There are 2 problems that need to get fixed together so as to not break what is working due to one of the bugs.

1) site.visit is checked on in the !group.template and !group.template.course realms in Sakai OOTB. Those realms are for setting group related permissions for group aware tools, and site.visit shouldn't be considered in the scope of a group with the current permission setup.

2) If an Announcement or Resource is created for a particular group, and the notification option is used, those in the group do not receive the notification unless they have site.visit and annc.read (or content.read) in the realm for their group. They should only need annc.read or content.read. Requiring site.visit confuses the use of group templates.

Need to remove site.visit from group realms OOTB, and make a change to
https://source.sakaiproject.org/viewsvn/event/branches/sakai_2-5-x/event-util/util/src/java/org/sakaiproject/util/SiteEmailNotification.java
where it appears the check is made that includes the group realm in the check for site.visit.

Note that there are some site realm permissions that should be checked - site.visit for example- if the user can't visit the site then they shouldn't get a notification. If the site is unpublished, they shouldn't get the notification. If they don't have annc.read in the site (or in the group realm) they shouldn't get the notification.