use by Mods Only can be further set to Replies by Mods Only so that only moderators may reply to the message.

Requiring hashtags: In a group set to Hashtags Required, all messages sent to a group must be tagged with at least one hashtag.

Creating hashtags: In a group set to Only Moderators Can Create Hashtags, only moderators will be able to create new hashtags.

Bounce Handling

Bounces and Types of Bounces

When a group email sent to an account cannot be delivered, it is called a bounce.

If the bounce was caused by a problem that is expected to resolve automatically after some period of time, such as a temporarily unavailable email server, it is called a soft bounce. If it was caused by something that would require human intervention to fix, such as an invalid email address or a full inbox, it is called a hard bounce. Sometimes it is difficult for us to determine whether a bounce is soft or hard. In that case, we treat it as a soft bounce.

Overview of Bounce Handling

The first step after we get a bounce is to try to determine, by a combination of the type of bounce and the frequency of the bouncing, whether or not the account is bouncing frequently and seriously enough to require action. If so, our second step is to set the account’s status to Bouncing, stop sending group emails to it, and begin trying to reach the account holder via emails notifying them that the account is Bouncing. If there is a response to one of the notifications, the account is taken out of bounce handling and goes back to normal. But if there is no response within a certain period of time, our final step is to set the account’s status to Bounced and stop sending emails of any kind to it.

When an account is Bouncing or Bounced, we log entries in the activity logs of all its groups that email to the account is bouncing, to inform group moderators. We also display a blue “B” (for a Bouncing account) or red “B” (for a Bounced account) next to the account’s email address in the members list of all its groups, and we include the account in the “Bouncing” member lists of its groups. (It continues to appear in the regular member lists as well.) Users themselves are notified that they are Bouncing or Bounced, and are given a chance to unbounce their account, via a banner that we display at the top of the groups.io site whenever they are logged on.

Detailed Description of Bounce Handling

When we get a bounce, we first try to determine whether it is a hard or soft bounce. If we can’t determine which it is, we treat it as a soft bounce. The account then goes through one or more of the following steps:

Step 1: There has been one bounce: determine if the bouncing is serious and ongoing

The goal in this step is to determine whether the bouncing is ongoing or serious enough for us to take action. If one of the two following two criteria hold, we conclude that it is:

(1) the bounce was a hard bounce

or

(2) following the first bounce,

(a) we see either a hard bounce or a total of 4 days of soft bounces (including the day of the first bounce) for at least one group the account is subscribed to;

and also

(b) bouncing has not stopped, as determined by there being at least one bounce in every span of 4 consecutive days. (If there is a span of 4 consecutive days with no bouncing, we conclude that the bouncing has been resolved and we take the account out of bounce handling – until the next possible bounce, in which case the process starts over again.)

If either (1) or (2) hold, we conclude that the account is experiencing serious or ongoing bouncing and continue to Step 2.

Notes:

• We don’t conclude that bouncing has stopped after seeing one seemingly successful email delivery to the account, because emails may bounce belatedly; instead, to be on the safe side, we draw this conclusion only if there are 4 consecutive days with no bounces.
• Failing a hard bounce at the beginning, it is possible (although unlikely) for an account to stay in Step 1 for a long period of time. This could happen if the account continues to have consecutive spans of 3 days or less of soft bounces, interspersed with 1-3-day spans of no bounces, with the result that it takes a long time to show either the 4 consecutive days of zero bounces that would rule out ongoing bouncing and move the account out of bounce handling, or the 4 total days of bounces that would establish ongoing bouncing and move it into Step 2. This could be caused, for example, by an email server having ongoing but sporadic problems. But this situation would not affect the account vis-à-vis its groups in any way, since we don’t log or mark the account as bouncing and we continue to send group emails to it (even though they are sporadically bouncing).

Step 2: Log the bouncing and attempt to send bounce notifications to the account holder

We have determined that the bouncing is serious and ongoing enough to take action. We now

• Internally set the account’s status to Bouncing;
• stop sending group emails to it;
• start sending bounce-notification emails (also called “bounce probes”) to the account every three days for a maximum of 15 days. The bounce probes inform the account holder that their account is bouncing and contain a link allowing them to “unbounce” their account by affirmatively showing that they received the email;
  • Bounce Probe Example
• display a banner whenever the account holder is logged onto the site, containing the information that their account is bouncing and a link to click on to unbounce the account;
• display a blue uppercase “B” next to the account’s email address in all of its groups;
• display the account in the Bouncing Members list in all of its groups (it stays in the regular Members list as well); and
• log the account as bouncing in the activity logs of all of its groups.

If we get a response to a bounce probe within 15 days, the account’s Bouncing status is removed, the account is taken out of bounce handling and the account goes back to normal. If there is no response within 15 days, we go to Step 3.

