Suggested Facebook group settings. (Updated Jun 14, 2025)  Click to join the HPAA   Question? Email us: info@hpalumni.org

All Facebook groups -- even very small and obscure ones -- are under automated attack by fake accounts running T-shirt scams, pitching questionable financial and health products, and harvesting personal data from the group member list and discussions. In many cases, the accounts are real accounts that have been taken over through identity theft.

Working with the admins of several HP-related Facebook groups, we have developed easy directions on how to prevent fake and taken-over accounts from joining a group. It is easy to develop automatic questions that only qualified folks can answer :) Step-by-step directions: https://www.hpalumni.org/facebookGroupSettings

The example in yellow below are used for this group:

- "Hewlett-Packard Friends Employed by HP" 16.2K members. https://www.facebook.com/groups/619442368220943/

Admin tools

Admin Assist

Manage People:

- Turn off "Approve member request if" [You do not want any automatic approvals!]

- Turn on: "Decline member request if Person has not agreed to group rules"

Turn on: "Notify person and give feedback"  [Blame Facebook, but give Facebook newbies a second chance.]

Facebook automatically declined your request to join "Hewlett-Packard Friends Employed by HP." You did not agree to group rules. If you are a current or former HP employee, please apply again. https://www.facebook.com/groups/619442368220943

- Turn on: "Decline member request if Person has not answered all membership questions"

Turn on: "Notify person and give feedback"   [Blame Facebook, but give Facebook newbies a second chance.]

Facebook automatically declined your request to join "Hewlett-Packard Friends Employed by HP." You did not answer all the questions. If you are a current or former HP employee, please apply again. https://www.facebook.com/groups/619442368220943

Membership questions:

- Question 1 To join, answer all four questions: Current or last job title at HP or HPE?

- Question 2 Current or last site/office and country?

- Question 3 Current or last division or business unit?

- Group rules - Turn on: "Ask people to agree to group rules"

Group rules  [Create to suit.]

Moderation alerts  Edit alerts. [Every online forum has a few "third rail" topics that create fruitless controversy -- or topics that have been beaten to death. List the trigger words and phrases under Keywords, so that the moderators are sure to see them and can intervene if appropriate.]

Settings

Group settings

Set up group
- Privacy: Private   [All groups start out public. Cannot be reversed. "Once you select Change privacy, you and the other admins will have 3 days to cancel if you'd like." https://www.facebook.com/help/286027304749263 ]
- Hide group: Visible

Manage membership
- Who can join the group: Only profiles
- Who can approve member requests: Only admins and moderators
- Who is preapproved to join: Nobody

Manage discussion
- Anonymous participation: Off
- Who can post: Anyone in the group
- Who can create chats: Admins and moderators
- Edit post formats. [Do you really want members broadcasting live, setting up polls, etc, etc?]

AI features

A group admin can turn this intrusive and unpredictable stuff off:
1. Open the "Admin tools" dropdown.
2. Select "Your group’s AI" at the end of the list.
3. Click "Feature settings."
4. Change each of the several sliders to the gray Off position.

Way back in 2007, Science cartoonist Sidney Harris (author of the classic blackboard cartoon "Then a miracle occurs") said: "It figures. If there's artificial intelligence, there's bound to be some artificial stupidity."
https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/i/intelligent_behaviour.asp?expanded=CS136408

The FB group AI features include:
- Chat one-to-one with the group's AI.
- AI will respond to some posts.
- AI will post a summary of what it deems to be the top group posts.
- AI will post prompts to encourage member engagement.