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Joining groups

Joining and participating in social groups helps you become involved in your community.

A group is a place for you to connect with people who share an interest. Groups can be about anything from human resources informational groups to after-work sports groups. People join a group to participate in discussions, keep track of the group-related documents, and remain aware of the group's activities.

There are several types of groups. Depending on how your community is set up, your group options may differ. You can browse most of the groups in your community from the Places page and find groups of interest: groups anyone can fully participate in are called public groups**open groups. Other groups require you to be a member to participate in certain ways. Depending on how a group is set up, you may have to join it before you can collaborate on content in that group. Some groups require you to be a member to see any activity or content in a group, and others are invisible unless you get an invitation.

For more information about group types, see Types of groups.

Related

Getting started

Finding groups to join​

When searching or browsing, you can find spaces, projects, and groups that are set to be visible to search. And if you found a private group you want to join, you can ask to be accepted.

To find some groups to participate in:

  1. In the main navigation menu, go to your avatar > Your Places.

  2. Select All in the left pane to see all places which you can see in your community.

  3. Select Groups at the top of the page to see only the groups in your community.

  4. Select a group type under the All group types list to view only groups of a particular type. You see the following options for group type:

PublicOpen

You can click through and participate, or follow the group to see updates from the group in the streams. (Public groups don't have members.)

Public RestrictedMembers Only

You can click through and participate. You can reply or comment and create some kinds of content without joining the group, but for full authorship rights, you need to be approved for membership by a member of the group.

Private

You can see that the group exists. But you need to request membership if you want to see what's in a private group. The group owner must approve your membership.

Private Unlisted Secret

You must be invited to this group to see it.

Restriction: You won't see any Private: Unlistedsecret groups here unless you are invited to the group (or has already joined it).

For more information, see Types of groups.

  1. Use the filtering options to find groups that interest you. For example, type accounting in the Filter by text area to find all accounting-related groups.

  2. Click the group title to open and look at the group.

  3. To join a group that requires membership, go to the group's landing page, then go to Actions > Join group.

  4. To join a private group, you can click Ask to join this group and wait for the group administrators to approve or reject your request.

Accepting invitations to groups​

If you are invited to join a private or public restricted group, you should accept the invitation to join the group.

You can find and accept the invitation in your Inbox (on the web app). For public restricted groups, you can find the invitation in Inbox on the web app only.Note that the invitation email contains only instructions for joining and a group link – but you still need to accept the invitation before you join the group.

Restriction: You won't see any Private / Unlisted / Secret groups here unless you are invited to the group (or has already joined it).

To accept invitation on the web app from Inbox:​

This option is available only from the web app.

  1. Go to Inbox.

  2. Click on Notifications in the list.

  3. Find a notification titled Invitation Notification, check the group name, and click Accept to join the group.

    An example of the notification about group invitation in the Inbox

    Alternatively, you can click Reject to decline the invitation.

To accept invitation from group landing page:​

  1. Click on the link from the invitation email. Or search for the group and go to its home page.

    Note: While you have a standing invitation, you can the group in search results even if it is set as Unlisted.

  2. Click Accept the Invitation to join the group.