Adding a discussion page

Find out the opinions of your users by creating discussions and surveys. Choose a topic and throw it open for discussion.

It is a good idea to structure this page into high-level discussion forums or themes. You can then create message threads or sub-topics within them.

Within each discussion forum, you can have a number of message threads e.g. in the events forum, you have message threads on the different events such as summer ball, meetings, jumble sale etc…

People have to be registered users of SurreyCommuinty in order to participate so you know who is saying what. If you only wish your members to participate, then set the 'Permissions' to be only available to your members. You can access this by clicking on 'Manage Website' and then clicking on 'Create standard pages'. On this page, you can choose 'Permissions' next to the Discussions entry.

TIP: Users will have the option to receive all replies to a message or discussion by email. This is a good way of keeping in touch with what people are saying without having to look at the discussion forums everyday as it will be emailed to you. Simply click on the Receive Notification link in the appropriate discussion or message thread to activate this. This is a good idea if your user wants to keep up to date with what is going on without having to keep checking your website.

To enable the discussion page

• Log in to your website
• From home page select ‘Manage Website’ link
• Click on ‘Create standard pages'
• A list of standard pages will appear. Discussion - click the ‘Enable' link under the ‘Actions' heading
• Under the ‘Enabled' heading it should now say ‘On’

 Adding a discussion forum

• Select Discussions from the navigation menu found on your homepage
• Click ‘Manage Discussions' link
• Click 'Create a New Discussion'
• Create a name for your discussion
• Add a description or purpose for your discussion 
• Choose whether you want your forum to be flat or threaded. Flat only allows replies at the end of the forum. Threaded allows your visitors to reply to any post.
• Choose your 'Posting Policy'. All discussion topics can be moderated. This is extremely useful because it means you can monitor the posts which go up on  the site. ‘Open’ allows any registered user to post and their posts will appear on the site immediately. ‘Moderated’ means posts must be approved by an administrator before others can see them.‘Closed’ means that only approved administrators may post a discussion.
• You can also choose to keep the discussion topic tight or to allow users to create their own threads. If you choose no to this option, users will only be able to reply to existing posts.
• Click ‘OK’
• You will then be taken back to the discussion page where you will see your discussion forum displayed.

 Editing a discussion forum

• Select Discussions from the navigation menu found on your homepage
• Click on the discussion name you wish to edit
• Click on 'Edit'
• Update your discussion
• Choose which format you wish to save your thread. The default is Text
• Click OK. The message will appear on your website

 Moderating a discussion

• Select Discussions from the navigation menu found on your homepage
• Click on the discussion name you wish to moderate
• Click on 'Moderate this Discussion'
• You will see what threads are 'Pending', that is, which are available for you to publish.
• You can edit, move, delete, reject or approve the thread by clicking on the appropriate link. See Editing, moving, rejecting and deleting a message thread below

Posting a message thread

• Select Discussions from the navigation menu found on your homepage
• Click ‘Manage Discussions' link
• Click on 'Post a New Message'
• Fill in the Subject of your thread and the Body text
• Choose which format you wish to save your thread. The default is Text
• You can preview the message by clicking the 'Preview' button
• Click OK. The message will appear on the website

 Editing, moving, rejecting and deleting a message thread

• Select Discussions from the navigation menu found on your homepage
• Click on the subject title of the message thread you wish to edit
• Click on 'Edit' to update your discussion
• Click on 'Move thread to other discussion' if you wish to have it displayed under a different discussion forum
• Click on 'Move thread to other thread' to have the message displayed with a different thread
• If your discussion is moderated, you can click 'Reject' to remove a message thread somebody has posted
• Click on 'Delete' to remove the message thread that has already been displayed. It will ask you whether you are sure you want to delete the message thread.  Click ‘Yes' to delete it