Admin Post

Some emails may be sent out as what is called an admin post.  Admin posts can only be sent from the Y!G website by a group owner or moderator and by clicking on the admin post checkbox.  Admin posts are sent out like all other posts except that some members may have their settings to only receive admin posts.

Bouncing

An email address is said to be "bouncing" when Yahoo is unable to deliver messages to that address. Here's Yahoo's definition and how to fix it.

Crossposting 

Crossposting is often confused with forwarding (i.e. sending a message received on one group to another group).  However, the term properly refers to the practice of sending the same message simultaneously to more than one group by using multiple addressees or copies.  Cutting and pasting the same wording to more than one message and sending each to a different group might not be considered to be true crossposting, although the effect can be similarly annoying for people who are on a number of the groups and therefore get multiple copies.  Often such posters are more determined to spread their views or beliefs as widely as possible with no intention of responding intelligently, if at all, should they get a reply.  This is something that a good moderator ought to be concerned about.

Directory

The official directory for Yahoo Groups at http://groups.yahoo.com provides a way to both browse and search for groups.  The search is by keyword of any word in the name, description or home page text.

Group

A group is a collection of users who collect together via email and the Yahoo Groups website to discuss a subjects around the focus chosen by the group's owner.

Help

The underappreciated, and underused, Yahoo Groups help system is available at <http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/>. See also Yahoo! Groups FAQs.

Moderation

Moderation is the interception of new messages which would otherwise be posted direct to the group and determining whether they are compatible with the guidelines and the orderly conduct of the group.  On the basis of that determination, messages can be allowed, disallowed or edited according to the sole discretion of the moderator who may, if it is felt necessary, also remove or ban the member from the group.  Moderation may be applied to new members, all members, some in particular or none.  The purpose of moderation is to ensure the group operates either roughly or precisely within the group's guidelines of operation.  Moderation control is always and can only be applied to groups by the owner-moderator team.  There is also the concept of self-moderation which is the act of restraint by each member to ensure their posts stay within group guidelines.

Off-topic

A post that is on-topic is one that accords with the group's aims as established initially by its name, description, home page text and later by the policies of the owner and the members who join.  Conversely posts that are off-topic are ones that go outside those boundaries.  Sometimes the borderline of what is on and off-topic can be down to semantics, on other occasions it may be very blatant.  A common example is someone posting to the group about external services such as websites that have no relevance to the members.

Owner

A group owner starts as the person who creates the group.  However later on that owner can, if they wish promote other members to become owners as well.  Owners have additional rights above moderators that can control the group, including deleting it.

Pending

In groups where the owners have set all new membership applications to require approval, pending is the state of user membership with occurs to a user who has applied to join a group before they can actually participate in the group's activities.  Pending status may be useful in groups where the information and activity in the group is sensistive or private.

 

Profile  (obsolete)

AKA "public profile". The public profiles associated with a Yahoo account can be edited through the My Account link, at the top of every Groups page. You can set which profile is shown in each of your groups on the Edit My Groups page.

Registration Info

The information you entered when you created your Yahoo! account, including your real name, ID, password, birthdate and secret question are your account's registration information. Yahoo requires that your real name and birthdate be accurate (TOS 3).

Spam

The definition of spam in a group can be controversial.  Essentially classed as something that is off-topic, what is considered spam may vary from group to group and also from member to member.  Some groups will tolerate a large range of off-topic posts whereas other groups prohibit any off-topic post.  From a member's perspective what is considered as spam can often reflect personal opinions.  That said, withing a group's culture, there is often an easy agreement in most circumstances when a post is considered as spam. 

 

It is incumbent on the owner and the moderator team to set the tone of what is considered as spam, and how much or little is to be accepted.  Also it should be said that not all off-topic posts are spam, however the opposite is true - that all spam is off-topic.

Subject

The subject field is used to define the topic.

Thread

A collection of emails theoretically on the same subject. Yahoo Groups adds a new message to an existing thread if its Subject field matches that of a message in the thread, or if it contains a "In-Reply-To" header field that matches a message in the thread.

Y!G

A common abbreviation for Yahoo Groups.