The Hobby Network · Member Guide
Start a group with the people you trade with — and nobody joins unless they say yes. Here's how invitations work, on the website and in the app.
Open the Messages menu at the top of the site and choose Instant Messages. Above your conversation list you'll find ＋ New group.
Name it after what it's for — Vintage Traders, Set Builders, whatever your circle calls itself. You become the group's owner, and it appears in a new Groups section above your direct messages.
Open the group and press the 👥 button beside its name. Type someone's screen name exactly as it appears on their profile, then press Invite.
This is the part worth knowing: inviting someone does not put them in the group. They receive an invitation and decide for themselves. Until they accept, they can't see the group, its messages, or who else is in it — and they won't appear in your member list.
They'll get an invitation to accept or decline. You'll see them here once they join.
Waiting is normal. If someone you invited isn't in the list yet, nothing has gone wrong — they simply haven't answered. Send them a message if it's urgent; the invitation keeps waiting either way.
You'll get a notification, and a ✉ Invites button appears above your conversation list with the number waiting.
Not the members, not the messages, not the history. You're deciding whether to walk in, so you're shown what's on the door and nothing behind it. Press Accept to join, or Decline to pass.
The person who invited you is not told that you declined. They also can't invite you to another group afterwards — so a “no” stays a no without you having to say it again.
Changed your mind? Everyone you've declined is listed at the bottom of the ✉ Invites screen under People you've declined, and Undo lets them invite you again. That's private too.
You're never added to a group without agreeing. If you don't answer an invitation, nothing happens — no group, no messages, no notifications from it.
The 👥 button is also where you manage everyone. What you can do there depends on your role.
Remove takes someone out of the group straight away — they lose access the moment you press it, even if they have the group open.
Removing someone is not the same as them declining you: they can still be invited back later.
Press Leave group. Anyone can leave at any time — except the owner, because a group with no owner would lock everyone out of their own conversation.
So if it's your group, use Make owner on a member first. You'll stay on as an admin, and then you're free to go.
The owner can press Close group. Everyone keeps the group and can still read every message in it — closing only stops new messages and new invitations.
Nothing is deleted. It's the tidy way to end a trade, a group buy or a one-off deal without everyone having to leave one by one.
Press Reopen group and it carries on exactly where it left off. You can close and reopen as often as you like.
Only the owner can close or reopen a group — not admins — so nobody else can quietly shut down a group you started.
A group holds up to 25 members. If it's full, invitations wait until someone leaves.
Tap the Messages tab. The same three buttons sit in the top corner: ✉ for invitations, ＋ to start a group, and 👥 inside a group for its members.