During this time, group moderators, who can now see that the account is bouncing, may send extra bounce probes to the account if they wish, by clicking on the Send Bounce Probe action from the member’s page.

Step 3: Give up trying to reach the account holder

There has been no response to 15 days’ worth of bounce probes every 3 days. At this stage we

• internally set the account status to Bounced;
• continue to display a banner whenever the account holder is logged onto the site, containing the information that their account is bouncing and a link to click to unbounce the account;
• stop sending bounce probes to it; and
• change the blue “B” to a red “B” next to the account’s email address in all of its groups.

The account now sits in virtual limbo in its groups. Group moderators may elect to issue further bounce probes to it by clicking on “Send Bounce Probe” from the member’s page, or they may try to reach the account holder through a different email address if one is available. Or they may decide to simply remove the account from their groups.

Note that bouncing activity information is accessible to individual users as well as group moderators. Any user can view their own bounce history by going into the Subscription page of their groups and clicking on Email Delivery History, or by going into their Account page and clicking on Recent Bounces.

Dealing with a subscriber whose email is bouncing

The above description explains what 'bouncing' is.  However, what can owner/mods do to help the subscriber deal with the situation?

First, realize that groups.io can't fix it*.  The subscriber's email service provider is blocking delivery of emails from groups.io to the subscriber.  Until that block is removed by the service provider, no messages will get through to the subscriber, including bounce probes.

To resolve bounces:

1. Go to subscriber's page (Admin->Members) and view the email delivery history bounce error messages ("Recent Bounces").
   1. Please also note that 400-level errors usually indicate a temporary condition, such that the message in question could subsequently be delivered.
   2. 500-level errors are considered permanent.
   3. There are several good resources on the web to help you sort out SMTP error codes -- here and here.
2. Communicate those errors to tech support at the subscriber's email service provider AS THEY ARE THE ONES DOING THE BLOCKING.
   1. Generally the subscriber will have to do this.
3. Wait til tech support at the subscriber's email service provider says they have fixed their problem or whatever they are doing to block the email from groups.io.
4. Now send a bounce probe to see if the problem is really fixed.  
5. If the bounce probe email is delivered and the subscriber responds to the probe (clicks on the link in the email), groups.io will resume sending email to the subscriber.
   

*Note - Sometimes an email provider will have groups.io listed on a "spam black list".  Mark at groups.io may have to get in touch with the black list host and/or the email provider to straighten out the problem.  

Unfortunately, there are many dimensions and aspects of this problem and there is no "magic wand" to vanquish the beast when it raises its ugly head. 

Integrations

Integrations allow you to connect your Groups.io group with an outside service. There are two types of integrations, Group Integrations and Member Integrations.

Group Integrations

Group integrations allow outside content to be automatically sent to your Groups.io group. Group integrations are configured by the moderators and are not controlled by the group members. Group integrations can be moderated, which means that any integration messages must be approved before they are sent to the group.

One example of a group integration is the Feed integration. The feed integration allows you to post items from RSS feeds to your group. Is there a blog associated with your group? Use the Feed integration to automatically have new blog posts be sent to your group.

Groups.io supports several different group integrations and we're always looking to add more.

Member Integrations

Member integrations allow your members to export content automatically from the group. One example of this is the Google Drive integration. With it, your members can have attachments that are sent to the group be automatically saved to their Google Drive account. There are options to specify the type(s) of attachments to save, and whether the messages should be tagged with a specific hashtag.

Member integrations are accessed in the Subscription area of the Group.

Member Notices

Groups have the option of creating customized, pre-written messages, called Member Notices, that can be sent to group members at various times. Member Notices make it convenient for moderators to send commonly used messages to members under various circumstances without having to rewrite the text each time. In the case of a member-initiated event, such as a member leaving the group or joining an unrestricted group, using a Member Notice also makes it possible to have a message sent to the member automatically.

A list of these notices is on the Member Notices tab of the group's Settings page.

Creating notices

To create a notice, click on the "New Notice" button, located at the bottom of the list of notices. The Notice Type defaults to "Welcome"; click on the right arrow to bring up the dropdown menu and pick the type you want. A default Subject (used as the subject line of the email message) and Name (used to identify the particular notice of the given type, in case you create more than one) for the type you've chosen will appear, both of which you can edit if desired. Type in the desired message body. For Welcome, Direct Add, and Invite notices, we provide default text for the message body, which will appear automatically and can be edited as desired.

Existing notices can also be edited on the Member Notices page.

You can create more than one notice of any type except Group Guidelines, of which at most one notice is allowed. To specify which notice is to be used at the time of a corresponding event, activate it by checking its "active" box. At most one notice of each type can be active at any given time. No activation is needed for Note to Member notices, because you choose which notice to use at the time of the actual event. No activation is required for the Group Guidelines notice; once created, it is active.

Specific notices and their usage

Notices come in various types and are created and used in various ways.

