Buddy groups

Buddy groups are a great way to send messages to everyone about your special events or group activities.  This is also a much desired business feature because you can send messages about changing meeting times, or even invite your participants to a room at a time of your choosing.

Buddy groups are safe and secure because you can create both public and private groups.  You can create as many groups as you like for maximum flexibility.  You can make groups for your friends, family, business associates, customers, or anything you choose.

Public groups:

You can add people to any buddy group you create and send messages to them.  You may add users to a public group without their permission. This function is however tied to their privacy settings.  For example, if you are not on their pal list and they specify in their privacy settings that they will not accept messages from persons not on their list, the user will not get your message or invitation.  If a user has you on 'block' or ignore they will also not receive your messages.  'Online status' settings such as 'away' and 'do not disturb' will also prevent buddy group invitations to a user group.  In this way, a users privacy is protected from unwanted buddy group messages or invitations, just like any other message.

Any user may add themselves to any public group by simply obtaining the name of the group and adding themselves to the group using their own 'Paltalk pal'.  If you want to get a particular users messages ask them for the name of any public or private groups that may be of interest.  Be aware that since your group is public, other users may feel free to pass the name of the group to other users who may wish to add themselves at will.

If you don't want a certain user to get your messages consider sending 'private messages' thru a private buddy group, or block and / or ignore that particular user.  Public groups are for global messages that may be of interest to any user and should not be regarded as private communications.

Private groups:

If you create a private buddy group, only people on the list for that group may add themselves to the group.  For a user to get messages from your private group, you must FIRST add them to your group, then the user may add themselves to that group.

You may not add yourself to any users private group without the owner of the group adding you to the group, then adding yourself to the group.  In this way private group messages are truly kept private.


note: To build groups and send messages you must be a subscriber to one of our services like 'Plus' or 'X-teme'.  This may change however as we are considering making it available to everyone in the future.

For now you must access your buddy groups using your 'Paltalk pal' on your 'pal list'.  All paid subscribers will find this pal on their list.  The 'Paltalk pal' does many things besides buddy groups.  Type  help -all   to your 'Paltalk pal' for a list of commands available.  This page will focus on buddy groups in particular.


Buddy Group Commands:

Buddy group commands are typed to the 'Paltalk pal', just as if you were typing a message to a user, but instead you are 'talking' to our server to manage your list and send messages.

commands
examples (what you would type)
 
Managing buddy groups  
bg -list
bg -list
lists your buddy groups
bg <buddy_group_name> -create
bg family -create
create a private group
bg <buddy_group_name> -create -public
bg friends -create -public
create a public group
bg <buddy_group_name> -remove
bg friends -remove
remove a group
Adding and removing people
your own groups
 
bg <buddy_group_name> -add <nickname>
bg friends -add TheUsersNickname
adds a person to a group
bg <buddy_group_name> -del <nickname>
bg friends -del TheUsersNickname
remove a person from a group
bg <buddy_group_name> -list
bg friends -list
lists the people in a group
Adding and removing yourself
other people's groups
 
bg <buddy_group> [-owner <nickname>] -add
bg friends -owner TheUsersNickname -add
add yourself to a group owned by someone else
bg <buddy_group> [-owner <nickname>] -del
bg friends -owner TheUsersNickname -del
remove yourself from a group owned by someone else
Sending messages and invites  
im [-bg] <name> -text <msg>
im -bg friends -text Your message here
send a message to a selected group (online)
im [-bg] <name> [-online] -text <msg>
im -bg friends -text -online Your message here
send your message to a selected group
invite [-bg] <buddy group name>
invite -bg friends
send a room invite to everyone in a buddy group