About pending members

If the group is set up with restricted membership, people who request to join the group must be approved by an owner or moderator. Until an owner or moderator takes action, the prospective member remains in a pending state.

When someone applies to join a restricted group, owners and moderators who have chosen to receive pending member notifications receive an email or web/app notification (or both) that has a subject line starting with “Subscription approval needed.” 

Note: 

• For email notifications, the owners’ and moderators’ group subscriptions must be set to receive emails sent to the owner address.
• Pending member requests expire after 14 days. If no action is taken within that period, the request is deleted. The pending member does not receive any notification.
  Exception: The 14-day timeout period does not apply to approval requests that have been claimed by a moderator on the group’s website.

Handling pending members by email

To approve a pending member by email: Reply to the “Subscription approval needed” message without adding anything to it or clearing any text (if your email application is set up to include or quote messages you are replying to).

To reject a pending member by email: Forward the “Subscription approval needed” message to the rejection link included in the message. The prospective member receives an automatic notification with a simple statement that the subscription request was not approved by the moderators. To provide more feedback to prospective members, you can create a customized Rejected Subscription notice with additional information.

Note: If the pending member has been claimed by another moderator (see below), you will receive an email delivery failure notification containing a statement that the pending member was claimed and including the claiming moderator’s display name.

Handling pending members on the group’s website

To approve, reject, or claim one pending member:

1. In the “Subscription approval needed” email from the prospective member, click or tap the View pending member link, which takes you to the prospective member’s individual page on the group’s website.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click or tap the button for the action you want to take:
   • Approve Pending Sub: Approve the subscription request.
   • Reject Pending Sub: Reject the subscription request
   • Claim Sub: Indicate to other group moderators that you are handling this subscription request. A Claimed by badge containing your name appears next to the person’s email address on the member list.

To approve, reject, or claim multiple pending members at the same time:

1. Display the member list. When the Members page appears, it lists the pending members.
2. Select the checkboxes next to the rows of the pending members for which you want to take the same action.
3. At the bottom of the page, click or tap the Actions button, and then select the action you want to take for the pending members you selected:
   • Approve: Approve those subscription requests.
   • Reject: Reject those subscription requests.
   • Claim: Indicate to other group moderators that you are handling those subscription requests. A Claimed by badge containing your name appears next to each person’s email address on the member list.

Tip: In a group that has more than one moderator, you might want to use the Claim option if, for example, you want to contact the requester for more information or consult with other moderators before approving or rejecting the request. Claiming a pending member indicates to other moderators that someone is handling that subscription request. However, be aware that it does not prevent other moderators from taking action.

Note:

• Pending members who are claimed are not subject to the 14-day timeout period for responding to subscription requests. They remain pending until the moderator who claimed them either approves or rejects them.
• Other moderators with the appropriate permissions can still take action on a claimed pending member on the group’s website. In any confirmation popup that appears, those moderators will see a “Warning: This pending member was claimed by [moderator’s display name]” statement.