Furl Groups Beta - Frequently Asked Questions
Furl Groups Overview
What is a Furl Group?
A Furl Group is a new way for user(s)to share great content they found on the web. Groups can focus on a certain topic of interest (cooking, coding, politics, travel, etc., ) or around a common connection, (Friends, Family, Co-workers, Reunion, etc.,) When creating a Furl Group, users are allowed to set the groups privacy level they would like to associate with the Group. Furl Groups has three levels of privacy:
Private Groups – limited Groups where only the folks you invite are able to see your private Group content. Uninvited users will not be able to see Group information anywhere across the site without an invite from the Group owner.
Invite Only – All group content will be visible to other Furlers but to actively participate in a group it requires the owner of a group to either invite them or accept their request to “join the Group.”
Public Group – These Groups are publicly available for anyone to view the data included and any Furl member can join.
Create & Join Furl Group(s)
Who can create a Furl Group?
Any Furl user can create a Furl Group.
How do I create a Group?
To start a new Group go to: http://www.furl.net/groups/new (you will need to be logged into Furl to get to this page). Fill out this form and click submit. Once your group is established, you will be able to invite others to your Group and post content from your archive or the web.
Who can join Groups?
Any Furl member can join a Group. You can join a public Group or request to join an Invite-only Group, by clicking “Join this Group” button on the Group Home page. To join a private Group, you will receive a personalized invitation from the owner of a private Group to join.
How do I invite others to my Furl Group?
If the group is public you can send them the Group page URL and just have them Click the “join Group” button at the top of the page.
If you are the owner of a public group you must send out invitations to let other users know you have created a group. On each Group page there’s a navigation menu on the top right hand side of the page. In that menu there’s a link allowing you to invite other users to your group. You can also use this URL and enter the group name : http://beta.furl.net/group/groupname/invite_form
Note: users will need to be Furl members to join a Furl Group. If your friends or family are not yet Furl memebers have them sign up here: http://www.furl.net/signups/new. With our new registration process new users can be Furling in minutes!
How do I create a Group name?
Each Furl Group name must be unique and cannot conflict with existing user names. Names must between four and 25 characters in length. Group names may contain letters, numbers, and underscores, but they must always start with a letter (e.g. furl_groups_08). Names cannot contain spaces.
How do I create an image?
Group images are intended to represent your Group’s purposes and passions. The image size is currently limited to 125x125 (pixels). Furl Groups should automatically resize your image to the correct dimensions. You’ll need to double-check that you have permission to use your Group image and that it is appropriate for general consumption (no offensiveor illegal content.)
If you can’t find an image you like, you can always use the default Furl Groups image by leaving the image section blank when you create the Group.
How do I edit an Group image?
To modify your Group image, log in to Furl.net, go to your Group and then click on “Edit Group Details” in the owner’s navigation bar just below your groups’ title and description.
How do I create a Group description?
A Group description is quick paragraph summarizing your Group’s focus. Furl searches against this field as well as against Group tags to help others find your Group (if public or invite only; private Groups are not searched).
How do I create Group tags?
Group tags are keywords that highlight aspects of your Group. We use this data as well as the Group description to help others find your Group (if public or invite only). To keep this data field useful, we’ve limited the number of tags per group to 10 tags.
Post to a Furl Group
How do I add content to a Group?
To post an item to a Group, you will first need to be a member or owner of a Group. (Click the respective link for instructions on how to Create or Join a Group.) Once you are a member of a Group, you can add content to a Group in two ways:
(1) Post to a Group when you Furl an item – When you Furl a page, there is a new option in the save dialog box that allows you to post to a Group or Groups while you Furl that page.
(2) Post content from your archive – You are able to go to your archive http://www.furl.net/my/archive and use the F-menu drop-down or our bulk edit feature to post relevant data to your Group. (See the next paragraph for details on how to use our bulk edit feature.) Chose the item you would like to post and then click on the “F-menu”. A drop-down menu will appear with a new option to “Post to Group”.. Select the appropriate group and then hit the enter key. A confirmation box will appear double chekcing that you want to post your item to a group. Please be sure to double-check which Group you are posting to. Note: you will need to make sure the items you are posting are items that you really do want to share.
How do I post multiple links to a Group?
To post several items from your archive to a Furl Group, we suggest you use Furl’s bulk editing functionality. Bulk editing allows you to manage multiple items at once.
First go to your archive and perform either a search for the related content and or use the Furl filters to limit your archive results to relevant links for your Group. (E.g. Topic=Politics.)
Once you see the content you would like to post to your Group, go to your archive page. http://www.furl.net/my/archive
On your archive page you will see a link titled "Enter Bulk Edit Mode" just above your archive content on the left hand side. Click the “Bulk Edit Mode” link. Check boxes will appear allowing you to choose any Furled item(s) on the page to be added to Furl Groups.
Once you have selected the items you’d like to post to your group click the "F" icon menu. A pop up box will appear allowing you to choose which group you would like to post to. Once you choose the group(s) you’d like to post to another pop up box will appear asking you to confirm your posting.
Privacy Settings and Groups
Furl users have the choice to save any item publicly or privately. With Furl Groups we’ve also enabled users to choose what information they want to share with the larger Furl community.
Please note, if you have privately saved items, those items may not be posted to public groups until you change the status to public. This is to ensure your private items are not accidentally posted to a Group.
For Private groups you are allowed to share a public or private item to a private group. Be sure you want to share the information you post to a group.
Do I have to save an item in my archive to post it to a Group?
Yes. We require someone in the Group to save the content in their own archive. We highly recommend that you save content you find interesting from a Group into your own archive. The benefits of doing so are that (1) you have your own personal copy of the page (2) you are not dependent on another user to re-find great content and (3) you are able to use your archive as the destination for content you think is really compelling. Please note if a user decides to leave a Group, they will take their posts with them.
