This article was created from a community discussion.
I am looking to make various social groups, some private and some public, can anyone point me to the information on how to do that?
Answer
Groups can cause discussion segregation and draw attention away from your main forum categories. Cliques can form within your community which hurt its cohesion and growth. We strongly recommend against using Groups on sites with less than several thousand currently active users (users that participate once a month or more).
Public, Private and Secret Groups
Another core feature of the groups addon is the ability to choose if they are public, private or secret spaces. This means, you can create a public group anyone can join, or you can create a private group where people can join only if invited by the group leader or if they applied for access.
Secret Groups offer some new exciting options, particularly for product teams. It allows for the creation of groups that are not visible to anyone, but the owner/creator of the group and the people who are invited to join. The very existence and content are hidden to non-group members. This is great for companies that may want to test a new product or segment users to a special place, but do not want the larger community to know such a group exists.
Getting started with Groups
Try creating three to eight groups as a pilot program to introduce groups to your community. Carefully managing the list of groups available can encourage the creation of fewer groups with higher quality and participation. Ten groups with 30 members each will create a far better experience than 100 groups with three members each.
Adding your first groups
As the administrator, click the “New Group” button near the top of the page.
The “Icon” image shows on the groups lists. The “Banner” is the large image at the top of your group’s page. For most themes, 1000x175 px is a good choice for a banner image. As always, this can and should be tested on staging prior to applying to production.
Posting in Groups
Announcements
Here is where the group manager can make announcements, with a small preview of what the announcement is about. Just like in the community, a group discussion can be made into an announcement.
Discussions
Group discussions have all the features a regular discussion will have. Members of the group, depending on the permissions you have set, can also ask questions or start a poll for the group.
Events
You can create events for your group. Members of the group can choose to attend via RSVP or they can decline or defer the invitation.
You can find more here:
