Groups - Too many groups with just one member!

[Elyse Orecchio]

Hi everyone. We have a zillion groups on here with just one member. Many of you are creating groups to ask a simple question like "What do I do when my dog is aggressive?" A question like that can and should be asked in the main dog group. The idea is for different threads (discussions) to be started within groups.

I can understand the confusion, and I'm sorry if it wasn't clear in the beginning what groups are for! Can you please delete your group if it has one or two members and is not meant to be an actual group?

I'm afraid I will have to start deleting them myself in the interest of cleaning up the cluttered group listings, but before I do that I want to give you guys the heads up. Let me know if you do NOT want your group deleted.

And of course, we LOVE that you participate in groups and are taking advantage of this feature, so thanks! We just want to make it even better...
Thanks!!
-Elyse

[ellie]

I live in georgia, and being new down here I find that there are a lot of penned "hunting dogs" that are not fed, but once a week, how can I do something about this, I've turned them into the animal warden, but they don't do a lot about it, any thoughts?

[Valerie]

it seems most new groups are "accidental." people new to the site have a question to ask, so they start a group. I didn't see anything that said what groups are for when I clicked "create a group"

[Susan Sadeghian]

You wont find info by clicking on create a group. What you can do is first click on the group tab on top. Than see the white rectangular space on top of this page? Type in your desired topic. eg
" Animal Cruelty". Next to that rectangular box is a button for lack of better word that says " search". click it and many things with that topic come up. For instance I love pit bulls so I joined 2-3 pitbull groups and now there are probably about 10 pitty or pitty related groups. I think there are 6 that are only pittys and 2 that are bsl related for any bsl victim type dog. So I did join the first anti bsl group and thats it. I put comments in the first 2 groups I joined and one of the bsl groups, so 3 groups on the same subject total. I figured the other 7 groups if they want my oppinon or want to ask me for advise or give me advise can search for me in one of the first three groups. I now mostly only reply to pitbullresponsibullity and a fighting bsl sight. I used to reply to atleast one other one but with so many groups it was too tiring to keep up. I am still a member of that other group. I did not leave it but preety much like an absent parent who wont even sent bday cards. I dont even remember the name of the other group I joined. I love birds but I havent replied there for a while either. I love to help animals so I joined the original group with over 300 members. 300 members to help me help animals is all I need advise from. I have been invited to join tons of groups most of which already exist. If I dont join its not cause I dont like the topic most of the time but because I already joined atleast one group with that topic. I used to read all the topics of my interest and all the comments all the time but now I only answer those that I replied to almost when this board first started and it shows up on my email as someone responded to.

[Susan Sadeghian]

There are already two beagle groups shown,one has 6 members,one has 8,why not join one of them and combine talents and comments?

[♥Genny-N-Jughead♥]

yes there is too many groups with the same thing in it

[Vladimir]

And no time spent, doing even a tiny modicum of search, to see if an issue has been discussed earlier. This means that many valuable discussions, with much insight, hard work, and emotion, all contributed by a broad spectrum of participants, is lost: buried amongst the "old" discussions. It gets to the point where one is not encouraged to offer commentary, when the frustration builds because "this one has already been covered before." In other boards, moderators observe discussions and merge them when they cover the same topics, so that the board itself is cleaner and easier to navigate.

[Renee`]

We have a great member here who has a place to suggest improvements to this site.
http://aspcacommunity.ning.com/group/aspcawebsiteideasandwishes
Maybe if we come up with good ideas, apsca will listen!!
I think Elyse is maybe the only mod here!!

[Vladimir]

I am not in any way opposed to a myriad of discussions: but the ability to create groups should never have been given over to members. There are members who have put great effort into creating groups or discussions, only to have them entirely duplicated later: this is NOT to say that another member treading the same topic is not to be respected-- let me be clear on that-- there is room for ALL. But the problem comes in when informative and lively discussions are lost in the shuffle, when new discussions merely overlap and push them off the "most frequent" posting format of this board. Worse, then fatique sets in: existing members, many of whom have great knowledge to impart, don't bother to participate in discussions which have simply duplicated earlier ones. It is too frustrating.

[Renee`]

Well, I wish ASPCA had actually done something about consolidating some groups before it got so out of hand. Now with over 8,000 members and numerous groups, and new ones cropping up by the minute, the task will be next to impossible.
It would certainly tick some people off.
More moderators would be of significant help.

[Vladimir]

As you say, but they are not interested in adding moderators, as I have investigated. And I was just alerted to um... the fourth discussion... posted about the EXACT same subject, with the EXACT same "what can we do...?" question posed. And this is only a matter of a few weeks apart. The system becomes self-limiting: it becomes so large and unweildy, and if a member is not willing to do a search (or if the search does not function properly), then yet another group, another discussion... it all loses relevance and interest after a while. It becomes self destructing.

[Renee`]

I have the same problem in one of my groups. Rather than delete it, I have asked that they read first and see if the topic has already been posted.
Otherwise I may have to dump the same topics. (But copy and paste the answers in it's twin discussion)

[Bullies2Love]

I for one isn't sure how to navigate around this site. It is a tad bit confusing.