Please be patient as we work out all the kinks.  One thing those of you who are members of private or hidden groups will notice is that the wire posts are missing.  They are still in the database but not showing for some reason.  New posts will show up however.  I’m investigating the issue and will hopefully have it working soon.

If you do notice anything odd or get an error message, please send a private message to me and let me know the details.  Thanks!

This years fall campout/diving weekend was held at Pennyroyal Blue Springs Resort in Hopkinsville, KY. While it was chilly, this didn’t stop the diehard from coming out on Friday night and staying until Sunday afternoon. Great times were had by all!

Saturday, we drew names for the great giveaways. Here are our winners:

Steve O. – AL80 tank (donated by Evansville Scuba Club)
Tom H. – Free 2010 club membership (donated by Evansville Scuba Club)
Kathy S. – Free quarry entry (donated by Pennyroyal)
Trever S. – Free quarry entry (donated by Pennyroyal)
Steve S. – Air fill card (donated by Aquatech)

Congrats! We will do this again next year and will again have some great giveaways to hand out. We hope to see more of you there so it will be even better!!!

This week, I’ll discuss groups.

One of the cool features of our new site is the ability to create groups. Each person can create a group by going into their profile page, selecting groups, then create a group. The creator of the group automatically becomes the admin, which allows them to delete posts, invite friends, appoint moderators, and other admin type things. There are three different types of groups: public, private and hidden.

A public group is just that, open to the public. These groups can be joined by any member of the site. All they need to do is join. When creating these, keep in mind that all activity of the group will be seen to all members.

The second type of group is private. This type of group shows itself to the public, but they can’t see the posts on the wire, or any other details of the group. Basically, they know it exists because they can see it listed and can see the description. If they want to join, they must click on the button and request membership from the group admin.  The group admin can also send invites to their friends list.

The third type of group is hidden. These groups can’t be seen in the group listings and none of the activity of the group can be seen anywhere else on the site. These types of groups are invitation only, and you can only invite your current friends.

As you can see by the groups already created, they can be for just about any purpose. For example, let’s say you are a big fan of Pennyroyal, you could create a group called “Pennyroyal Fans” and make it public so other fans could also join and discuss the site. Another example might be a hidden group for Aquatech instructors to discuss, well, whatever they want privately.

In summary, groups are whatever you make of them and can be quite useful. Next week I’ll discuss events and how they can be tied to a group.