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EDIT, JANUARY 2020: Guys, this article was written ten years ago. I'm leaving this guide up, in case it still contains anything helpful, but I have not kept track of the changes to the Groups system and can make no guarantees for accuracy/up-to-dateness. If you have a question about why you can't find a particular button or setting mentioned in the article, I don't have an answer for you---the thing you're looking for may simply not exist anymore. I'm sorry, and I hope that you can figure out how to solve your Groups issues!

The new Groups system is great, isn’t it? Once you get a handle on all of the extra settings, the system makes it easier than ever to run your own communities and clubs. But getting the hang of all those settings does take a while. The main issue that I’ve seen is in regards to the ‘join requests’.

When you first start a group, or convert your club, the ‘request to join’ option comes with the default setting of being disabled, or ‘closed’ (presumably to give the founder time to set everything up before accepting members). But when you look at your group’s main page, the ‘join our group’ button is right there, as if requests are open (dA should consider changing this at some point).

Now, a group’s founder isn’t going to request to join their own group; they’ll just see the ‘join’ button on the main page, and assume that anyone can click on it and request to join. It won’t be until someone comments on it that the founder will know that they need to update the settings. Even then, if the founder didn’t know about those settings in the first place, they aren’t likely to know where they are, to change them. Most confused founders, being unable to find the settings, just settle for waiting for people to comment, and then sending them an invite. This might work if you only want to have a tiny exclusive club, but in the long run it’s a major obstacle to your group’s success.

Think about it: say ten people come across your group, and all would like to join. They all click ‘join’ but are told that they aren’t allowed to. Maybe three of them will be brave enough to leave a comment asking if they can be members. You invite them, but their comments are still on your group’s page. So then ten more people find your group, are told they can’t join, and see the three ‘can I join’ comments with no responses (because you responded with your invites). One of the main signs of a dead club/group is a bunch of people commenting wanting to join. By now, you’ve only snagged three out of twenty potential members, and your club looks like it’s dead (plus, having all those page views, but with so few members, isn‘t going to make your group look very desirable, either). Who wants that?

So I’ve written a quick and easy guide to updating your join requests settings, and making the most out of every interested visitor to your page.

First of all, you’ll need to find the button that says ‘Admin Area’, (the one with a little red sign with a white line through it), and click on it.

Once you’ve entered the Admin Area, look for another button that says ‘Manage Members’ (with a little picture of people in green, blue, and orange shirts), and click on that.

Now you’ll be taken to a page with a sidebar that lists all the different member classes (Founder, Co-Founders, Admins, etc). On this list, click ‘Members’. On the left there should be a list of current members. And on the right, there’ll be a bunch of different options, with drop-down menus under them. The one you’re looking for is under the headed ‘On Home, Members’. The second option here should be called ‘Join Requests’. As you can see, the default is set to ‘Are Not Allowed’.

From here, you have two options, depending on how to want to manage your group.
If you want everyone to be in your group, and don’t can who joins, go ahead and select ‘Are Automatically Approved’. Click ‘Save Now’ at the bottom of the page, and you’ll be all done! Everyone who sends a request will automatically be approved and added to your members list.

However, if you want to be more selective, and have the chance to review potential members before they are allowed to join, you’ll want to choose the ’Are Subject to Vote’ option. You’ll then get additional options for ’Votes Needed’ and ’Expires’. The people voting will be you, the founder, as well as anybody else you give permission to (you can find those settings in other parts of this same ’Manage Members’ area ). If you’re the only founder/admin/mod, just click ‘1’ on the votes menu. Every membership application will be sent to your group’s message center, and you’ll be able to look them over and then vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on whether to approve them or not. If you have more mods, and would like their votes to count, choose the number of votes that will best suit your purposes. The ‘Expires’ setting just decides how long you have to vote on the request. So if you only get on dA once a week, don’t choose the ‘1 day’ setting.

Whichever type of join requests that you settle on using, I highly recommend posting a brief 'How to Join' note somewhere where people will see it. Some people have trouble finding that 'join' button even if it does work, and some think that +watching the group with make them a member.

If you have any other questions about groups management, I can try to give you some advice, but I don’t claim to be an expert on Groups. I simply noticed how much confusion these settings were causing, and decided to lend a hand. Hopefully this article will be of help to at least a few people.

Good luck with your groups, everyone!

