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TimberClipse — Running a Group 101
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Published: 2010-04-08 02:14:57 +0000 UTC; Views: 23915; Favourites: 256; Downloads: 119
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Description
Running a Group 101
Hello Everyone!
I have noticed, that there hasn't really been a running a group guide yet, so I wnated to put this together. Feedback would be awesome! As you send them to me, I will edit this. (Please 
So here we go!
This Guide is meant for all Beginners to Advanced!
=TimberClipse (me) has been part of the groups system from the start and has Founded groups along with being a Co-Founder and Contributor for many other groups
1. Basics: So let's start out easy. Information. It is one aspect of groups that are often overlooked. There are up to 10 new members on dA every MINUTE! These are all people who could join your group! But... You have to know how to get them interested, and how when they join your group, give them information to stay active!
Here are some tips:
- Welcome new members: Give a welcome message. Whether it is automated and given out by a contributor or personal for each new person. This makes a difference since it makes people feel welcomed and since it gives them information! (Make sure to include information of how to submit, make journals etc.)
- Give your members incentive: Give members incentive to stay active (i.e. contests) and give incentive to get new members (i.e. mini contests etc.). These types of things can be made into contests or other such group projects.
- Keep your group focused - Make sure not to say you are -for example- a "Animal Photo Group" and then accept images that are emotes. This discourages members and makes them not as interested in joining.
- Your Front Page - This is what your members and potential members see every day and first. Keep it looking good! Use easy-to-read fonts (not "sub" or "sup"!) and try using custom user boxes -Super groups only- such as ones from !Commander-Luminaire . These can make your front page appealing AND make it more likely for people to join!
- If members decide to leave, try to keep them - Ask them why they left. See if you can fix whatever they were unhappy with.
2. Intermediate: Lets now go to a little more advanced. This is for groups that are above about 200+ members.
- Contests - Once you have started your group up, maybe 2-4 months into your group, get a contest going! Make it large, ask your friends, neighbors, affiliates and.. of course dogs to contribute prizes! This is a great way to get members! A well made contest can grab up to 100 new members within the first few days!
- Advertising - At this point in your group you want to try to start advertising. Try going to affiliates and see if they will make an "Affiliate blog" that will advertise you. Feature your own affiliates and ask them to do the same! etc. These will all help your group AND your affiliates plus grow trust between your groups!
- Galleries v. Faves and Submissions - So Faves or Galleries? 5 Submissions a day or 500?! These are very important questions and ones you should always think about! Consider some of these points:
Your Group Size Changes A Lot - Consider your group size. Some groups are small (50-200 members) and this type of group should certainly take advantage of BOTH Galleries (For Submissions from Members) and Faves (For Submissions from everyone!). Try accepting all images into the gallery so that your members feel the group is active.
If your group is medium size (500-1000 members) try using just the gallery or faves so that you do not overload members. Try only submitting a few images a day so they are appreciated more (Take your average number of submissions and divide by 30, round up and set that number of submissions per day)
If your group is large 1000+ Try not using the gallery for anything EXCEPT the best. And then accept a limited amount into faves, and maybe 10-20 a week to the gallery selected from faves.
3. Advanced: This section is meant for those with large groups and experience.
- My group is up and running but there is nothing new to do! - VERY untrue! This is your groups prime! Start pushing your groups ideas more! For example if your group is Animal Photography, then go through the gallery and announce some new rules to make your galleries better. Start accepting only certain art that is material that is featureable or even DD material!
- Feature - You can take your group and make members incredibly happy with a simple feature in a news article or a journal! Try doing this once a month, and maybe a best of once every quarter.
- Blogs - A lot of groups do not take advantage of this feature. Many members have news and stuff to give. Again if your about Animal Photography, I can promise you your group has someone who is more knowledgeable than most and wants to share their talent! Find them!!! Ask them to make a Tutorial or a Blog for your group! This will help both you, and the author as he/she will be noticed more and will get to do something they love!
4. Wrapping Up: Although this is far from all you can do, try thinking outside the box! People like the same thing often, but something new can really catch peoples eyes!
If you haven't started a group yet, make sure to start a group that hasn't been addressed yet! For example my group was the first of it's kind. (It's goal is to feature peoples art that may have been missed!). Other groups do similar things but it is still NEW!
was also a fresh idea, never seen before. 
Resources
Don't forget about your resources! These can really help you out with questions and problems!
• Making a Group
• Group FAQ
• Groups Page
(Image above is from the Groups page at deviantArt)
Related content
Comments: 168
Wow! Absolutely amazing! It didn't just help me, but i bet it also helped many more people who are having trouble with their groups. I like how you but the basic intermediate and advanced sections! Amazing just... amazing. I believe I should share this with my friends. Well.. they don't have groups, but I will still share it with people! Its just so.. so.. AWESOME! I don't even know what to say anymore, it is so amazing. I mean, like, this should get daily deviation, seriously, it is amazing. I could just talk talk talk now, but i guess ill let you move along with whatever you were doing before this, so yeah, bye! And once again, I'm going to say that its amazing.
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Can regular groups have multiple custom boxes?
Or is that a thing for Super Groups only?
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What is the difference between a Contributor and a Member?
I KNOW THIS SOUNDS STUPID BUT I WANT TO KNOW THE ANSWER
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A contributor is a step up from member in terms of group hierarchy. They're usually helpers for smaller tasks in the group like sorting/accepting submissions. They don't have total control over the group like the founder and may not be able to create folders or post blogs to the group like a Co-Founder. Yet, they will be able to see the "Admin Zone" that members cannot. Here, messages for the leaders of the group can be viewed in private. Kind of like a little meeting room where civilians (members) cannot go.
