Member Of
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What it does
This function allows you to see when members are in other groups you moderate using the plugin - a good example is a cafe group, where you want to see if the people who are applying are already members of your main group without having to manually search the membership list of the main group.
There are two related bits of function:
- Check Recently Joined Members function allows you to see when members have applied within the last 31 days to other groups using the plugin, even if you're not a moderator or a member of those groups.
- The "active in" function allows you to see whether members are actively posting on other groups that you're a member or a moderator of.
Privacy concerns
This function is implemented to allay privacy concerns.
- It only applies to groups you moderate, i.e. ones where you already have access to the membership lists via Yahoo. So you don't have access to any more information than you already have via Yahoo. It's just more convenient.
- The information it stores on your computer is stored in such a way that it's effectively not possible to go back from that to the Yahoo IDs or email addresses of your members (for example, if your PC was stolen). That's more secure than (for example) downloading a copy of the membership list to your machine to check manually, or as a backup.
Nevertheless, it's possible that there may be additional privacy concerns in your country. It's therefore your responsibility to decide whether to use this function.
What you'll see
This function works on the Members pages only (include Pending members). It shows when someone is a member of other groups that you moderate - no matter how long they've been a member, and whether or not they've posted anything. It also shows when they joined, and what their current posting setting is on that group.
So for example, if you're processing your cafe group, then if the member has been on your main group for a while, they'll show up as a Member of that group.
Time Lags
If they've joined it very recently, for example within the last 24 hours, then they might only show up if you're using the Check Recently Joined Members function, as Applied to. That's why this function is best used with that one.
If they've left it recently, within the last 24 hours, they will still show up.
The current posting setting may be upto 24 hours out of date.
If you stop being a moderator on a group, it may take up to 30 days before membership the group stops being listed. This is quite a long time to allow for groups that you only visit rarely.
What it doesn't do
Unlike Check Recently Joined Members, this function doesn't display information for:
- groups you're not a moderator on
- groups you've never visited (for example, since enabling this function for the first time).
Configuring it
You turn this on from Features->Advanced Options.
Remember that you need to visit each group before members will show up on other groups as being a member of it. Assuming you actively moderate all the groups, this will happen naturally quite rapidly, but after enabling it for the first time you can visit each group in turn if you want to make sure.
Also remember that these groups need to be ones that the plugin is configured to run on (see Configure groups to monitor).
How does it work?
The way it works is by storing locally cached copies of the membership lists of groups you moderate. These are updated at most every 24 hours - though they're not updated until you actually visit the groups, so you need to be doing that regularly.
Then when you're on the Members pages, the plugin will check the locally cached membership list of all the other groups (i.e. not this one) to see which other groups the member is in.
Because this information is updated at most every 24 hours, members who have joined recently might not get picked up. But if you're using the Check Recently Joined Members function, they'll show up in there.
