St. Francis - eGroups

What are Yahoo Groups?

This page is intended for a person or group who is thinking about setting up a Yahoo Group. Users should see "How-to's for Yahoo Group Users."

	On this Page		On Other Pages
	Overview		How to's for Yahoo Group Users
	Features		Frequently Asked Questions
	How ECR Could Use eGroups		Sample Welcome and Other Automated Messages
	Having Trouble Deciding?
	How to set up a Yahoo Group
	Choices for Group Attributes

Overview

You're here because you want to be part of a Yahoo Group in the Diocese of El Camino Real or want to set one up. Yahoo Groups are a useful and free way to facilitate communication within a group of people. They are a free electronic internet service of the Yahoo Website. However, they can be a bit tricky to set up properly, and that's the justification for this guide. Once you have things set up correctly, they cruise along quite nicely.

Yahoo Groups are an inexpensive and easy way for groups to communicate using the best Internet communication tools, without adding to the workload of a webmaster. The groups can be used for distributing files and/or for discussion lists, and there are other features such as calendars and polling capabilities. Yahoo groups are free, but you have to be willing to put up with a small amount of advertising - it is not an onerous amount of advertising. Yahoo also takes steps to make it very, very difficult for spammers to get hold of the e-mail addresses of group members, and will take steps if spamming is reported to them.

A yahoo group is created by an owner/moderator, who then invites people to participate as moderators and members. You can be a member of the group two ways:

Through e-mail only
Through a flexible combination of e-mail and web access

If you initially joined the group with e-mail only access, switching to the more flexible form of access requires setting up a yahoo ID and this usually introduces great confusion, as it's tricky or darn near impossible to get Yahoo to understand that you want to convert your membership mode. Press on, brave reader!

On commercials:
Concerning advertisements, Yahoo will inject these into the various messages that traverse the Yahoo Group implementation. This is a symbiotic relationship, they give us free services in exchange for the presence of advertising messages; similarly to watching broadcast TV. They cannot be disabled; the only solution would be for me to run special software of my own on my server, and I've haven't had the resources, or the quality of internet connection to take that on... yet.

Features

Web interface to manage the group.
Flexible group policies (moderated or unmoderated, private or public).
No software to install.
Reliable. 95% of all messages delivered in 50 seconds or less!
Spam-Free.
Full-text searchable.
Control panel for all groups, whether hosted on Yahoo Groups or not.
Messages readable via e-mail, on the Web, or in digests
Group polling feature, group calendars, and more!

What could ECR do? Example uses:

One committee or commission might want to publish minutes and/or other documents and make the membership in the group open to anyone in the diocese who wishes to subscribe to the group.
Another committee or commission might want to publish minutes or other documents and restrict membership in the group just to members of that committee or commission.
One committee or commission can invite members of another committee or commission or distribution to join each others' groups if they wish to share information.
- Example: Commission on Children and Youth might set a group up that invites all youth group leaders to be members
- Example: Diocesan Council might set up a group and invite members of the Standing Committee to join
One group might be used for allowing open discussions of issues, such as an open "general" group (not specific to one committee or commission) for hosting a dialogue about diocesan structure and process.
One group might be created as a restricted area for one group to store files it wants to share only with a restricted set of group members

Having trouble deciding?

Are you wondering if your privacy will be protected? Will your name be visible to the general public? Will you get bombarded by spam? Read the Frequently Asked Questions, and the Yahoo Privacy Policy, and Yahoo's Spam Policy, then, if you are still not sure:

Select and join one or two existing groups and see what you think. You can always cancel your membership in a group.
Set up a new group for your committee/commission/interest group and try it. Not working? Try talking to a resource who is familiar with using groups to get some advice. Still not working or too much bother? It's easy to discontinue the Yahoo group and pursue some other solution for meeting your communications needs.

How to set up a Yahoo Group:

A Yahoo Group can be created by anyone with access to the internet and a web browser. One or more members of a group should be selected as group owner and moderator(s) The person who creates the group is the group owner, and can invite other members and designate who should be a moderator.

