Location in desktop browser: Left menu > Admin > Preferences > Settings > Message Policies panel on the Settings page
Location on mobile device: Bottom of page > More > Admin > Preferences > Settings > Message Policies panel on the Settings page
! Important: Setting changes take effect after you click or tap the Update Group button at the bottom of the page.
By default, a message sent to a group by a nonmember is rejected automatically with a notice that the sender must be a member of the group to post messages to it.
If you want to allow people who are not group members to be able to post messages to the group, select the Allow Nonmembers to Post checkbox. Such messages will not be rejected automatically; instead, they will require approval from a moderator before they are posted to the group. On the Pending Messages page at the group’s website, the Author column will have a red NM badge next to a nonmember’s email address. If you open the pending message on the group’s website, a red Non Member label appears next to a nonmember’s email address.
Use case example: A group set up for a committee might want to allow people who are not members of the committee to send messages to the committee via the group.
Note: Enabling this setting might result in spam messages going to the pending (moderated) list, even though the system does some checking for known spammers.
Restriction: This setting appears only in subgroups.
By default, a message sent to a subgroup by a member of the parent group who is not a member of the subgroup is rejected automatically with a notice that the sender must be a member of the subgroup to post messages to it.
If you want to allow people in the parent group who are not subgroup members to be able to post messages to the subgroup, select the Allow Parent Members to Post checkbox. This setting allows members of the parent group to post messages to the subgroup even though they do not belong to the subgroup. Be aware that those parent group members will not receive replies that are sent to the subgroup.
Use case example: A subgroup set up for a committee might want to allow people in the parent group who are not members of the committee to send messages to the committee via the subgroup.
Select the Disable No Email checkbox if you do not want to allow group members to use the No Email option for email delivery in their subscription settings. When you select this checkbox:
Note: Members will still be able to select the Special Notices Only email delivery option in their own subscription settings.
Select this checkbox if you want to require that all messages posted to the group have at least one hashtag.
This setting controls whether regular members can create new hashtags by including them in message subject lines. It also controls how messages are handled if members are not allowed to create new hashtags but include new hashtags in a message anyway. Select the option you want to apply to the group:
Members can create hashtags by including new hashtags in emailed or web-posted topics.
This setting also allows members to create new hashtags using the Create Hashtags page on the group’s website. See Creating a hashtag.
If a member includes a new hashtag in an email message (that is, the hashtag is not in the list of the group’s existing hashtags), the system holds the message as a draft for that member, and the member receives an email notification instructing them to edit the message.
If a member includes a new hashtag in an email message (that is, the hashtag is not in the list of the group’s existing hashtags), the system strips the new hashtag from the message before sending the message to the group.
Note: You can assign group moderators a permission that allows them to create and modify hashtags.
Select this checkbox if you do not want to allow members to make changes to the content of their own messages in the message archive (that is, after the messages have been posted to the group).
Note:
This setting controls who is initially set to receive replies to messages that are posted to the group. Select the option you want to apply:
Replies are automatically addressed to the entire group.
Replies are automatically addressed only to the individual sender of the message being replied to. However, if a group member uses the “reply to all” option in their email application, their reply will be addressed to the group in addition to the individual sender.
Tip: If you do not want to allow replies to senders to also be delivered to the group, select the Only to Sender setting (see below).
Replies are automatically addressed only to the group’s moderators (and owners).
Replies are automatically addressed to both the entire group and the individual sender of the message being replied to.
Replies are automatically addressed only to the individual sender of the message being replied to.
Note: If a group member replying by email uses the “reply to all” option in their email application, their reply will be addressed to the group in addition to the individual sender; however, when the reply is sent, it will be blocked from the group. The person replying will receive a delivery failure notification that their message to the group address was blocked, and the notification message will include this statement: “Replies to this topic must be sent to the sender, not the group.” The individual sender will still receive the reply.
With this setting:
You can use this setting to create “semiprivate” topics in the group where only the members who are following specific topics will see those topics, but all the messages are still archived.
This setting applies to all topics in a group. If you want to change it for an individual topic or hashtag, you can use the Reply To property for that topic or hashtag.
Note: This setting does not affect the Message Selection preference in individual members’ subscriptions.
In a group that has subgroups, you can select this setting to specify that replies to messages sent to the main group are addressed to a subgroup, or that replies to messages sent to a subgroup are addressed to the main group or another subgroup.
Use case example: This setting could be useful in an Announcement-Only group, where you could create a subgroup to receive replies to announcements that are sent by the main group.
When you select this option, a dropdown list labeled Other Group To Send Reply To appears next to the Reply To list. In a main group, select the subgroup to which you want replies to be sent. In a subgroup, you can select the main group or another subgroup (if more than one subgroup exists).
Note: Members will still see additional reply options in messages on the group’s website and in message digests (if they are using that delivery option). You can use the next setting to remove those additional reply options.
Select this checkbox to remove links from messages on the group’s website and in digests to reply options other than the one you selected in the Reply To list above.
To put topics on moderation automatically after a specific length of time, select this checkbox and specify the number of days after which topics should be moderated.
Note: The moderation becomes effective overnight, U.S. Pacific Time, after the specified number of days have elapsed.
To lock topics (prevent further replies to them) automatically after a specific length of time, select this checkbox and specify the number of days after which topics should be locked.
Note: The locking becomes effective overnight, U.S. Pacific Time, after the specified number of days have elapsed.
If you group members to be able to download the message archive to a file, select this checkbox.
Downloaded archive files are in mbox format.
Select this option to put the group's message footers in a separate message part in outbound email messages rather than have the footers appended to messages. (Message parts are sections of a MIME-structured email body.)
Use case example: This specialized setting is useful in groups with members who use Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption to sign their email messages.
This setting specifies how the Groups.io system should handle messages that it detects contain a virus. Select the option you want to use:
The system blocks (rejects) the message, sends a notification to the sender, and adds an entry to the group’s activity log. This setting is the default.
The system flags the message for moderation—regardless of the group’s moderation settings—and adds an entry to the group’s activity log. The system also adds a red badge with the name of the detected virus to the message, and the owner or a moderator will see that information when reviewing the message.
Note: Messages from nonmembers that contain viruses are blocked regardless of the selected Virus Handling setting.
To save group storage space, you can use this setting to restrict the size of images that are attached to email messages sent by group members. In the list, select the maximum size (in pixels) that images attached to email messages should be resized to. The default setting is No resizing.
Note:
This setting specifies how to handle message attachments when the group’s storage space limit is reached. Select the option you want to use:
The system deletes attachments to the oldest messages until sufficient space is freed up. This setting is the default.
Note: The content (text) in messages themselves is not deleted. Only attachments are deleted.
The system bounces messages that have attachments until sufficient space is freed up.