And there are no stupid questions~
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thank you
and your right
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Is it possible to swap places with the banned/deactivated founder?
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No. Only the Founder can pass on the mantel of Founder. Unfortunately, this creates a major problem when the Founder goes inactive, deactivates their account, or gets banned. Essentially that means the group's hierarchy is frozen. You could try making an appeal to DA's admins, but they may not do anything about it.
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Thanks for the advice. I'm going to do my best to get my newly created group to succeed and make deviantart a better place for all.😄
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What can I do, I have points to hold contests. I am the only member of my group: galasmalatar.deviantart.com/. I am think of doing art for any contest winners.
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Does anyone know how to edit the social class names in a super group?=^-^=
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Back Room>Manage Members>Then there's a little pencil next to the names, click that and it will edit it.
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Yeah, I did that, but it never stays like that. I do press save btw. I'll do it, save, then go to the home page and their name is still founder.=^-^=
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Hmm. You'll have to ask the Help Desk about that. Perhaps there's some bug with it.
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Yeah, I already sent it in. I just thought maybe I was doing something wrong.=^-^=
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Hello, I was wondering if you could tell me how to allow members to submit art to my group. I recently joined a group, and it just started. The founder is having difficulties allowing submissions to be made. If you could tell me how, that would be wonderful, thank you.
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If you are an administrator, go to the administration tab under manage members make sure the position you are specified can submit art.
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is there a certain way to fix up a custom box in a group because the codes wont work AT ALL
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You'll need a super group to use it, just like you need to be a premium member to use them on your profile.
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"If members decide to leave, try to keep them - Ask them why they left. See if you can fix whatever they were unhappy with." I don't necessarily agree with this point.
Most of my members that leave left because they didn't bother to read the rules in the first place. So if they submit a nude to a folder that doesn't accept nudes I kindly ask them to read the rules and to resubmit to the correct folder. They get mad and leave. I even went to the gallery of a member who left, said I was sorry to see him go over a wrong folder issue but I complemented his artwork and even faved it. He in turn hid my kind comment about his work. Really? He's so angry with me he can't thank me for a kind comment because I gently asked him to read the rules of the group?
Some people have no respect for your group and simply leave because they are jerks to start with. There is no reasoning with some people. Some are doing you a favor by leaving...less drama to deal with later on.
On the other hand most will simply resubmit to the correct folder and move on. Those are the ones I try to keep happy because they act mature and are respectful of the group they are a part of.
My group has grown to over 200 in less than 3 months because I actually care about my members and agree with most of your suggestions here, especially making them feel welcome and by keeping them from being bored with challenges and such.
So, thanks!
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I know this comment is years old but I totally agree
I manage a group myself
We're a Vanilla NSFW group, we don't allow major fetishes because the founder and I arent into a lot of those things and would prefer not seeing them
But people ignore the rules(even the contributors) and submit things involving rape,tentacles, furry, etc which we have listed as being unallowed
When telling them "read the rules please" some say things ranging from "oh sorry,skipped them" to "well maybe you should be more specific....kinda weird for a group like this not to allow my stuff" and people just being downright rude
I resorted to noting everyone the rules if they submitted artwork going against them
And now I've resorted to making the group not be auto-accepting members anymore instead and make them say 2 passwords hidden in 2 areas containing our rules in order to be allowed in
Asking people why they left is a waste of time, people get really whiney and huffy sometimes when their artwork is denied in the group even though they lacked the common sense to read the rules in the first place
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Make sure join requests are enabled. Under the administration tab under manage members make sure join requests for co founders and members are enabled.
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If you go into your message center, and then on the left side choose the group, you will be able to accept art there if art has been submitted.
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I have a club all about making original stories and characters ( ) and discourages against fanfiction and fancharacters. I did this to encourage original work and the fact that every other story-esque club out there has the folders filled with mostly fanfiction. So far I only have one active member. I think a reason my club is failing is the fact that I don't allow fanfiction and fancharacters. Should I change my rules to allow it? I really don't want to, but there's no point to a club with no members, right?
Also I don't have any money or points to give out as contest prizes or make the home page dazzle. Is that another factor?
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how did you put your group thumbnail thingy in that comment? I really need to find out.
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you type in "icon" next to the groups name and enclose it in colons. Example :icon storyandcharacters:
make sure that there are no spaces though. the same works for avatars too.
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Well 1 reason it probally doesnt have as many members is because not as many people create storys/original stuff ( most people on here draw stuff like anime or pokemon or some other cartoon/anime they like ) and that kinda stuff i guesse pluss if you want members go search for some and invite them to your group well hope i helped haha 
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You should be able to find a lot of definitions here: fav.me/d7dte22 That should help
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Do you have any ideas for group activities that don't involve giving out points? (I'm broke 
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You can always do prizes as features for a contest. or, say you're going to have fun and hang out in your own chatroom on dAmn and just talk, get to know each other and have fun
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Yeah, that's a great idea, thanks
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I just became an admin and it's asking me to accept a piece of art into the group - how do I do it?
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At your group page click on the Admin controls at the top (drop down menu with your contributor level) and you'll be able to get there.
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well, I have an art waiting to get in, but I don't know how to accept it to the group - do I press some button?
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There's a Yes/No button on it
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oh ok lol I'm just a confused little beanbag here - thanks for the patience
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No problem, check out this page if you get stuck again
help.deviantart.com/groups/gen...
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I have a question! when you send an invite to someone, does everyone in the group see it? Or just the person you send the invite to? I asked that because when I send invites to people, I also get the invite message sent to me too.
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The invites will be viewable by contributors of the group, but only from the group page, they do not show up in other's inboxes.
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