Community Groups

Definition of Group, Community Guidelines, Privacy options, Group management, uploads, content ownership as well as how-to's.

What is a Community group?

Eons Community groups reflect the passion points of our members and are the gathering places within Eons where members share advice, explore, plan happenings and have fun. Eons members have created thousands of groups about the things that matter to them, from book clubs to cooking, singles life to travel, and bereavement to fitness. Once you are a registered Eons Member, you can join as many groups as you like, or start your own. If you are an Eons member and find an Eons group you wish to post to, you must join the group. Here’s how:

  1. Log in to Eons.
  2. Locate the group you wish to join and go to the group home page.
  3. Click the Join this Group button.
  4. You will be prompted to choose your email notification preferences. Make your selections, then click the join Group button.

How do I create a Community group?

To create an Eons group:

  1. Log in to Eons.
  2. Hold your mouse over Group from the main menu.
  3. Click on Create a Group.
  4. Choose the kind of group you wish to create (Community or Real Life Group).
  5. Enter a name for your group. The name must be 50 characters or less. Also, we now require that your group name is unique.
  6. Describe your group. This is an important box, because this is how other members will decide whether to read your Group posts and ultimately join. Make it as interesting and informative as you can.
  7. Choose a category that best describes your group. Categorizing your group will help other members with similar interests find your group.
  8. Add tags (keywords). This is optional, however the more tags you have the more members will find your group. For example, members interested in gardening may enter "garden," "flowers," or "planting" in a search. All groups that have any of those tags in the group description will show up in the search results.
  9. If your group's subject matter may be explicit and suitable for adults only, check off the "This group's content will not be suitable for people under the age of 18" link.
  10. Click Continue. Understand you are agreeing to abide by the Eons Terms of Use.
  11. Your group is created!

How do I join a group?

If you are an Eons member and find an Eons group you wish to join, here’s how:

  1. Log in to Eons.
  2. Locate the group you wish to join and go to their main page
  3. Click the Join this Group button.
  4. You will be prompted to choose your email preferences. Make your selections, then click the join Group button.

What are the privacy options for Community groups?

When you create a group, you have the option of making it as open or exclusive as you wish. There are three different access levels:

  • Public: Everyone can see the group and any Eons member can join.
  • Public with Approval: Everyone can see the group, but the group manager must approve all membership requests or personally send invites.
  • Private: These groups offer access only by invitation and cannot be found or searched by others on Eons. Private groups cannot be found on Internet search engines, including Google. If you have a group you would like to gather on Eons that you would like to be private such as a book club, a class reunion, your volunteer group, then this is a great way to support those personal activities. A Private group lets you stay updated, share links and schedule get-togethers easily.

Group managers can change these options at any time by clicking on Manage Group.

How do I add group moderators?

If you are a group manager you can add up to three moderators to share Group privileges. Please go to the group home page and follow the link to Manage Group. From the Moderators tab, you can invite by screen name. Please keep in mind that moderators in your group will have group privileges such as being able to edit the group, remove members, remove posts, photos, etc.

How do I reply to a message?

To reply to an Eons group message, click on the green Reply button at the bottom of the original message or use the "Reply to message" box located at the bottom of the page.

How do I find replies to my message on an Eons Group topic?

To view replies to an Eons group message, you can click on the Replies link at the bottom of the original message.

Can I edit my message to an Eons group?

Once you have posted your group message, you can’t edit or delete it yourself. Group managers and moderators are empowered to delete group messages at their discretion.

How do I leave a group?

To leave a group, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to Eons.
  2. Go to the group you wish to leave.
  3. Click the Settings link.
  4. Click the Leave the Group link located at the bottom of the page.
  5. Note, you cannot quit a group while you are its manager. So, if you want to leave the group, you must first find a new manager. Send a PM (Private Message) to EonsTeam for assistance.

How do I post photos to a group?

  1. Log in to Eons.
  2. Go to the group where you want to post a photo. You must have already joined the group.
  3. Go to the group's photo page by clicking on Photos link from the top Group menu.
  4. If you would like to upload a photo from your computer, click the Choose photos on your computer button. To choose a photo you have already uploaded to your Eons profile, click the From Your Photo Center tab and choose the photo you would like to share in the group.
  5. If uploading from your computer, in the File Upload window, locate the folder in which you have saved your photos. On most Windows machines, this is the My Pictures subfolder located within your My Documents folder.
  6. In the File Upload window, locate the folder in which you have saved your photos. On most Windows machines, this is the My Pictures subfolder located within your My Documents folder.
  7. Highlight the folder and double-click to open it.
  8. Locate the photo(s) in the folder by clicking through the images. If you stored your photos in a subfolder within My Pictures, just double click on that folder to open it. If you do not see images of your photos, change your view, following these steps (Windows only):
  9. In the File Upload window, click on the View Menu icon at the top right.
  10. Select Thumbnails from the drop down list. You should now see small images of all of your photos.
  11. Click once on the image you want to upload. The name you assigned to that image will appear in the Filename box.
  12. Click the Open button to the right of the filename box. The complete filename, including the entire directory path, will now display in the Select the Photo box on your Update my photos page. Check the filename once more to be sure that you are uploading the correct file.
  13. Click the Continue button to successfully upload the photo.

