Using Group Admin

Group Administration (GA) is the central database for information on all Town groups. It is the tool by which new groups are created, named/renamed, and assigned URLs. Mods can be added or removed through GA. The Notes field is one place that information can be shared between teams about a group or mods on the group.

The current version of GA is part of the legacy system and is scheduled for redesign after beta testing of FC3 Modtools is complete.

Log in

First, log into Freecycle.org

Once you are in, go to groupadmin.freecycle.org
Your login information is at the top of the page.

Search Groups/Applications

Group searches:

#1 From the GA landing page, there are two search options: by location or by moderator. Location is the default and appears in bold black type on the landing page. 
#2 Enter Group Name here: Enter one or more location search terms. If you want to restrict your search, keep reading. Otherwise, click "Search Applications" (#11).

• Pro tip: If you get a failed search, check to make sure that you did not copy and paste a blank space before or after the main word.
• You can truncate a search. For example, searching for “beav” or “Beaver” will yield the same results. You can also use the wildcard % to broaden your search: %word% 

#3 Region: You can limit your search results by state or region here.

#4 Country: use the drop down search box to limit by country. Countries are listed alphabetically.

#5 Group Status. GA search results often bring up a lot of deleted Yahoo groups. If you limit this to Approved, your search results will show active groups only.

• A. Submitted: to be used by NGAs during new group approval process.
• B. Pending: to be used by NGAs during new group approval process.
• C. Duplicate: used when there is more than one group entered with the same name.
• D. Rejected: For NGA use with groups that did not pass final steps of approval process.
• E. Approved: This is the most used category to restrict group searches. This displays all active groups. The remaining statuses listed below are no longer in use.
• F. Temp Delisted: No longer used.
• G. Delisted: No longer used. These are Yahoo groups that went rogue or otherwise unafilliated with TFN.
• H. Deleted by Owner: No longer used. For Yahoo groups that were deleted by owner.
• I. Modsquad: No longer used. Before 2015, each state and region had a ModSquad.
• J. Cafe Group: No longer used.
• K. C&D Hold: No longer used. Former Yahoo Groups who were working with Trademark Team to resolve Trademark issues.
• L. C&D1: No longer used. These Yahoo groups had been notified once to Cease and Desist unauthorized us of our registered trademark.
• M. C&D2: No longer used. These Yahoo groups had been notified twice to Cease and Desist unauthorized us of our registered trademark.
• N. Yahoo Notified: No longer used. Yahoo notified by Trademark Team to delete group due to trademark non-complaince.
• O. Complied: No longer used. Yahoo group complied with requests from the Trademark Team to change the name and or logo, depending on area served.
• P. Deleted by Yahoo: No longer used. Yahoo acted upon our request to delete the group.
• Q. Not a TFN group: for groups that might be affiliated with another service.
• R. Squatter: No longer used. EF or TFN Services owned group that was saving a link to a previous group.
• S. Unknown

#6 Group Status date: Not commonly used.

#7 Further define the dates the group was created (not commonly used)

#8 Unique Name (URL): Useful when you know the exact unique name of the group. You can also use the wildcard character %

#9 Sort Order: Group Name, Region, Country or Member Count. Default is Group Name and Ascending. Click box for Descending

#10 Number of rows: (ignore this as it doesn't do anything)

#11 Click Search Applications button. From the search results page, click the Magnifying glass to get to the GA page for a specific group.

#12 This Search button returns you to a blank search page page.

#13 Add Group. NGAs are the only team that adds groups. You will not see this box if you do not have this privilege.

#14 Sign Out Signs you out of Group Admin, but not out of MyFreecycle.

Searching for moderators

12 , 13 & 14 are explained above.

In the upper left hand corner, moderators will appear in bold black type.

Freecycle.org emails and IDs are auto added to Group Admin when they are promoted to Mod or Lead Mod on site or via GA group entry. Yahoo email addresses, IDs and Names were manually added into the system over the years and not reliable.

#15 Moderator Name: This searches two fields, name and username. Searching for "john" pulls up all results that contain the letters john in names or usernames. It includes results from both Freecycle.org and Yahoo groups. You will have to scroll down past some gibberish to get to the search results.