What happens if a user leaves a Group?
If a user decides to leave a Group, their posts go with them. That’s why it’s important to save items you find interesting in your own archive.
How do I find a Group?
Furl Group Search allows you to find Groups by keyword or phrase. Groups Search will only include public and invite only Groups. Private Groups will be excluded from the search results.
Please note the Furl Groups search algorithm looks for exact matches to your query so if you are looking for the “Rowing Group”, type in the term “rowing”, not “row” to find a related Group.
Can’t find the kind of Group you are looking for? Check out Furl’s Group recommendations http://www.furl.net/my/groups/recommended. This algorithm looks at content you like and attempts to match you to Groups you might find interesting. If the recommendations engine fails to find compelling Groups the first time, keep on Furling so it can learn more about you. Or start your own Group.
Group Features
My Groups
My Groups page lists all the Groups you belong to.
My Group Headlines
Want a quick way to see some of what each of your Groups are saving? My Groups Headlines is a single page that shows you all the new posted items to all of your Groups for the last
Random Group
We find the new groups our users have come up with fascinating and wanted a way to preview what Groups were being created or updated. The Random Group feature is a link that randomly selects and highlights a Public or Invite only Group. We feature the uploaded Group image, so be sure to choose an appropriate and fitting image to represent your Group. Offensive images will be removed immediately.
Hot Groups – New Links
This view allows you to see the most active Group based upon the number of URLs posted in a given week.
Hot Groups – New Members
This page highlights those Groups with the most new members in a given week.
Group Invitation Page
This page lists all of your pending invitations to Furl Groups. We provided this page for those users who wish to manage their Group membership on Furl.net and not via email. To view your pending invitations please go to: http://www.furl.net/my/group_invitations and accept the invitations in your queue or remove those requests that aren’t of interest.
Group Discussions
What are Group Discussions?
Group discussions are a way for you to provide direct commentary regarding a Furl Group and/or a URL.
Group Discussions
Group discussion threads are intended for group members to communicate to all group members in one place.
To start or reply to a discussion thread on a group go to the group page and then find the “group action” box at the top right of the page. Click the “Group Discussion” link to view the latest enteries from your fellow group mates.
Alternatively you can go directly to the discussion page by updating this url with the group name you are interested in: http://beta.furl.net/group/groupname/discussion.
URL Discussions
Ever see a URL on Furl and want to add some commentary to others about the web page? Group URL discussions is a place to do just that. When you are in your group and you see a URL that has been saved, click the “Discussions Entries” link to leave your thoughts on this particular item. The Furl Group URLs Discussions feature is a new place to let anyone in your group know your thoughts on the saved item without having to save the article in your personal Furl archive.
Also a great place to make suggestions or provide additional commentary to your fellow Group Mates.
For example a URL comment could be something like: “This retailer is great but you should try this shop instead
Where are Discussions on the rest of Furl?
The ability to discuss items on Furl is coming soon. Please provide your feedback regarding Furl Groups Discussions so we can fine tune the product before we roll it out to the rest of the site.
To provide thoughts on discussions, please email our customer service department furl at furl.net.
Managing Content in Furl Groups
What if I find Groups or users in Groups offensive?
Please report it to the owner of the Group - http://www.furl.net/group/groupname/email_owner_form. The Group owner really helps set the tone of each Group. With the exception of spam, illegal, and grossly inappropriate content, we at Furl do not want to dictate what you can and cannot have in your archives or in your Groups. That said, if you do find spam or inappropriate content in a Group (or on any Furl page) you can report it to our customer service department. http://www.furl.net/group/groupname/flag_form
What if I find spam in my Group?
If you are a member of a Group please report spam to the owner. We’ve provided owners with tools to remove content from the Group if it’s poor quality or doesn’t belong.
If you are the owner of a Group, use the “F-menu” drop-down link to either remove URL(s) or members from your Group. If you change your mind about a previous decision go to your Groups action menu (at the top of the Groups page and click either of these links to see what you have marked as inappropriate: "View Banned URLs" at http://beta.furl.net/group/groupname/blacklisted_urls or "View Banned Users" at http://beta.furl.net/group/groupname/blacklisted_users.
Group Membership Logistics:
Leave a Group
If you want to leave a Group go to the Group page and then click on “Leave a Group” in the navigation box on the right-hand side of the Group page. Your posts to that Group will be removed from the Group but will remain in your archive, untouched.
Please note there is NO way to automatically rejoin a group and return your previous posts once you have left a group. You will need to rejoin a group and manually repost all entries should you leave a group and decide to rejoin at a later date, so please do not make the decision to leave a group lightly.
Transfer Ownership
If you would like to transfer ownership of your Group to someone else, you may ask a Furl user to take the Group over. Go to the Group page and click on “Transfer Ownership” link in the Owner’s navigation bar. You’ll be taken to a new page that has a drop down of members in your group that may want to become the owner of a group. Pick the best candidate and then click “Request Transfer”. When you click that, an email will go to that Furl member asking if they will take over the Group. If they accept, they will click on the link in the email, and they will then own the Group.
If the user does not accept ownership, we recommend you offer the position to another user, given that you’ve waited a reasonable amount of time for the original transferee to reply.
Opt-out emails
Furl Groups is a great way to get in touch with other users and for a portion of our functionality we’ve enabled email notifications. If you are not a fan of email notifications, please look on one of the Furl Groups emails to “opt-out” of Furl groups Emails.
Please note this opt-out is specific to Furl Groups related emails.
Furl may occasionally need to reach you for important updates related to the Furl service.