1. The following notices are sent automatically at the time of their corresponding events:

Banned Member

Sent automatically to a member who is banned from the group. The notice marked "active" is the one sent; if there is no active notice, none is sent.

Goodbye

Sent automatically to a member who leaves the group. The notice marked "active" is the one sent; if there is no active notice, none is sent. Some groups use this notice to ask the member why they left the group; responses will go to the group owner address.

Pending Subscription

Sent automatically to anyone who applies for membership in a restricted group. The notice marked "active" is the one sent; if no notice is active, none is sent. Some groups use this notice to ask a series of questions of applicants in support of their application; responses will go to the group owner address and be recorded in the member's page under "+owner messages."

Rejected Message

Sent when a moderator rejects a pending message by email, using the link in a Message Approval Needed notification. The notice marked "active" is the one sent; if no notice is active, none is sent.

Note: this Notice Type may also be used as the default to a web action, see below.

Rejected Subscription

Sent automatically when an application for membership in a restricted group is rejected. The notice marked "active" is the one sent; if no notice is active, none is sent.

Removed Member

Sent automatically when a member is removed from the group. The notice marked "active" is the one sent; if no notice is active, none is sent.

Welcome

Sent automatically to members who join an unrestricted group, or whose membership in a restricted group has been approved. A Welcome notice is always sent to new members. If the group has not created and activated a custom notice, we activate and send a default.

2. The following notices are used in a slightly different way.

Instead of being sent completely automatically, each is used as the default text of a message to the member at the time a moderator initiates the corresponding event, and can then be edited if desired by the moderator before finalizing the event:

Direct Add

Message sent when a moderator direct-adds someone to a premium or enterprise group. The active notice, if any, is used as the initial text and can be edited for one-time use during the Direct Add process. A Direct Add notice is always sent; if the group has not created and activated a custom notice, we activate and use a default.

Invite

Message to be sent when a moderator invites someone to the group. The active notice, if any, is used as the initial text and can be edited for one-time use if during the Invite process. An Invite notice is always sent; if the group has not created and activated a custom Invite notice, we activate and use a default.

Rejected Message

Sent when a moderator rejects a pending message from a moderated member or in a moderated group or topic. When a moderator rejects a pending message by email, the notice marked "active" is the one sent. When a moderator rejects a pending message by web the text box for the rejection notice is initially left empty. The moderator can write the entire message by hand or choose one of the Rejected Message notices as initial text.

Note to Member

Note to Member notices are pre-written messages on any subject that can be sent at any time to a member, or group of members, using the Send Message feature from either the member page or the member list. To send one, instead of filling in the message subject and text on the Send Message screen, select "Notices" and use the dropdown to select the one you want. It can then be edited for one-time use if desired.

3. A special case: Group Guidelines

The Group Guidelines notice is a unique type that provides a convenient and versatile way to communicate and maintain the group's posting and conduct guidelines, if any. It has the following features and options:

• can be sent automatically on the first of each month as a message to the group, with an option to include members subscribed via Special Notices Only
• can be sent automatically to all new group members
• can be sent manually by a moderator to a group member at any time, in case the member needs a review of the guidelines
• appears under its own "Guidelines" tab at left on the group's pages, with an option to be visible either by group members only or by the public

Unlike the other notice types, a group can create at most one Group Guidelines notice. If created, a Guidelines tab will automatically appear on the group home page. The rest of the features are optional and are specified as follows when creating or editing the notice:

Subject - the subject line of the message as it appears in the group archives, if mailed monthly to the group.

Email subject - the subject line of the email when the notice is sent to a group member separately from the monthly message to the group.

Private - if this box is checked, the Guidelines tab on the group's home page will be visible only to group members. If unchecked, the tab will be visible to the public.

Send on Join - if this box is checked, the Guidelines will be sent automatically via email to new members

Send monthly to the group - if this box is checked, the Guidelines will be sent as a message to the group on the 1st of each month. Note: we send the message with the #guidelines hashtag, which, if it doesn't already exist, is created with a topic duration of one month, causing the archived message to be automatically deleted after one month in deference to the next monthly message. The hashtag is set to "Use by moderators only" and "replies by moderators only," so that no non-moderators can use it.

Send monthly to special - this box appears only if "Sent monthly to the group" has been checked. If checked, the monthly Guidelines message to the group will be sent as a special notice, so that members whose email delivery option is Special Notice Only will receive it (in addition to members whose email delivery is Individual Messages). In this case, the #guidelines hashtag is also set to "Special." 

Subgroups have all the functionality of normal groups, with the exceptions that to be a member of a subgroup, you must be a member of the parent group, and you cannot invite people to join subgroups.

Once a person is a member of the parent group, they can subscribe directly to the subgroup if it's permitted, they can be added directly to the subgroup, or they can ask to join the subgroup if it is restricted.