#16 Moderator Email: This searches the email address field and returns results from Freecycle.org and Yahoo!Groups. It includes results from both Freecycle.org and Yahoo groups. You will have to scroll down past the gibberish to get to the search results.

• Pro tip A: When looking for a mod and not finding results, try searching for the username (the information before the @) of the email address and see if it pulls up the same email with a different provider. Many people use the same username with different providers.
• Pro tip B: You can restart your search in the bottom of the results page without having to return to previous page.

#17 Maximum rows: Ignore this field as it doesn't change displayed search results.

Group Page

12 , 13 & 14 are explained above.

#22 This is the Group Admin URL. Each Town group has a unique URL based on the group's TFN ID number. When communicating with other team members, please include these links in correspondence about the group.

#23 Click on and the link will take you directly to the group page in a new tab. Fc in front of it means that it is onsite. If Y! Is in front of it, it is a defunct Yahoo group.

#24 Group Name (Location): This is the general location of the group and corresponds to #2 on the opening page. This is generally a Town name and is searchable onsite. Note: In FC3, this field corresponds to Town Name. FC3 has a separate field for the location coordinates using ISO 6709 format. This field does not appear in legacy GA and must be entered manually by someone with FC3 admin privileges. Please do not change the group name without permission from Hub Coordinator or Deron

#25 Region/Country: This is set up when the group is created. It includes both the state/region and country. Only a few people have access to update this (#24a.) Ask your Coordinator if you find an entry that is incorrect.

#26 Unique Name: This forms the basis for the URL. Again fc in front means it is onsite and Yǃ means a defunct Yahoo group. Please do not change the unique name in GA as it will not create a redirect to the new URL. To avoid inconveniencing memers who have URLs bookedmarked, we ask the tech team to do these for us.

#27. Email My Freecycle Mods: This will open a mail window with an incorrect email address. If you are going to use this please change the email address to mod.freecycle.org

#28 Cafe URL: This is an obsolete field for a defunct Yahoo Cafe group. Because this field only accepts Yahoo URLs, cafe groups or Facebook promotional pages must be tracked in the notes field.

#29 My Freecycle Member Count: Autofilled from the site.

#30 Percentage of Members Modded: Autofilled from the site.

#31 Group Membership setting: This shows whether mods approve new groups or not. Autofilled from the site.

#32 Group Moderation Setting: This shows when group is under Full Emergency Moderation. Refer to GOA manual for instructions on how to approach this or report to the local GOA if you come across a group with this setting. (see the No full Moderation Guideline in the Mod Manual)

#33 Status: Shows Approved in green for all live groups.

#34 Add Note: This is where you enter GA notes. Note: Team members are asked not to add GA notes to their own groups. Please ask your GOA, TL/Coordinator, HUB Coordinator or Deron to enter notes for you on your own group. 

#35 Public Note: No longer used.

#36 History: Every note saved in GA is here. Scroll down to read the notes for the history of the group. Or to search for something specific, an email address or user ID, Click Control +F, F3 (or Command ⌘on a Mac) while on the page only.

• a. Number of total entries in history (this is missing on groups with long histories).
• b. The person who made the note and the date & time stamp that the note was saved.
• c. Corresponds to user name added in Area #39.
• d. Corresponds to email address added in Area #39.

#37 Freecycle.org Moderators. This area is autofilled when a Mod or Lead Mod is promoted on the site via membership functions. Mods and Lead Mods can be added and removed here using the “+” and “-” #39 signs.

#38 The crown icon denotes moderator status. Blue for Lead Mod and Yellow for Mod. Legend below boxes.

#39 “+” and “-” Boxes. Clicking on “+” to add a Mod or Lead Mod takes you to another screen to complete the action. Click on “-” to remove a Mod or Lead Mod. This also removes their membership from the group. Notes will be automatically added to History for these actions.

#40 Yahoo!Groups Moderators: Archival interest only. This information was manually filled in and does not necessarily accurately reflect Yahoo group's status at that time. GA mod searches will pull up entries for this field.

#41 “+” and “-” Boxes. We are no longer adding or removing mods for Yahoo groups. 

#42 Return to Search button: Returns to beginning search page.

#43 Save Changes: When you want to save all changes, click this button. It will save several changes at once, with the exception of adding and removing mods. Please double check to see that the info has been saved and is accurate. Do not hit the button twice or it will enter twice.