:( (Sad) — Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

EDIT, JANUARY 2020: Guys, this article was written ten years ago. I'm leaving this guide up, in case it still contains anything helpful, but I have not kept track of the changes to the Groups system and can make no guarantees for accuracy/up-to-dateness. If you have a question about why you can't find a particular button or setting mentioned in the article, I don't have an answer for you---the thing you're looking for may simply not exist anymore. I'm sorry, and I hope that you can figure out how to solve your Groups issues!

The new Groups system is great, isn’t it? Once you get a handle on all of the extra settings, the system makes it easier than ever to run your own communities and clubs. But getting the hang of all those settings does take a while. The main issue that I’ve seen is in regards to the ‘join requests’.

When you first start a group, or convert your club, the ‘request to join’ option comes with the default setting of being disabled, or ‘closed’ (presumably to give the founder time to set everything up before accepting members). But when you look at your group’s main page, the ‘join our group’ button is right there, as if requests are open (dA should consider changing this at some point).

Now, a group’s founder isn’t going to request to join their own group; they’ll just see the ‘join’ button on the main page, and assume that anyone can click on it and request to join. It won’t be until someone comments on it that the founder will know that they need to update the settings. Even then, if the founder didn’t know about those settings in the first place, they aren’t likely to know where they are, to change them. Most confused founders, being unable to find the settings, just settle for waiting for people to comment, and then sending them an invite. This might work if you only want to have a tiny exclusive club, but in the long run it’s a major obstacle to your group’s success.

Think about it: say ten people come across your group, and all would like to join. They all click ‘join’ but are told that they aren’t allowed to. Maybe three of them will be brave enough to leave a comment asking if they can be members. You invite them, but their comments are still on your group’s page. So then ten more people find your group, are told they can’t join, and see the three ‘can I join’ comments with no responses (because you responded with your invites). One of the main signs of a dead club/group is a bunch of people commenting wanting to join. By now, you’ve only snagged three out of twenty potential members, and your club looks like it’s dead (plus, having all those page views, but with so few members, isn‘t going to make your group look very desirable, either). Who wants that?

So I’ve written a quick and easy guide to updating your join requests settings, and making the most out of every interested visitor to your page.

First of all, you’ll need to find the button that says ‘Admin Area’, (the one with a little red sign with a white line through it), and click on it.

Once you’ve entered the Admin Area, look for another button that says ‘Manage Members’ (with a little picture of people in green, blue, and orange shirts), and click on that.

Now you’ll be taken to a page with a sidebar that lists all the different member classes (Founder, Co-Founders, Admins, etc). On this list, click ‘Members’. On the left there should be a list of current members. And on the right, there’ll be a bunch of different options, with drop-down menus under them. The one you’re looking for is under the headed ‘On Home, Members’. The second option here should be called ‘Join Requests’. As you can see, the default is set to ‘Are Not Allowed’.

From here, you have two options, depending on how to want to manage your group.
If you want everyone to be in your group, and don’t can who joins, go ahead and select ‘Are Automatically Approved’. Click ‘Save Now’ at the bottom of the page, and you’ll be all done! Everyone who sends a request will automatically be approved and added to your members list.

However, if you want to be more selective, and have the chance to review potential members before they are allowed to join, you’ll want to choose the ’Are Subject to Vote’ option. You’ll then get additional options for ’Votes Needed’ and ’Expires’. The people voting will be you, the founder, as well as anybody else you give permission to (you can find those settings in other parts of this same ’Manage Members’ area ). If you’re the only founder/admin/mod, just click ‘1’ on the votes menu. Every membership application will be sent to your group’s message center, and you’ll be able to look them over and then vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on whether to approve them or not. If you have more mods, and would like their votes to count, choose the number of votes that will best suit your purposes. The ‘Expires’ setting just decides how long you have to vote on the request. So if you only get on dA once a week, don’t choose the ‘1 day’ setting.

Whichever type of join requests that you settle on using, I highly recommend posting a brief 'How to Join' note somewhere where people will see it. Some people have trouble finding that 'join' button even if it does work, and some think that +watching the group with make them a member.

If you have any other questions about groups management, I can try to give you some advice, but I don’t claim to be an expert on Groups. I simply noticed how much confusion these settings were causing, and decided to lend a hand. Hopefully this article will be of help to at least a few people.

Good luck with your groups, everyone!