The question of "How do I start a group get asked?", so I will go through the process here.  Anyone can create a group at Beliefnet.

Starting a group is a simple process.  Under the Groups tab on the left side of your home or profile page  there is a Create Group.  First click on Group tab, then click on Create  Group link.

First pick a name for the group which identifies what the members will  be discussing.  Then the URL I believe should have that name.  Enter  name in the URL place on the page. 

Example: thisismygroup or  this_is_my_group.  The Beliefnet part of URL is already there.

Then you will give a brief description and a longer description of the  group.  The next three things you decide are who can join, privacy level and  how the group will be displayed.

Also as administrator of the group when you click on View Group (Home  and Profile pages) under the Group tab you go to the page with your  groups. When you view your group you are creating after clicking Forum  you'll also click View Forum to see the discussions.

If you have any more questions about starting a group, please post them at this thread.

Mar 9, 2011 -- 6:06PM, RenGalskap wrote:

Aug 9, 2010 -- 12:45PM, Stardove wrote:

The next three things you decide are who can join, privacy level and  how the group will be displayed.

On joining a group, if I choose "Invitation Only", I assume that there's some sort of invitation message that invitees receive that makes joining simple by allowing them to click something in the message. Can I send the same type of invitation if I choose "Screen Join Requests"? If I wanted to allow anyone to join, subject to my screening, but send invitations to people who I wanted to ensure were aware of the new group, could I choose "Screen Join Requests" and then send additional invitations?  The "Privacy Level" setting involves different levels of visiting the group. What is "visiting the group"? Is a visitor someone who reads posts but can't contribute? Or is it someone who makes posts? What is a network member?  What is "Publish to Group"?  Basically, I want to allow only members to make posts, but allow anyone to read the posts. How do I do that?

I had to take a look to see that the wording has changed somewhat, since I last created a group. You can always invite members, no matter which one you choose.  I would think you would want to choose the "screen join requests".  Members can join, but you have the final say.  To invite members go to their page and click on invite to group.  With only one group you would click on that to send an invite.  The member can accept or ignore.  You can always remove a member.

For members with more than one group they all pop up and only one at a time can be selected.  Once a person is a member of a group that group will not show up when you click on the invite option.

Privacy level "only network members can view group" would allow members of Beliefnet to view, but not post.  (I believe this is right, but this is not how I remember the wording.)  You could also choose just members only to view group.

The Publish thing I do not recall, but I believe this is for your members to publish their private journal postings to the group.  You can screen and decide to allow or not, allow without screening, or not allow members to share their journals.  This is about "blogs" or journals members post of their profile pages.

Hope this helps Ren.