Meet new friends who share your interests
Written: Jan 19 '01 (Updated Jan 19 '01)
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The Bottom Line
It has to be the best site on the web hosting literally thousands of communities for you to choose from, if egroups doesnt have it, start a community yourself!
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| Full Review |
If you have a special interest or hobby that you want to share with others, then www.egroups.com is the place for you.
It lists literally thousands of email communities set up by people like you who share a love of just about any subject, be it cycling, teddy bears, photography or whatever you choose. These are grouped under category headings on the home page but as there are so many thousands to choose from, you'd be best off using the search facility to find a group that matches your interests.
So what exactly are these communities or groups actually about? Well, the idea is that you subscribe to a group and are then able to discuss your favourite hobby or interest or health issue (or whatever!) with other members of the group via emails. You send an email to the group address and it is automatically distributed amongst all other members.
There are various different kinds of groups, but the most popular seems to be the unmoderated variety, where members can post freely without having their submissions checked by a moderater or list owner before they are emailed to all members of the group. There are also moderated groups where all messages are approved by the list owner before being sent, and finally, announcement or newsletter groups where only the list owner is able to send messages to the group members.
When joining a list, you are also offered different options as to how you would like to receive group messages. If the list you have chosen has a large membership, it may be that a large volume of mail could be generated, in which case, you may want to opt to either have your group mail delivered to you as a daily digest (20 messages grouped in one mail) or view or read postings directly at the web site only with no mail delivered to your inbox at all.
You can set up your own group very easily, the instructions are very straightforward on the site and guide you through each stage step by step. You can choose whether to have your own group listed in the site's public directory for others to find through the search facility, or to keep it private and by invitation only. You can also decide whether you want to solely approve membership requests when a newcomer wants to join your group, or allow people to join freely with no restrictions.
You will be asked to give a description of your group, this is where you should explain fully the reasons for your group, and what you and your fellow members want to achieve by it and the whole purpose of the group. You may also want to include some hard and fast rules here too for your members, so that everybody is clear right from the start what is allowed and what isn't!
Once your group is set up, you have many other options and features open to you by visiting your group's home page at egroups. Here you can set up polls for your members to vote on, set up databases that you and your members can add to and check membership lists and so on. There is a facility for members to store photographs and files, a calendar where you and your members can highlight important dates and events and a very useful chat facility where you can all get together for an online natter. In addition, there is a section where members can add web links that may be of interest to others in the group.
All in all, egroups is a very comprehensive and well run site hosting literally thousands of email communities/groups for you to choose from and is a superb way to meet lots of new friends who share your interests. And if you can't find what you're looking for, then start a group of your own and make the rules yourself!
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Member: Louise Read
Location: UK
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me: 36 year old CFS sufferer from UK, who loves cats, chocolate and teddy bears
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