Starting a TOTA Group

TOTA Groups provide a way to gather around a common cultural interest.  Perhaps you want to explore the cuisine of a particular culture or discuss historical handcrafts with others who share your interests.  Maybe you have a large extended family and would like a group where you can share stories of your grandparents with all your cousins.  Or perhaps you represent a club or other cultural organization and are looking for a way to share information and resources with your members.  A TOTA Group can meet all of these needs.

Starting a Group on TOTA is easy!  Once you are logged in, go to the Groups page and find the orange Start a Group button in the page banner. 

Clicking that button will take you to the Add/Edit Group page where you will be prompted to provide information about your Group.  Give your Group a descriptive name; this will appear on the Groups page so you’ll want to make it something that makes it clear what kind of Group it is.  Examples include “Washington Heritage,” a group about this history and heritage of Washington State; “Felts Family Group,” a group for the members of a specific family; and “Historical European Martial Arts Alliance,” a group affiliated with a worldwide organization dedicated to the study and preservation of weaponry and techniques from the Middle Ages to World War I.

After you have named your group, you can enter a website URL (if you have one), a summary and a description.  The Group Summary will appear at the top of the page for your group.  It’s best to keep this to less than a paragraph.  The Group Description can be longer and will appear under the About tab on the Group page.

You can also upload an icon image.  If you don’t have an icon image, your group will appear on the Groups page with the default icon, and you can always come back to this page and change the icon later.

Once you’ve entered your Group’s information, use the orange Save Group button near the top of the page to save it.  

After you have saved your Group, you can continue editing it if you wish.  The Add/Edit Group page is also where you’ll go to update the information about your group as well as to manage your group members.  

Your Group won’t be visible on the Groups page until one of the TOTA Admins reviews and approves your group, so don’t panic if you don’t see it right away.  This review step helps to keep TOTA a safe and respectful place.  You’ll know when it’s been reviewed because the status on the Group page will change from “Not yet reviewed.”

In the meantime, you can share your group using the blue Share button from the page for your Group.  This will allow you to share a link to your group with your friends and family via Facebook, Twitter or email.  You can also assign TOTA articles you’ve already written or images you’ve uploaded to TOTA to your Group.  You can also start a discussion about a group-relevant topic and connect it to your Group.

Congratulations, you’ve started a TOTA Group!  If you have any additional questions about Groups or anything else on TOTA, please contact Support for assistance.

TOTA Tutorials

Find out how to start a group, comment on a discussion, manage your articles and images, and more! If you would like to get in touch, we would be happy to hear from you. There's a "Help" link in the sidebar on the right side of all TOTA pages. Or you can use the "Contact Support" link, also in the sidebar.

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