Administering Threaded Discussions

The Admin menu is only available to Site Administrators.  To begin using Threaded Discussions, your organization’s Site Administrator must create Categories and Forums, choose moderators and select other customizable options.  

Select Admin from the Threaded Discussions action icon menu.

 

Categories Add/Edit

Click on the Categories Add/Edit link to create new or edit existing categories.

To create a new category,

1. Enter the position number in the Pos text box and the category title in the Title text box.  
2. Click Add Category.
   
   

To edit an existing category,

1. Highlight the information to be changed and enter the new information.  
2. When finished, click Save Categories.
   
   

To delete a category, click on the remove link that corresponds with the category.  Any forums listed within the category will be deleted as well.

Forums Add/Edit

To create forums for each category,

Click on the Forums Add/Edit link.  Administrators can also edit or remove existing forums by accessing this link.

To add a new forum, select the category in which the forum should be placed, and enter the forum’s position number, title and security level.  Administrators can choose to password protect the forum, make the forum for administrators only, limit the forum to a specific group or set no security at all.

Click Add Forum.

Once the forum has been created, more options can be selected.  

To edit forums,

Click on the forum title to access the Edit Forum screen.

From this screen, Administrators can change the category the forum appears in, edit the forum title and change the access security.  Administrators can also choose to hide or lock the forum.  This is where administrators will select a moderator or moderators for the forum.

Hidden:	If Yes is selected for this option, only Site Administrators can view the forum.  This option is to be used while the forum is under construction or if the forum is only relevant for a particular period of time.
Locked:	If Yes is selected for this option, only Site Administrators can post messages.
Access:	If Everyone is selected, all users can view and post to the forum.   If Password Protected is selected, administrators must create a password.  Users will need the password to enter the forum.   If Admins Only is selected, only Site Administrators can view and post.   If Specific Group is selected, administrators must choose a group from the list.  Only members of the selected group can access the forum.
Moderator:	Moderators can lock (), delete (), stick () or move () any topics posted in the forum without having Site Administrator security.  To add a moderator, enter the username and click Add Moderator.

When all options have been selected, click Save Forum.

Users

To search for a Threaded Discussions user,

Click the Users link.

Enter the user’s username or email address and click Find.  

To search all users, leave the text box empty and click Find.

This will bring back a report of the users that includes each user’s ID number, the date their Threaded Discussion account was created, Last Post date and the number of posts.

Delete Old Private Messages

To mass delete old private messages, click on the Delete Old Private Messages link.

From there, Administrators can choose to remove all private messages that are older than a certain amount of days.  Choose a number from the drop down menu, then click Delete Messages.