Groups

1. Introduction 2. Membership 3. Creating groups 4. Putting it all together 5. Making changes


A group is a place on MOCpages that brings together people, LEGO creations, and conversation.

The people that join a group are called group members. Group members can:

• Add LEGO creations to the group
• Write comments and create topics of conversation
• In some cases, members can invite people to join the group

Each group has one or more group admins. Group admins are in charge of running the group. They can invite and remove members, and are in charge of moderating the LEGO creations and conversations that are added to the group.

Each group has a conversation area. Conversation is broken into topics, or threads, of conversation. Any group member can write comments in a topic, and can create their own topics. Topics can be locked by a group admin, or left open.




You can join any group that has either open enrollment or approval enrollment. These groups will have a "Join" link at the top of every group page. If the group is "open enrollment", you will immediately become a member can can begin commenting and adding LEGO creations to the group. If the group is "approval" enrollment, you will have to wait until a group admin approves your request to join.

You can leave a group (remove yourself from a group) by clicking on the leave this group link at the top of any group page. Group admins cannot leave the group unless there is at least one other group admin.



Anyone can create up to 10 groups each month. When creating a group, you will need to decide how your group will be used and accessed.

You can make your group public or private.

1. Public groups can be seen by anyone in the world, including people that do not have MOCpages accounts. These types of groups are great for public announcements of your LEGO creations, contests, or all kinds of general-topic groups.
2. Private groups can only be seen by the group admin and the group members. These kinds of groups are great for working on projects together with your friends, secret clubs, for planning surprises, or even just if you don't want other people reading your conversations.

When you set the group's enrollment, you decide who can join your group, and how. There are four different types of enrollment.

1. Open enrollment. With this setting, anyone with a MOCpages account can join your group. Admins and group members can also invite MOCpages members to join.
2. Anyone, with approval. With this setting, anyone with a MOCpages account can request to join the group, but a group admin must first approve them before they will gain access to the group.
3. Friends of friends. With this setting, the only way someone can join the group is if they are invited by a group admin or by an existing member. Once that person joins the group, they can invite their friends, and so on.
4. By invitation only. With this setting, the only way someone can join the group is if they are invited by a group admin.

When you create a group, you can set up rules that control how many LEGO creations people can add to the group, and how often. You can also decide when LEGO creations can be added by choosing start and end dates. You could, for example, allow anyone to add an unlimited number of creations. Or you could only allow people to add one creation each day, until next week. It all depends on what your group is for.



Rules + enrollment + privacy = Flexibiltiy!
You can use the group settings to create many different kinds of groups with lots of different uses.

• A fan club
  If you're a fan of hot rods, you could create a LEGO hot rod club. The rules could state that only hot rods are allowed, but anyone can join and add 3 LEGO creations each week. Then keep it open to the public so that everyone in the world can enjoy your cool collection.
  
  
• A private showcase
  Want to show off the best creations together with your friends? Create a public group that's by invitation only and only invite your closest freinds. You can all add your creations so that everyone can see them.
  
  
• A project together
  Your secret project can be hidden from anyone except group members. Members can upload as many photos as they want and invite other members to participate on the project.
  
  
• A building contest
  You could hold a contest by creating a group that is visible to the public. Perhaps contestants need to be approved by the moderator before they can compete. And you can only allow each member to add one LEGO creation before the contest's end date.
  
  
• A private chat room
  Create a private group that's by invitation only and you'll have a place to chat with your friends that no one else can get to.
  
  
• A photo pool
  What if you just hosted a LEGO event in your town and you want to show everyone some pictures from the event? Create a public group with open enrollment ... and then anyone else who attended the event can add their pictures too. And maybe you can limit it to 10 pictures a day, so the group doesn't get flooded with thousands of photos.

Group admins can remove people from a group by going to the members page and clicking on the remove link next to someone's name. When the person is removed, all of their LEGO creations are also removed from the group. Their comments and convesations are not removed automatically, so if you would also like to remove the comments, you will have to remove them one by one.

Group admins can delete comments one by one. Once all the comments in a topic have been deleted, the topic will disappear from the "conversations" page. It is generally more effective to lock a topic instead of deleting it.

Groups cannot be deleted if there are any members in the group. If a group admin is the only member of a group, he or she will see a "delete" link next to the group title on all the group's pages.