Without a doubt, there is value to be found within a successful discussion group housed within Yahoo or Google’s system. Unfortunately, this does make them a target for theft. Those managing such discussion groups must do all he or she can to protect the security of their system from malware (virus infection, key-loggers, and spyware), their login information, and the integrity of the group itself. A variety of good articles on protecting a computer system and choosing good passwords have been written already, so herein the focus is going to be on techniques to protect the integrity of the group itself.

Single owners of groups can create additional memberships for themselves using alternate e-mail addresses. Full owner privileges can be given to that account, and it can be set to 'no-mail' so as to minimize annoyances. If, for some strange reason, an owner cannot gain access to their group through their normal account this backup can be quite useful! A suggestion I have often made to others managing a group is to create a behavior log of some sort. That is, use a plain-text editor, spreadsheet, or whatever to document both good and bad behaviors and actions taken. Most likely, an owner will not want to track every member in a group, but only those falling at the two extreme ends of the behavior. In other words, those who behave really badly in support of moderation or banning actions, or those under consideration for moderator or above access to controls. Such records will become invaluable decision-making aids over time. One method of protecting a group is to have multiple owners (managers, administrators) of the group in question. Yet, that very same practice presents a high degree of risk. This is because there are no guarantees as to how a person will behave once they have been made co-owner. By all means, take some time to get to know the person under consideration as a co-owner. Start by giving them ordinary 'moderator' permissions, then see what happens under stress. Are they respectful of those having differing viewpoints from their own? Does their own postings reflected a history of good behaviors in support the rules established for the group? Eventually there will come a time when the owner has to decide to go ahead, or drop adding that person as a co-owner. Before doing so, make a backup to the membership list as it exists in the system at the time. Think of this as ‘just in case’ insurance. If things should go very badly (old owner demoted down to normal member status or banned) options still exist. With those records, the original owner can still contact the members of that group. They can try to recover ownership of the group by coordinating their actions with those still in the group. (See article on recovering orphaned groups.) Or, they can create a new group and invite their members to rejoin them there. Moving on, in an effort to ensure smooth coordination of management, groups with large management teams often find creating a private group just for those team members to be useful. That is, a group that is not listed in a directory and to which access is restricted. (Owner must approve admission.) Groups with only a few management team members may find e-mail interactions off the list to suffice. Key is to make sure others are aware of the reasoning behind disciplinary actions. Keep those in the group informed as to management decisions or changes. This would include a brief statement as who has been given increased role status along with how members should report unfair actions. (Normally the group's owner address.) Keep in mind that explanations behind such changes are not necessary, and are often inappropriate. If you write ‘bad things’ about someone within a group, it could become grounds for a libel suit!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.