Why can coordinators see email addresses of group members?

Perhaps it's a side-issue, but if emails are not visible to coordinators, someone should check that the function to send an email to all group members work. I tried to send an email to all members recently (I am a group coordinator) and it didn't work.

Another related desirable feature is messaging one or certain group members directly. Right now one can only @mention people publicly within a certain discussion.

Otherwise I agree with @denjello in principle.

This is something I never noticed; thanks @denjello for bringing it up. If I understand it correctly: basically, any time we join any group, we're giving our email address (from our Loomio "Edit Profile" page) to all of that group's coordinators?

That's sure what it looks like to me.

Sure. Visit a group where you are coordinator:

http://loomio.org/g/%GROUPID%/memberships

Here is the relevant file from the github repo

See line 20 & 31

This is one of those moments for me where I wish there was an "Anti-Like" button link in these posts. Just like back then when someone shared something depressing on F***BOOK.

Good point @denjello - so you're proposing a per-group opt-in for sharing your email with the group coordinator?

Do you want to mock up how that would work as part of the group joining process?

@richarddbartlett no, actually I meant a set of profile switches that inform you that you can share your email address with:

1. No one [DEFAULT]
2. Coordinators of Groups [TRUSTED]
3. Anyone with whom you share Group affiliation [SOCIAL]
4. Anyone who finds your profile [GLOBAL]

Oh ok cool, I get it.

To answer your original question 'why can coordinators see email addresses of group members?', it's so they can contact them outside of the platform. I know some group coordinators use this as a kind of directory of their group membership, so they really value having a complete list of all their members' emails.

Of course there's also the case where you're in a less trusted group, in which case it makes perfect sense to hide the email from the coordinator.

So my question is what to set as default. The majority use case on Loomio is amongst trusted groups, so to my mind most of the time option 2 would be totally appropriate. So how to draw attention to the more private option? Maybe when you're joining an open-to-join group (which implies it is a lower trust environment), you could be notified "hey your profile is currently configured to share your email address with coordinators - do you want to switch this off?"

@richarddbartlett, your example shows that sometimes you want different privacy levels for different groups. Maybe your original idea is the way to go.

I think that the logic behind asking this question hey your profile is currently configured to share your email address with coordinators - do you want to switch this off? is spot on and although the solution will be complex in terms of logic, presentation and translation, it treats the issue well.