All about Navy For Mom GROUPS (on menu bar above).

As of May 14, 2012 we have 1440 Groups.  Many (149) have fewer than 4 members. If you are thinking of starting a group, please check to see if there is an existing group with the same focus.  Click on GROUPS. In the search box on the left, input keywords (for example, "Sub Mom", "Norfolk", "A School Great Lakes", "PIR June 2009").  To the right of the search box, you'll see the sort options (Most Members, Most Activity, Latest Activity, Latest, Alphabetical).

To start a group: 

• Click Groups on menu bar, click  +ADD
• Name: the name should be indicative of what the group is for (or about)
• Add a photo: click on the photo icon, upload a file from your hard drive
• Group Address: this is internet address for your group. It will be something like this
  http://www.navyformoms/group/
  The string of characters after "group/" is what you will enter. For example, for my local geographical group,
  San Francisco Bay Area Navy Families, the group address is
  http://www.navyformoms/group/sfbayareanavyfamilies
  You can see it's important to have the Group Address and the Name be related (correspond to each other)
  Note: you can change the NAME of the group any time you want but the internet address is unique and can not be changed after the fact.  Changing the address for all intends and purposes is like starting a new group. All comments, group discussions, photos, members will stay with the old internet address.  Some will argue, yes you can change the internet address - this is not true. What the NING programmers did last year was to  redirect the new address to the old address, thus it looks like you were able to changed the address.  It is better to leave it alone. THIS IS CALLED THE URL (Uniform Resource Locator).  You'll see this on your browser.  Look near the top of your page (typically under File, Edit, View - Mozilla Firefox or MS Internet Explorer), see the box with that begins with "www" or "http:www" ?   Notice how this changes when you go from one site to another.
  
• Website:  If your group has another website, enter it here. You'll see the "http://" part again
• Privacy Setting: Public or Private.  You can change this anything by clicking on "OPTIONS", then "Edit Group"
• Features:  You should check Comments, Discussion Forum, Text Box and RSS Reader (if you plan on having a RSS Feed).  TEXT BOX is the section located just below the description of the group and above the group discusions.  Click here San Francisco Bay Area Navy Families to see an example. I use this area for special announcement, calendars, dates, links ... anything you want.
• Members:  Self explanatory.
• Messages: Check here only if you want members of your group to be able to send out group messages. 

FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND THE GROUP'S PAGE.   Using San Francisco Bay Area Navy Families again as an example, you'll see the title and other basic information on the top. You'll also see "Options" and "Invite" on the right. Under Options, you can Edit Group, Manage Group Members, Add a Page.  Below that you'll see the TEXT BOX feature (this is where I have "Bulletin Board - Announcements and Meet & Greets").  You can change the contents of the Text Box any time you like. Click on "Edit" located on the right side of text box heading.  To the right of that, you'll see the icon for members of the group. Just below the member icons, you'll see the PAGES title bar with the list of pages I have added to my group's site.  I use this PAGE feature as a reference section - each page can be anything.  Only the title to the first 10 pages will be on display, although you can have as many as 29 pages.  I have a page for link to the Survival Guide, a for the link to list of groups.  To see all the discussions or pages, click "View All"

CONTROLLING THE GROUP:

1. The member who starts the group is the creator.  The creator (and only the creator) can delete the group. The creator can any number of admins. The creator or admin can suspend a member. The creator or admin can edit the group information (name, photo), edit the text box or edit the discussion display parameters.  The creator or admin can add a page to the group.  
2. The creator or admin (within the Options) can see when a member joined the group by clicking Manage Group Members. 
3. Only the creator can delete a message posted by a member. Member of the group can delete his/her own message. An admin does not have this prerogative. 
4. To send a message to the group, click on "Send Message To Group" located right above the icons.

Note: often, you see the internet address (http://www. ...  etc) when someone post a link for a group (or a blog, or a discussion). Sometimes you'll see a string of underlined words (this could be anything). When you hover your mouse over the address or string of words that has been linked with an internet address, the mouse will turn into a hand.  Clicking on this will take direct you to the unique internet address where the site you wish to access resides.  See the the 5 icons next to "add"?  The "Link" is the create a link feature.  Just highlight any string of words, click on the "link", a pop up window will occur, input the hyperlink, click "OK" - that is all there is to it.  But if you read more, click on below discussion.

Uploading A Photo & Adding a Hyperlink.

For you convenience, we have compile a list of various groups - here are some of them. These list are posted under FORUM/How To Do Stuff on N4M.

GROUPS: Listed by Name of US Naval Ships

GROUPS: LISTED BY RATINGS (JOB)

Ratings, A School Locations and links to Groups 

GROUPS LISTED BY GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION - STATE, CITY, COUNTRY, ETC. 

Groups: Listed by Special Interest.htm

GROUPS: Listed By PIR Date thru June 29, 2012

If you are a new member, this last list will be the most interesting. This is a list of existing groups associated with a PIR date. The group for PIR July 6 is forming. This list is updated as soon as a new PIR group has been formed.

N4M Friends - feel free to add to this. Suggest revisions. Or even a complete rewrite - feel free to copy and paste any of the above info. 

BQB  (semi-retired from N4M)