Features: OnlineGroups.Net: Start free groups on a site of your own with no ads

Group Features

Every online group has an email address. Any member of the group can send email to that address. OnlineGroups.Net then distributes that email to all group members, depending on their email delivery settings. It also displays the post on the online groups site, depending on the privacy settings of the group. Files attached to emails are uploaded to the site, and a link to the files is distributed in the email version of the post. Logged-in users can also post messages and files via the website. Posts and files can be searched via the site.

OnlineGroups.Net provides Discussion Groups and Announcement Groups. All members of a Discussion Group can post, while an Announcement Group can only have up to five only Posting Members. Replies to Discussion Group posts go the group and replies to Announcement Group posts go to the sender.

Configurable Group Privacy

There are three privacy levels for online groups.

In public groups, anyone can read posts, access posted files, and join the group, but the membership is shown only to group administrators.
In private groups, anyone can see the existence of the group, and request membership, but only group members can read posts, access posted files, and view the group membership.
Secret groups are invitation-only, and visible to the group members only.

Topic Digest

Each participant can choose to receive a list of the topics that have recently been posted to; for each topic, the digest lists the title (ie subject line), the number of posts, the number of posts in the last 24 hours and the date of the last post and provides a link to the topic in the Messages area (like this example). A digest is sent out if there has been a post in the 24 hours since the last digest was sent, or if there have been seven days since the last digest was sent.

Moderation

A Group Administrator can moderate a single user or a sub-group of users within a group.

Web Feeds

Web Feeds (ATOM) are available for all lists of posts and files on the site.

Spam Filtering

OnlineGroups.Net filters all incoming email for spam.

Virus-Scanning

All files that are attached to posts made by email, are uploaded to the Topics area. Files can also be uploaded using the web interface. All files are checked for viruses as they are uploaded.

Topic View

The default view in the Messages area shows all posts with the same subject line in a single page. This makes it easy to follow an entire conversation topic, reading each post in chronological order. When posting gets busy, this means that a group can have multiple concurrent conversation topics that are easy to follow. The Topic view shows a photo of the person who made each post, if they have uploaded one.

Posts View

OnlineGroups.Net also shows individual posts in date order. Each post has a link to the Topic that it belongs to.

Posting Limits

Each user in a discussion group can make up to 20 posts in any 48 hour period. This stops individuals from dominating the conversation. Posting members in Announcement Groups can make up to 5 posts in any 10 day period. A Group Administrator can set a lower posting limit, if they wish.

Post-Folding

The "Topic" view automatically trims excessive bottom quoting and provides an option to display the entire post. This feature is based on a number of heuristics, so it can detect quoting with minimal false positivies, even if a standard convention is not used.

Clickable Urls

Urls and strings beginning with "www." are rendered as clickable links in Topics and Posts.

Masked Email Addresses

Email addresses in the text of posts are diguised using "address (at) domain" format to reduce detection by spambots.

Configurable Subject Line

Each Online Group has a configurable subject line prefix (tag).

Bounce-Handling

OnlineGroups.Net tracks unsuccessful delivery of emails and notifies the participant using any other email addresses they have specified for themselves. After a configurable number of attempts (intended to prevent the user being disabled prematurely), OnlineGroups.Net suspends delivery to the bouncing address. The participant can re-enable it using their "email settings".

Email Loop Handling

OnlineGroups.Net identifies and terminates "Out of Office" reply loops. The loop-detection uses a variety of configurable methods to recognise automatically generated email.

Site Features

Your groups are organised onto a dedicated, customizable site so that your users, and visitors will only see groups, information and branding that is related to your organisation.

Multiple Groups

You can start as many public or private groups as you like on a site.

Private Group Members

Only Private Group Members can access private groups, but each Private Group Member can participate in as many groups as you invite them to.

No Ads

OnlineGroups.Net sites have no ads.

Site Subdomain

All Free Sites use a subdomain of onlinegroups.net, such as http://yoursite.onlinegroups.net. All online groups on Free Sites have email addresses ending in "@onlinegroups.net".

Custom Domain

All OnlineGroups.Net sites, including free sites, can use a domain that you own. Your site will then appear at http://yourdomain, and your online group email addresses will be @yourdomain.

To set up your online groups site at your domain, the ISP that manages the DNS for your domain will have two make two simple changes to set up the new subdomain. Please check that your domain complies with our Terms of Use, and then ask your ISP to make the two settings listed below, for the domain you wish to use on your Online Groups site.

Set the A record to 216.98.148.185.
Set the MX record at 'smtp.onlinegroups.net'.

Once this is complete, please let us know and we will configure your online groups site to work at your domain.

Configurable Site Title

The site title can be any text (up to 255 characters) that you like (within the Terms of Use).

Configurable Site Introduction

Text that appears to anonymous and logged-in users on the site home page, and can be configured with text, headings, lists, links and images.

Configurable Site Timezone

The site timezone determines the timezone for all dates displayed on the site, for non-logged-in visitors, and the default timezone for all users who register to join groups on the site.

Latest Topics Summary

The site home page displays a list (with a Web Feed) of the latest topics posted to groups that are visible to the current user.

Site Search

Users can serach for text in all messages and posted files that are visible to them.

User Features

Every logged in user has a their own view of your Online Groups site.

User Profiles: Each user has their own profile, with a bio, a photo and other configurable information. Profiles also disply all recent posts and files added by the user. Profile information that is not already public is only visible to logged in users. Profile information is available in hCard format.
Request Contact: No user email addresses are shown to other users. It is possible to contact a user, however, using a "request contact" form on their profile.
Multiple Email Addresses: Each user can add as many email addresses as they like. All email addresses registered with the site can be used to post ot online groups on the site.
Configurable Email Delivery Settings: Each participant can select the email address for delivery of posts from each group they are in. For each group, they can also choose to receive every post by email, to receive no posts at all, or to receive the topic digest.