The PurplePort Guide to Member Created Groups

On most competitive websites, there are groups or forums. These are generally all created by the site owners.

On PurplePort, you can join and leave groups, even site-created ones. Some groups can be entirely private, and some are just for PurplePort members only. Groups can also include image collections. 

Finding new groups to join

Go to Groups (top of every page) and click the Find & Join (top right). From there, you can browse the groups, or you can search for something specific.

Creating a new group 

There might not be an existing group for what you are looking for or need. On PurplePort, we allow you to create your own groups for your own discussion topics. Your group can be about anything you like, such as your studio, a local social model/photographer get-together, photography techniques, a style of image or pretty much anything you like. 

To create a new group, go to Groups, and click Create a whole new group from the grey cog (top right).

The group name is important because it will give casual browsers an idea of what the group is about. For example, If your group is about low light photography, then calling it "Low light photography" will catch people’s attention more than “Into the darkness”.

Inviting people to your new group

If you want your group to have a vibrant community, you’ll need to invite people. To invite members to your group, view your group, and click Invite people from the grey cog (top right)  You can also invite someone by viewing their portfolio page, and click Invite to a group from the grey cog (top right). 

Group visibility

PurplePort groups come in several flavours, and this controls who can see and join the group:

• Public - Anyone, whether a PurplePort member or not, can see the group and its contents. Any PurplePort member can join the group, and any member can invite anyone else.
• PurplePort only - Only PurplePort members can see the group. Any PurplePort member can join the group, and any member can invite anyone else.
• Private - The group can be found when searching but to see the contents of the group, you’ll need to request membership (which will need to be approved) or be invited to join by a moderator. This option is currently disabled.
• Invite only - This group is hidden from searches, and members need to be invited to join by a moderator.

Groups with images

Images can be added to groups. Anyone that uses Flickr will be familiar with the concept. 

When viewing the group, you’ll see several rows of images with a More button at the top of the group.

Possible uses would be to showcase a particular style of image or a particular processing technique or to include images of a venue taken by a wide range of people. You could even use this to create your own version of the Front Page Image Collection. 

Groups can have an associated image collection in several ways:

• No images - Images are not allowed in this group.
• Images are invited by moderators - Only moderators can invite images. An invite notification is sent to the owner of the images, and they can accept or decline the invite.
• Images can be added by anyone but need approval - Any member of the group can add their own images to the group, but moderators will need to approve the images. A notification is sent to the owner of the images when an image is accepted. 
• Anyone can add images, and they appear instantly - Any member of the group can add their own images to the group.

To add an image to a group, view the image, and click Invite/add to one of your groups from the grey cog. 

Viewing pending images

If you are a moderator of a group that allows image submissions, then you will see a button at the top of the group showing pending images.

Your image is in a group

If your image has been added to a group, the groups your image has been added to will be listed when you view the image (below the keyword tags, member tags, and albums, under the heading Groups). Click [x] next to the group name to remove your image from that group.

Removing images from the group collection

Moderators and group owners can remove images from the group, either from the group page or from the More collection of images associated with the group. To remove an image from the group, hover your mouse over the image (or tap the image) and click X to remove the image.

Adding images from a group to the PurplePort homepage

We have a homepage gadget that allows you to use images from one of your groups instead of the usual popular, recently uploaded or front page image collections.

From the home page, go to the spanner button (top right) and add the Group image collection gadget. Go to the gadget, click Choose group and select the group you want to use. Don’t forget you can drag and drop the gadgets on the homepage to move them where you want them.

At any time, you can change the group you wish to use as well as customise the gadget to show as many rows as you like.

Moderators

You can promote an existing member of your group to be a moderator of your group. To make someone a moderator, view your group, click Group members (from the grey cog) and then click Add Moderator.

Moderator privileges

Moderators can do the following within a group:

• Pin a post
• Lock a post
• Invite images
• Remove images from the group
• Invite people to the group 

Note: Only the owner of the group can promote moderators.

Group owner privileges

On top of normal moderator duties, group owners can also suspend someone from the group or remove them from the group entirely.

Member created group rules

Whilst we are happy for you to create your own groups and manage them as you see fit, there are some rules:

• Don’t create groups to bash other members
• Don’t post anything illegal
• Always play nice. No one should create a group just to be horrid.
• Remember that one day there may be a bug in PurplePort that allows your private group to be seen by everyone, and no one wants to be embarrassed by that. 

There are things you can do in your own groups that we don’t allow you to do in the site-created groups:

• Post your casting calls and events.
• Bump your posts so they appear at the top of the recent discussions for anyone in the group. Obviously, this is somewhat antisocial and a good way to lose group members!
• You can share photos that you might not want to post in a single image critique, share a shoot or portfolio review.