One week ago today we announced that we would deliver a suite of controls for group owners to manage their groups in Grouply. I am pleased to announce that the first Grouply Owner Controls are now available.

With Grouply Owner Controls, group owners can control whether members can use Grouply’s Invite My Group feature. They can also block their group from using Grouply entirely if they want. Grouply Owner Controls are accessible whether or not your group is already in Grouply.

Each group has a “dashboard” where the group owner can make selections. Group owners do not need to register with Grouply or submit any personal information to access the dashboard. Instead, the owner goes to the Grouply Owner Controls start page and enters her group name. An owner authorization code (OAC) is then sent to her groupname-owner@yahoogroups.com email address. The group owner uses the code to access the owner dashboard for her group. The whole process takes less than a minute, and all selections are reversible; just revisit your group’s dashboard to make changes.

When an owner blocks her group, the group disappears entirely from Grouply. No group messages are accessible by anyone, and the group name will no longer display. All group members in Grouply are sent an email notifying them of the change. Group members who join Grouply in the future will not be able to use Grouply for the group. Here is an example of what group members see for a blocked group on the Update Group Access page in Grouply.

We would like to thank the members and moderators of GrouplyImprovements for helping design this first release of Grouply Owner Controls. GrouplyImprovements is an independently run group created by moderators from EmailList-Managers, Group Managers Forum, ListHelp, and Yahoo Group of Groups — the four most highly regarded “groups about Yahoo Groups” in existence.

We are now collecting requirements for follow-on Owner Controls features including the Owner Newsletter, a weekly email for group owners including useful statistics about your group. The Owner Newsletter feature is being discussed and developed in GrouplyImprovements. Join GrouplyImprovements today and make your voice heard!

If you encounter any issues using Grouply Owner Controls or have any suggestions, please contact us at support@grouply.com .