• New Site Q & A
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1. Getting Immediate Help
       G.O.A. contacts
   
   
2. Required Guidelines and Policies
     Cafe Guidelines
     Copyright and Trademark Policy
     Promotional Items
     Do's & Don'ts
     Moderator Oath
     Required Files
     Rules & Etiquette Guidelines
   
   
3. Moderating Freecycle
     Organisational Chart
     Instructional Video
   
   
4. The "Files"
   
   
5. Notices
     Seasonal Notices
   
   
6. Responses
   
   
7. Pass The Torch
   
   
8. Volunteering
   
   
9. Translations
   
   
10. UK Moderators Manual
    
    

Searching the Archives

Searching the archives is useful when you need to check on Offers and Wanted posts previously submitted by a member. In the case of a Wanted post, you can verify that the member is not posting more than your group guidelines allow. There are two methods used for searching the archives. They are described below.

The archives also maintain a permanent log of who is doing what on your group. Whether it's membership applications, incoming messages, or moderator activity, this is good tool to use for checking behind the scenes.

Wants and Offers by Members Post - Method #1

Go to the main front page and click on Messages. Type the member's user name or email address in the Search window, and click Go. If there are a lot of messages posted by the member, click next until you find what you are looking for. Sometimes you have to go back pretty far, or click on a specific message to check for items listed to verify what you are searching for. This method is limited because it only finds what has not been deleted from the message board. In other words, the message has to exist in order for this search to find it.

Wants and Offers by Members Post - Method #2

Another way to search is to again start from the main front page.

1. Click on Management.
2. When the page loads, click on Message Posts.
3. Type in the email address of the member in the Search logs window then click Go.

You will have to sort through the info that comes up to see what the member posted and when. This method lists every single message the member has sent whether it was approved or not. If it was posted to the community, it will read, "Approved message" next to it. If it was rejected or edited, it will read, "Moderated message". Members who are not moderated will have messages that read "Accepted". The downside to this search is it is VERY SLOW (some people have trouble with their computer timing out), and even though you can see the post, you can't see the whole message... just the first few words of the message.

The second option accesses the archives and shows every message ever posted by the member, even if it's been deleted from the message board. This is particularly useful if you regularly purge messages from your group to keep your message board current and uncluttered.

Web Activity

To browse member and mod web activity to include posted messages by a member or rejected messages by a mod, click Management >Web Features.

Email Commands

To show web activity ranging from unsubscribes, membership requests and message approvals, click Management > Email Commands. This shows all group activity.

Moderator Activity

Click Management > Mod Activity to find out who is doing what as a moderator. This is helpful to check moderator workload for message approval, or who booted a member or approved another. It's a good snapshot of the behind the scenes work. In the case of figuring out who changed your work on the front page, this is the link to check site policy changes and such.

Memberships

This gives a running log of members both approved and denied. Click Management > Memberships. This is also helpful to check on membership in the case where a member is having troubles posting to the group. Verification of membership can be checked here and researched accordingly.