Author Posts

May 11, 2016 at 3:21 am

@kaka135 Even when we were homeschooling there were a great many online resources, including whole sites that offered free texts and curricula. I think perhaps it was harder to find them, though 😉

A lot of folks worry about spammers with public groups, but I believe that there is a setting in the group that still requires admin or moderators to approve new members. For our group, the members must show proof that they are actively blogging or writing online. So they can’t really get in without showing that they do write! The public will be able to see the posts but nobody will be able to join the group without proof that they write.

About the shortlink, yes it is also good to downplay the addition of the referral link. Not everyone wants to see that, and some people may be suspicious of it because they can look like the kind of URLs that are associated with advertising.

May 13, 2016 at 3:04 am

@ruby3881 It’s good to hear that there were so many online resources for you.

I think you know about the Facebook group better. At first I thought for public group, anyone can just join without needing the admin to approve. I have seen some spammers in the homeschooling groups I joined, even though they are closed groups. Those spammers joined the group mainly to sell their products. That’s why I have this concern for you. But I believe you can handle that well. 🙂

May 13, 2016 at 5:31 pm

@kaka135 I think that on FB groups the control of spam is a matter of having a consistent presence and a strong sense of community. This is why during our initial phase, my group is closed. I control everyone who joins, and nobody is allowed in without proof of current writing activity. This will continue to be the case once we take the group public.

The main difference between the closed and private groups is that posts from the public group are seen in the public FB timeline. That means that anyone who searches a keyword or clicks on a tag can see posts from the group that match the search criteria. I’m hoping this will help increase exposure for those who share links.