In late November, we announced the launch of a new feature on Review Fuse, the ability to create your own writing group. This was a feature that many of our members had requested and we foresaw groups being used in one of two ways:

1. Public Groups. A member would create a topic- or genre-focused group in order to connect with other Review Fuse members with similar interests.
2. Private Groups. A member could create a group and allow only invited peers to join or could create a private group and invite all members of an offline writing group to supplement face-to-face meetings.

Sadly, the writing group feature has not been used nearly as much as we thought it would be. Over the past couple months, we’ve been making some changes to groups and finding existing offline writing groups to help us test the new functionality.

Here are some of the changes we’ve come up with:

• Group-specific URL. This allows the group creator to distribute a unique url to their writing group which automatically associates them with the correct group upon sign up. No more having to explain how to access your group to each individual member.

• Custom review framework. Your writing group might have goals that don’t coincide with the review frameworks we came up with, so we allow you to create your own.

• Group-optimized site navigation. As we’ve worked with private groups and even some college classes, we had the opportunity to be there and watch as people use the site. Doing so helped us realize that our navigation might not be as intuitive as we hoped, so we’ve made some changes that help clear up the confusion. There’s a good chance these changes will eventually make it to our general community, but for now they’re only being tested by selected groups.

Our next step is to find more groups to help us test and perfect these features. The groups we’re already working with have given us some terrific feedback and are finding great value for their groups.

Do you participate in an offline writing group? Are you taking a writing course or class that uses peer critiquing? Would you like to supplement your group’s activity with your own group home on Review Fuse? If so, we want to hear from you! We’ll give your group some free time to test our functionality and work with you to find a group price that fits your needs. If interested send us a message with your group details, phone number, and a time we can contact you to discuss your group needs and set up your group page.

- Clark