What happens to my ownership of content (blog, Group messages, photos, etc.) when I post on Eons?

Like other community websites, Eons posts official Terms of Use (TOU) that describe the relationships, rights and responsibilities among the website (that’s us) and its users (anyone who posts on or just visits eons.com). While it is important to read the Eons TOU, we hope that this FAQ will clarify our position about the ownership of any content created by Eons members that you post on Eons.

We feel very strongly that Eons members should not have to give up anything in order to share their ideas and creations with each other and with us. That’s why our TOU specifically state, under the heading, Content and Comments Posted by Eons members, “After posting Member Content, you continue to retain your ownership rights in such Member Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Member Content in any way you choose.” If you create any original content (writing, artwork, photos, blogs, etc.), then with regard to that content, even after posting here, you continue to have the rights to:

  • sell it;
  • modify it;
  • license it to others
  • distribute (publish) it anywhere, including posting on other websites; and
  • create other content based upon it.

While you continue to own the content you post, by posting on eons.com you do grant Eons a limited license with regard to that content. But we want to make it clear that in agreeing to this license, you do not give up your copyright rights. A license is simply a kind of permission. For example, when you invite someone into your home, you are giving them a license to enter. But by giving them that license, you are not handing your house over to them, or giving up any of your ownership rights in your house. The situation with content you post on eons.com may not be identical, but it is similar. By giving Eons a license, you give us the right to do certain things with regard to your content (see our FAQ, Why does Eons require a license to use the content I post?), but this does not take away from your own ownership rights in that content. The only thing you can no longer do is give someone else an exclusive license to the same content that you’ve already given Eons a license to. You can, of course, give others the same non-exclusive license you’ve given Eons.

Another point we want to address here is what happens, or can happen, to your content when you post it anywhere on the Internet. We’ve heard it said that when you place something in writing on the World Wide Web, it’s as if you’ve written it on a postcard that travels through the U.S. mail system: anyone can see what you’ve written. Search engines can find your postings, and unless some kind of copy-protection utility is used, someone can copy and distribute your content, either as-is or modified, without your permission. That’s a risk that many of us take, and it’s hard to prevent others from violating the laws against this kind of behavior. At Eons, we do try to protect our members through the TOU, by requiring all who enter to (1) acknowledge that those who post here own the copyright in their original content, and (2) agree to honor each others’ copyrights. We can’t guarantee that this will protect against “pirates,” but at least we’re laying down the law. We hope this gives you a little more comfort in taking part in our community!

Why does Eons require a license to use the content I post?

As copyright owner in any content you create, you alone have the right to display, publish, distribute, reformat and edit your original content. This means that Eons cannot do any of these things unless you give us a license to do so. So the license described in Eons’ Terms of Use (TOU) is necessary, just so that we can do the things needed to run our website and build and maintain the Eons community.

The license that you, the copyright owner, give Eons is:

  • worldwide – because the Internet and Eons are global in reach;
  • royalty-free – meaning that Eons is not required to pay you for the content that you post;
  • non-exclusive – meaning you are free to license your content to anyone else in addition to Eons; and
  • sub licensable – so that Eons is able to use its affiliates and subcontractors such as Internet content delivery networks to provide our eons.com website.

Among other things, the license you give us includes the right to modify the content you post on eons.com. Without this right, Eons would not be able to format content to satisfy technical requirements of the website.

The license also includes the right to distribute content “in any form.” We realize that this is a very wide-open term. But as we BOOMers know, technology moves at an incredible pace, and the forms of communication we’re familiar with today may quickly be replaced by forms we can’t even envision yet. We’ve already seen our world move on from vinyl records to reel-to-reel tapes, then cassettes, CD’s and DVD’s. We have moved from snail-mail to email, IM’s, blogs, and text and video messaging via cell phones (and probably other media and means of communications that we at Eons don’t even know about). Given the fast pace of change, that “in any form” language enables us to move quickly to meet our members’ changing needs.

What are Eons Community Guidelines?

The Eons Community Guidelines are a simplified version of the Eons Terms of Use. To familiarize yourself with these "rules of the road", please visit The Eons Community Guidelines.

How do I use the share button to promote my content?

The share button shows up on any public page on Eons. It's a way to promote content and get new members for your groups...from other sites.

Look for the share button under the blue link bars on the right of the page. There are over 50 different services where you can share eons.com content:



If you're a member of another service, you can use it right away; if not, you would have to sign up to use it, but we make it really easy to promote your content -- your groups, your blogs, your photos, your messages -- on these services. We have found that articles posted on Digg and StumbleUpon bring good traffic to eons.com. You can use it for Twitter and Facebook, as well as all the others.

When you're on a page on Eons that you want to share, just click on the button, choose the service, and it posts. Super easy.

So share a group, a group message, a blog post, a video, a photo... help build your presence on the site by reaching new members and help Eons grow at the same time.


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