Forum Groups have been on my list for a long time. A lot of group features got started years ago and never finished, so I cleared those out and rebuilt the parts people actually seem to use.

The Groups page is a lobby now. Your groups are at the top, each with when it last had a post. The board in the middle shows groups that are recruiting, plus groups that have been busy this week even if they haven't put up a notice.

If you run a group, you can pin a recruiting notice to that board. Say how many people you're looking for or leave the door open, pick up to four things the group is into, set an age range, and say when you're usually around. A notice stays up for 30 days, and once a week you can bump it to put it back at 30. While it's up, players outside your age range can't join (it goes by the birthday on their account).

If joining your group needs an admin's approval, you can add up to three questions to the notice. People answer them when they ask to join, and you see the answers right next to their request.

Looking for a group instead? There's a little quiz on the side of the lobby. Pick what you like doing, how chatty you want it, and whether you want a place to hang out or pings for restocks, then hit Deal me in and it deals you your best matches. The group finder has every filter if you want to dig.

Groups come in two kinds now. Clubs are for hanging out and have their own forums. Alert lists are mostly for pings, like restock and CW announcement groups, and they get their own shelf so you can find them without wading through clubs.

Owners can pick an icon and a color for their group. When someone pings your group, your icon shows up in place of the #.

Group pages use the same editor as the forums, so sCode and Markdown both work and you can preview before you save. Each page can be open to anyone, members only, or admins only.

Invite-only groups can send invites that last two weeks, and you can hide a group from every list and search if you want it kept quiet. Owners can make members admins, and admins can approve requests and send invites.

Group vaults are being retired, so they don't take deposits anymore. If your group still has sP in its vault, an admin can move it into their own account from the group page. This was a wonky feature that encouraged adding/removing to do Sarah quests, and meant that a lot of groups were created just to do that, and that isn't something I want to encourage!

If you honestly used the bank for more than that (like paying out contests, or pooling group money to buy something big) let me know and I'll consider changing this decision!

If a group's owner hasn't been on in six months, an active admin can ask to take it over. If there's no active admin, any member who's been in the group at least 360 days can ask. The owner gets a week to log in and keep it. If they don't, they stay on as an admin. If more than one person asks, the group's members vote. Owners can turn this off in their group's settings, and it starts off for hidden, invite-only and friends-only groups.

Mostly there are a few load bearing ping groups that I'd love to see have active stewardship!

If you have a minute, go through your groups and look at the ones you haven't opened in a while. Leave the ones you're done with. If you own a group nobody uses anymore, you can delete it from its settings once the vault is empty. If an old group of yours went quiet, a recruiting notice is a good way to get people back in. And if you're in a group whose owner is long gone, you can ask to take it over.

There's a feedback box at the top of the recruiting pages, and I'm reading the comments here too. Tell me what's working and what isn't!