Starting a new discussion

Overview

Discussions are divided into forums, or topics to enable focused discussions. Within each forum, you might find several different message topics relating to the forum.

To start an online discussion, first create a forum, then add messages to the forum. After you start a discussion, email members to invite them to join the discussion with a hot link pointing directly to your message.

New discussions can be selected by an administrator to appear in "What’s New?" on the Home Page. To configure the number of discussions displayed in "What’s New?" and the duration of time a discussion is categorized as "recent", access Administration > Customize Appearance, and choose the Application Settings for your Home Page.

New posts in the Discussions application are marked with a "New" symbol for a day.

Creating a new discussion forum

If an administrator has given you permission to create new forums, you see the New button in the Command Bar.

To create a new forum:

Click Discussions in the Menu. A list of all the discussions appears.
Click the New button in the Command Bar. The New Forum page appears.

Forum Name	Type the name of the forum.
Description	Be sure to provide a brief description for what the forum will focus on. The description will appear under your topic on the main Discussions page.
Permissions	By default, all members can see and add messages to your discussion forum and guests cannot see your forum. If you'd like to change the default permissions setting, click the Permissions tab. See Discussion permissions for more information.

Click Save in the Command Bar.

Adding messages

You can start a new discussion topic in a forum or reply to any message in an ongoing discussion topic.

To start a message in a new discussion topic, go to the forum you want to add to, and then click New in the Command Bar.

To reply to a message in an ongoing discussion, select the discussion and message, and click Reply in the Command Bar.

Fill in the information about your message:

Subject	This is the subject of your message that appears in the messages list.
File	If you want to include a file, such as a Microsoft Word® document, to go along with your message, you can upload it here. Click the Browse button, select the file you want, and then click Open.
Message	Enter the main text of your message here. You can include a hot link to a website relating to your message; be sure to use one of these formats so everyone in your web office can link to it.

Click Save in the Command Bar.

Your message is posted instantly and you see it in the discussion topic.

Editing messages

You can edit any message you created. Just follow these steps:

Find the message you want to change, and then click Edit in the Command Bar.
Change any of the information in the message, and then click Save in the Command Bar.

Deleting messages

You can delete any message you created. When you delete a message, you also delete any associated replies.

To delete a message:

Find the message you want to delete, and then click the Delete in the Command Bar.
If you're sure you want to delete the message from your site, click Yes to confirm.

Notifying members of new messages

After you post a message, you can automatically send an email notification about it to members and invite them to join the discussion. The email message contains a hot link that goes directly to the discussion forum and message.

To send a link to a message:

Find the message you want to notify members of and click the subject to display the message.
Click Send Link and fill in the information on the Send Link page.

To Cc Bcc	To indicate who you'd like to send the link to, select one or more names from the list at the right, and then click the To, Cc, or Bcc buttons.
Subject	The subject is automatically filled in with the subject of the discussion message; you can change it if you'd like.
Message	A hot link to the message is automatically inserted so that when members receive the email, they can go directly to the event. Type your personal message above or below the link.

Click Send in the Command Bar.

Managing the forums

You can tailor the forums to your needs. You manage the forums from the Forums page. To see the Forums page, click Discussions in the Menu.

Adding	If an administrator has given you permission to create new forums, you see the New button in the Command Bar. To create a new forum, click the New button. Type the name of the forum and provide a brief description for what the forum will focus on. The description will appear under your topic on the main Discussions page. Click Save.
Editing	Administrators and forum managers are the only people who can edit a forum. To rename a forum or change the permission settings for a forum, click the edit icon beside it.
Deleting	Administrators and forum managers are the only people who can delete forums. When you delete a forum, you delete all the messages in the forum as well. Click the delete icon beside the forum you want to delete. Click Yes to confirm.