Group related enhancements

feature
1

I would like to revisit the suggestion of @tobiaseigen and others for certain group-related enhancements.

initial request

bonus points

  • add “Request Membership” link/button that sends PM from user to group owner(s) requesting membership (requested here) with link for owner to approve user
  • add “About” group description based on field on groups admin page (discussed here and here)
  • add “pretty” Group Name field to group admin page and replace Group Slug on group page (like categories)
  • add “pretty” Group Names to profile pages to replace Group Slugs
  • add filter/search box to help find users (change text from “filter by username” to “search users”)
  • add Groups directory (requested here) like currently available to admins at http://example.com/admin/groups/custom, excluding system groups and groups set on group admin page for “Don’t display in group directory” option, except with Group Name (not slug), Group description, and link to Group landing page (not admin page)

why

  • easier for group owners to manage group members (the “Add members” button is displayed to group owners at top of the Members page)
  • more intuitive experience for users arriving from groups via link on profile pages (groups are about users, not content)
  • self-serve model for sites with lots of groups; reduces work on admins/moderators; scales better
  • badges are more about achievements, not grouping people
  • groups are mostly hidden to users (except on profile pages)

very manual / partial workaround

  • build your own Groups page with manual links to group members pages
  • add “Groups” page to header menu and hamburger menu to let users find groups
  • add “request membership” link using pre-populated PM feature

mockup of group landing page

GroupEnhancement.png851×570 43.4 KB

15 Likes
2

Some good ideas here! I agree we could improve this page a bit but it is not on the 1.6 roadmap at the moment and I don’t want to block the other critical work that is going on at the moment.

So perhaps you could select your top 1 or 2 things that could be accomplished easily?

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3

Just the initial request of [quote=“scombs, post:1, topic:44357”]
show group members (not posts) on the group landing page
[/quote]

and

would definitely address my biggest pain points for managing groups.

10 Likes
4

I agree that even just that would be a great improvement. I found the landing pages quite confusing at first, and I doubt I’m alone there.

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5

Concur - showing members by default would be the #1 priority for us too

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6

Request membership needs to be ablw to be disabled on a group by group basis. Last thing a group owner for a special group (like @team here) needs is to be bombarded with requests that won’t ever be granted.

Also agree that changing the landing page is priority #1.

4 Likes
7

The way I see it what would be the better Group landing page depends.

If I’m a member of the group the chances are I’m more likely interested in posts.

If I’m not a member of the group the chances are I’m more curious to see what members belong to the group.

But short of some kind of “if member then” code I agree that showing members would be the better choice.

1 Like
8

I’m suprised there’s no mention of this Group enhancement:

5 Likes
9

Sure @techapj can you look into those two requests? Add them to your list.

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10

Also could toggle the “Request Membership” link with “Leave Group” so users could remove themselves from group, with related group setting for, “Allow users to request/leave group membership.”

1 Like
11

I’m not sure they should be the same setting. I can see times where members can leave a group, but shouldn’t be able to request membership, and vice-versa. I do agree the button should look the same/be located in the same spot, however.

2 Likes
12

This is now done via:

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/90a27f118fb239a0d4a9fd964bee86f827b055c3

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13

Thanks very much. The link to https://example.com/groups/groupname/ shows members now.

However, the change broke all the links to the old members page such as https://example.com/groups/groupname/members

Any chance we could get those links working again as a fallback?

3 Likes
14

Sure, done via:

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/92006fd344ad67ba93a28906a097caf93577a2b0

7 Likes
15

I would love to see a feature of a group description above the member list :slight_smile:
I am using the group feature for premium members of our community. that way visitors would learn how to get access to that group and what the benefits are :slight_smile:

16

Maybe you could use badges for this purpose?

But yes, generally speaking I agree it’s a good idea to provide a full name and description option for groups, which would go a long way to “promoting groups to full citizenship” alongside users and help people make sense of them.

4 Likes
17

@scombs given all the work @tgxworld did I think this should be closed, it is mostly solved now.

Can you do a new topic with any current gaps you still have?

2 Likes