The Joomla! Forum ™

There are many guidelines for registered user groups (http://community.joomla.org/user-group- ... klist.html ) and one of the requirements to get approved is that the group must meet physically at least twice a year. This has been a requirement since the beginning, a few year ago.

The idea was and is that, to better serve the user communities in local areas, groups should meet physically, at least part of the time, in order to share ideas and experiences and meet fellow Joomla! enthusiasts and professionals.

Clearly the belief that user groups should involve personal interaction on a local level was a factor in this restriction. Another concern leading to the physical meeting requirement was that groups might call themselves "virtual" to get listed and then do nothing for the community. Meanwhile there might be others in that geographical area who would want to start a group that meets physically, but they might hesitate if a virtual group for that area already exists.

What are YOUR thoughts?

Some have suggested that if a group is virtual they should be allowed to be in people.joomla.org but should not be posted in the list of registered groups at http://community.joomla.org/user-groups.html

Rather than arbitrarily making a decision without consulting the community, we decided to pose this question to all of you. Do you think virtual groups should be considered for approval as registered groups at http://community.joomla.org/user-groups.html or should we keep the restriction that registered user groups must have physical meetings with the understanding that virtual groups are still welcome to use people.joomla.org?

Awaiting your opinions...

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Wilma Howell
Joomla! User Group - Dallas / Fort Worth / joomladallas.org
Joomla User Group Processing Team

Interesting question. Are the non registered users cluttering the forum group? If there are no significant draw backs I see no reason to exclude them. Considering folks for approval can be a time trap for admin as well. I hope I helped, I doubt I did but I tried.

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i have 1 Joomla site http://www.inetbrokerage.com The other two are not Joomla, and it can be easily detected so. http://www.angelagrace.com

There is absolutely no problem with unregistered groups and groups hoping to form being in the forum group. I was just referencing the list of registered groups on community.joomla.org and the requirements to be listed.

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Wilma Howell
Joomla! User Group - Dallas / Fort Worth / joomladallas.org
Joomla User Group Processing Team

I am all for keeping the restriction for physical meetings, but I guess you've already decided on that by now? On the other hand, I had no idea this meetings are taking place not so far away from me!

Jason