As a Commons user, I am unsure when, if or why I'd need to join a group [#1313992]

As the commons user, I need more guidance about why I should join a group. Is it so that I can read the comments? or to participate? Do I need to join at all?

Comments

Comment #1

ezra-g CreditAttribution: ezra-g commented 19 October 2011 at 17:39

Issue tags:

+Usability

Adding the "usability" tag.

Comment #2

js CreditAttribution: js commented 19 October 2011 at 21:34

I agree. This has never felt correct to me, and is the primary reason that I switched from Commons for referendum.com. Now that Commons is maturing and supported, I will be using it for a few, related social sites, but joining groups within Drupal feels awkward and redundant to me.

It feels more like in Facebook where you grant permission to an application to access your profile details, and not like simply following something.

Also, if all someone has to do is join a group to post content (unmoderated) , and since you have to click a content type to create a post, that should, in my opinion, handle the "follow" event (join).

Comment #3

rob.f CreditAttribution: rob.f commented 20 October 2011 at 18:09

I agree this isn't obvious. It will vary between Commons sites, however, so I'm not sure the best way to document an answer to those kinds of questions. It's something site builders need to add to help their users.
I've added OG Mandatory Group to my sites so all users will belong to at least one umbrella group for the whole site, and I encourage other public groups to be listed on the registration page to make joining groups easier.