Yahoo ID: People do not need to log into the group website in order to use the group e-mail address and received group e-mail, but if someone chooses to log in, or if the group web features are to be used (such as sharing files) each person who wishes to login in and use those features will need a Yahoo ID. Owners and moderators, of course, must have Yahoo ID's, or else they can not login to setup and manage the group. This is easy to set up and you do not get bombarded with a bunch of spam when you have a Yahoo ID (spam comes from a lot of other places). Go to http://groups.yahoo.com and select 'Click here to register' to establish a Yahoo ID.
- Thereafter, you can use the same ID for all your Yahoo groups. You only have to sign in once - if you are signed into one group, you can easily go to another group you belong to.
- Investigation shows that junk mail is not related to setting up Yahoo Groups or a Yahoo ID but has more to do with what e-mail provider you are using (AOL, Earthlink, etc.) and whether or not your email ID contains common names (a Joe Smith will get more junk mail than a Jedediah Penobscot or a "k826s7". Re Yahoo Group participation, you're only likely to get junk mail if you join a group that has membership open to the public and not well moderated.
Decide whether you need one group or multiple groups: If you want to accomplish multiple purposes, you may not be able to achieve all purposes with a single group.
- You may not know immediately if you don't have much experience with using groups or until you get an initial group started and see how it goes.
- You may need one group for communications between a restricted set of members and another group for disseminating information to a wider audience.
Decide attributes of the group: Review the table below before setting up the group.
Select Group Name: Choose a name group members will find easy to remember. Suggestions:
- Use "ecr-" as the prefix for all group names for the Dioces of El Camino Real
- Use "-list" as suffix for a group that is used both for e-mail discussions and distributing information
- Use "-news" or "-minutes" for a group that is for distributing information, but not to be used for e-mail discussions
- Sample names:
  - ecr-ccy - ECR's Commission on Children and Youth (CCY) restricted to CCY members
  - ecr-ccy-minutes - CCY's group for publishing news to anyone who wishes to subscribe (if one group is set up for each commission)
  - ECRProgramNotes - ECR group for distributing news to anyone who wishes to subscribe
  - ecr-strategicplan-list - ECR group for distributing Strategic Planning Committee news/minutes and for allowing e-mail discussions of issues
  - ecr-standingcomm-minutes - group for publishing Standing Committee minutes to subscribers
Re-evaluate from time to time: Needs change.
- Have a couple of groups been running separately that have so much overlap that they should be consolidated into one group?
- Has a topic taken on so much interest that it should be spun off into a new group?

Choices for Yahoo Groups Attributes

In the lower right hand-corner of the screen, you will see the group's attributes. See a sample screen shot.

Promoting the Group
Listed in Yahoo Directory	The group is listed in Yahoo's own directory. This is the most public method - easy for anyone to find
Not listed in Yahoo Directory	Less public, people would need to find the group by another means: Via a link from another place, such as the ECR web site Via an invitation sent to prospective member A user cannot find an unlisted group easily. See sample screen shot.
Membership in the Group
Open (Unrestricted)	Anyone who can find the group may join without moderator approval. This makes less work for the group moderator, since he/she does not need to approve each request to join. Combining this option with "not listing" in the Yahoo directory may be an optimum solution for many diocesan groups. The existence of the group can be published in Mission Bell or parish newsletters, giving the group URL out, and anyone who wants to join the group can If someone who has joined the group violates the rules or is abusive or clearly does not belong in the group, the moderator can easily ban that individual from the group
Restricted	Only those invited to the group can join; the moderator needs to approve membership of anyone who requests to join without an invitation Useful if you want a group that is restricted to committee/commission members which you want to use as a repository and/or discussion area for that restricted audience
Initially open, later restricted	This may be useful if you want to establish a new group that will have a lot of subscribers, and the moderator cannot afford to spend all his/her time dealing with the initial onslaught of new members. You can leave it open while the group is advertised to the intended audience, then restrict it after the you think most of the initial membership has joined.
Member Directory
Visible	The list of the group members is visible to all members of the group.
Hidden	The list of group members can only be seen by moderators.
Email Discussions
Moderators only	Only moderators can send e-mails to members of the group. This choice would be used if the purpose of the group is to distribute information, but it is not desired that the group be used as a listserve for e-mail discussions
All members, moderated	Any member of the group may send e-mails to the entire group, but the moderator must review and approve each message that goes out.
All members, unmoderated	Any member of the group may send e-mails to the entire group, and they go out immediately without the moderator having to review and approve. If a member abuses the privilege, such as using the group for sales pitches or using foul language, the moderator has the ability to moderate the messages of specific individuals, and, if necessary, to ban individuals from the group in such a way that they cannot automatically rejoin.
Individual Subscribers' Choices for Receiving E-Mail
Immediate delivery	Subscriber's can choose to receive each e-mail individually, immediately as it's sent
Daily digest	Subscriber can choose to receive a daily summary of e-mail messages - one message containing all the e-mails that were distributed on the list that day
Special notices	Subscriber can choose to receive only e-mails sent by moderators (if desired, the subscriber can go to the Yahoo group on the web and see the e-mail exchanges)
No email	Subscriber can choose not to receive any e-mail from the group (if desired, the subscriber can go to the Yahoo group on the web and see the e-mail exchanges)
Email Archives
Visible to members only	The online archive of e-mail messages is only visible to members logged into the group
Visible to the public	The online archive of e-mail messages is visible to the public - they can read all messages, even though they cannot log into the group nor participate in the e-mail exchanges
Message Attachments
Allowed	Those who can post e-mail messages may send attachments
Not allowed	No attachments are allowed for e-mail messages
Files - Create / Upload / Modify / Download
Anyone	Anyone may view files, including non-members
Members	Members (upload/modify/download files)
Limited	Members can download files; moderators can upload/modify/download files
Moderators only	Only Moderators c upload/modify/download files
Off	Off (no one can access the Files feature)
Files - Notification / Distribution
Send notification	When a file is uploaded or changed, an e-mail notification can be sent to all members of the group telling them about the file
No notification	No notification is sent when a file is uploaded or changed
Auto-send	A file can be sent (e-mailed) to members based on a schedule or upon event. Text files are sent as e-mail messages. For example, a "welcome" message could be set up and automatically sent to a new member when they subscribe, or a "we'll miss you" message could be sent automatically when someone unsubscribes

See the index at the top of the page for additional information.