3 Creating a Basic group

1. Log in to your Groups.io account.
   Note: If you do not have a Groups.io account (that is, your email address is not registered with Groups.io), create a Groups.io account or register with Groups.io through Facebook or Google.
2. After you are logged into Groups.io, click the Find or Create a Group link at the top of the page.
3. On the next page, click the Create A Group button on the left.
4. When the Create A Group page appears, review the information at the top of the page. Ensure that you review the Terms of Service and the types of content and behavior that are not permitted by Groups.io.
5. Complete the fields on the page:

• Group Email Address: Enter the name of your group, up to 34 characters long. This name will appear in the group’s email address and also in the URL of your group on the Groups.io website.
  Note: 

• The name cannot contain spaces, plus signs, slashes, periods, or underscores. (Hyphens are allowed.)
• It is possible to change this name later, but be aware that renaming an existing group has repercussions. (See Renaming groups.)

• Description: Enter a description of your group. This description will be displayed on your group’s home page.
  Note: You can modify the description later, but at this stage, be as specific as possible to ensure that the Groups.io team will approve the group’s creation.
• Visibility: This option controls whether your group and its message archive are visible to the general public or only to group members. Select the option you want to use for your group.
  ! Important: When you make a message archive private, you cannot change it later to be publicly viewable. The “private messages” setting is not reversible. Therefore, at this stage, you should be certain about what visibility you want your message archive to have.

Option	Description
Group listed in directory, publicly viewable messages	The group will be listed in the public directory of groups on Groups.io, and the message archive will be able to be viewed by nonmembers as well as members. The contents of group messages also will be discoverable by web search engines. Example: GroupManagersForum
Group not listed in directory, publicly viewable messages	The group will not be listed in the public directory of groups on Groups.io, but the message archive will be viewable to anyone—not just group members—who has the URL of the group. The contents of group messages also will be discoverable by web search engines.
Group listed in directory, private messages	The group will be listed in the public directory of groups on Groups.io, but the message archive will be viewable only to group members. Also, message content will not be discoverable by web search engines. Example: You want prospective members to be able to find the group, but they must meet some criteria before they can join the group and view the message archive. ! Important: The “private messages” setting is not reversible. You can change whether the group is listed in the public directory of groups, but you cannot change private messages to be publicly viewable later.
Group not listed in directory, private messages	The group will not be listed in the public directory of groups on Groups.io, and the message archive will be viewable only to group members. Also, message content will not be discoverable by web search engines. Example: You want an invitation-only group that is not open to the general public (such as for a specific organization or user community). ! Important: The “private messages” setting is not reversible. You can change whether the group is listed in the public directory of groups, but you cannot change private messages to be publicly viewable later.

6. Click the Create Group button located at the bottom of the page.

When your group is created successfully, you see the Promote page with a notice at the top that your group has been created along with some introductory information.

Now you can:

• Customize the settings for your group.
• Set default subscription options for group members (including the default timezone)
• Create some member notices that can be sent to members automatically for certain events (for example, you can customize the default welcome notice that is sent to new members when they join the group).
• Change the image that is displayed on the home page of your group’s website.
• Invite people to join the group.

Note: If you have a timezone set in your Groups.io account preferences, the new group will have that timezone by default. Otherwise, the default timezone is U.S./Canada Pacific Time (UTC-08:00). You can change the group’s default timezone when you set default subscription options for group members