Is Facebook Removing Inactive Members from Groups?
In January 2019, various posts appeared in myriad Facebook groups urging users to provide engagement with the post to avoid a purported purge of “inactive members.”
Y’ALL, FB IS DELETING INACTIVE PEOPLE OUT OF GROUPS. IF YOU SEE THIS COMMENT AN EMOJI, PLEASE DO NOT JUST LIKE THE POST. IF YOU HAVE A BUSINESS PARTNER ON THIS PAGE BE SURE TO TAG THEM AS WELL, MY FRIEND JUST LOST 1500 MEMBERS FROM HER GROUP!!!!!!
Facebook, not us, removed inactive members from the group today. If you want to stay in, PLEASE check the notifications box, write a post, make a comment, LIKE something… do anything that shows you are active. If you are removed and request to join again, we can add you back in, but try to not let it get to that point, ok? Thanks for hanging with us
Although wording varied (sometimes including a deadline of 28 days), the general content of the inactive group users purge warning was fairly consistent. Group administrators claimed that their group or others experienced the removal of inactive members on or around January 18 2019, and that in order to stay in the group, members should interact with the warning post or other posts to confirm that they were indeed actively a part of the group.
FACEBOOK has deleted hundreds of thousands overnight in tens of thousands of groups NATIONWIDE . If you google it there are to many complaints to read. Just wait until they start charging for the “Service”…
But one user linked to a post published by the debunking site That’s Nonsense that same day. According to that site, the rumor was the result of a misconstrued message received by Facebook group administrators about changes to how people were added to groups:
While the messages are in response to a genuine update by Facebook, most are inaccurate or misleading. Facebook is not removing inactive members of Facebook groups, but it is changing how Facebook users are invited to groups, which may result in group admins noticing a drop in their group’s member count.
However the above message is inaccurate. As we stated, Facebook is changing the way people are invited to groups. Previously, Facebook users could automatically invite their friends to be a member of a group, and that member would automatically be added to the group without having to accept the invitation.
Versions of the email from Facebook appeared in status updates and blog posts:
We’re making some updates to how members are invited to your group, and we wanted to share these changes with you. To help ensure that people join Facebook Groups that are relevant and meaningful to them, you’ll see the following changes:
Updated group invitation: Now, when people are invited to a group, they can accept or decline the invite. Before, people could be added to groups by friends who thought they might be interested in them, and they’d immediately become a member. Some people may have been added to your group, but have never visited it.
Invited section: In the next few weeks, people who’ve been added to your group – but have never visited it – will appear in the Invited section of your Members list, which only admins and moderators can view. They won’t be considered a member until they’ve accepted their invite. This means they will no longer be included in your group’s total member count, so you may see a decrease in your group’s total member count.
Reminder notification: As you’re an admin, in the next few weeks, you’ll be able to send one notification to invited people to remind them to accept or decline the invite to your group.
Thank you for being a community leader.
Thanks,
The Facebook Groups Team
Per the email from Facebook, inactive members were not being removed from groups per se. But functionality which automatically added members to group counts without their explicit permission was changing. Moreover, people who had been invited to but had not yet visited the group would be moved from the member section to a section called “Invited,” removing them from the group’s member count (of which they were previously a part). Finally, functionality to interact with “Invited” section semi-members of Facebook groups was being added to administrator functionality.
Group member counts would drop due to the changes, which pertained not to “inactive” members, but to users who had been invited or added to the group but had not yet interacted with it. In a sense, those users could be described as inactive, but that descriptor suggested once-active members of groups would be removed — which did not appear to be the case. It is true that groups were likely to experience member count drops due to the change, but it involved only members who were added or invited to a group they had not yet actively opted in to join.
How To Re-invite Facebook Group Members Removed by Facebook
News for Facebook Group Admins
Are you an admin of a Facebook Group? Have you noticed a decrease in the total number of members yet? This is because Facebook is making changes to how groups work.
Facebook’s reason for the change is “to help ensure people join Facebook Groups that are relevant and meaningful to them.”
The Before
Previously people could be added to Facebook Groups by friends and they’d immediately become a member of the group. Despite potentially having no interest in the subject of the group or engaging in conversations within the group.
The After
But now, if you’re invited to a group you have to accept or decline the invite. You’re no longer an automatic group member. Hooray!
Over the course of the next few weeks the people who have been added to your group – but have never visited the group, will now appear in the the ‘Invited Section’ of your members list. This section is only available for admins and moderators of the group to view.
Whilst this is still being rolled out by Facebook, it’s allowing group admins to send one notification to invited people. This is to remind them to accept or decline the invite to your group.
Until they accept the invite, people will not considered a member of the group. This is why you’ll start to see a decrease in the overall total number of members if you haven’t done so already. Beforehand these people used to be counted in the total number of members.
How do I find the new Invited section?
It’s slightly different if you’re using desktop and mobile… so here are a couple of handy guides for how to find the invited sections on both:
Desktop
- Go to the group where you are an admin
- Click on ‘members’ which is in the left hand side bar
- On the right hand side, you’ll see a section with three items: Invited, Unavailable and Blocked. Click on invited.
- Underneath each name there is a ‘Send Reminder’ link, this is inviting to be a member of the group. Or the ‘x’ icon to the right of their name which is to remove them from the group/invite list.
Mobile
- Go to the group where you are the admin
- To the right hand side you’ll see the ‘3 dots’ more icon, click on this, then click on View Group Info
- Then click on members (there will be the total number of members in front)
- Scroll down and you’ll see Invited with a preview of a couple of people, click on ‘See All’
- Then to the right of someone’s name you’ll see a person and cog icon, click on this
- Two options appear ‘Remove Invitation’ and ‘Send Reminder’
Please share this post with anyone you know who manages a Facebook Group.
We’d love to help your business. Please contact us if you have questions!
Read more Facebook blogs with lots of free tips and advice.