Helpful Hints: Some Things to Know About Working in Groups on the RRN Site

Group Visibility

When a Group is initially created, there is an option to make it public or private. A public Group means that some or all of the content will be visible to anyone who cares to visit. When a Group member creates content, she or he will be able to choose whether they want the content to be publically viewed, or if it should just remain in the Group. You will always be able to view the Groups you belong to by clicking on the “My Groups” link at the left of the page after you have logged in with your username and password.
 
A private Group means that the entire Group and all of its posted content are only visible to members of that Group. If you are a member of a private Group, you will be able to see it listed when you click on the “My Groups” link, but it won’t be visible in the general “Groups” section.
 
Membership
There are different ways you can become a member of a Group, depending on how the Group was initially set up.
  1. Open membership – anyone can join and is automatically accepted once a membership request is made
  2. Moderated – membership requests must be approved
  3. Invitation only – the Group Moderator sends out invitations to join
  4. Closed – membership is exclusively managed by the Group administrator
To join a Group, you will need to register as a user on the RRN site first. Once registered (there is usually a small delay between registering and being accepted as a user), do the following:
  • Login with your username and password
  • Click on the “My Groups” link at the left of the page
  • Click on the “Groups” link at the top of the page (that lists all visible Groups)
  • Click on the “Request membership” link under the Join link column of the Group you want to join and follow the directions. If the Group is moderated, a message will be sent to the Group Manager who will then approve (or reject) the request.
Working within a Group
Everything that is created on the RRN site can be attached to a Group. As with other internet and computer-related activities, there is always more than one way to do something, but to keep things simple, we’ll concentrate on a few basic functions.
 
First of all, make sure you’re logged in with your username and password.
 
Creating Content
There are a number of different content types you can create on the RRN site, both within and outside of a Group:
 
Blog entry
Image
Forum topic
Event
Page
Shared Page
Story
 
 
You can find out more about these types by going here: http://www.refugeeresearch.net/node/add
 
  1. Click on the "Create Content" link and select the kind of content type you want to post at the left of the page
  2. Create a title for the posting and put the content in the “Body” section. This section can be formatted and hyperlinked by using the small formatting icons at the top of this section.
  3. Scroll down a little, and in the “Groups” section (click on it to expand it) make sure that your group is selected. If you want the post to be private and only available to other group members, make sure the “Public” box remains unchecked. Otherwise, if you want the post to be visible to both group members and the wider RRN network, check the “Public” box.
  4. Click “Save” and you’re done!
Uploading files as attachments
A simple way to do this is to:
  1. Create a Page or Story,
  2. Add a title and a brief description in the body
  3. Make sure your Group is selected in the “Groups” section, along with the checked or unchecked “Public” box
  4. Scroll down the page until you see the “File attachments” link and click on it
  5. Browse for the file and then attach it
  6. Click “Save” when you’re done
How to make sure your fonts and formatting don’t go “wonky” when copying and pasting into the body of a content type
Sometimes, when you do a straight copy and paste of text into the body of a blog, forum, page or any other content type, the formatting can go off the rails. An easy way to get by this is if you do the following:
  1. Select and copy the text you want to use
  2. Make sure your cursor is in the body of the RRN page you’re creating and click on the small icon with the “W” on it (top right side of the Body section), paste the text into the small popup box and click “OK”.
This feature essentially takes out all but the basic formatting, so your look can be consistent. Once pasted in, you can then go ahead and format the text with the formatting icons at the top of the Body section.
Groups: