Discussion Tool

The Discussion tool allows you to create structured, asynchronous dialogues with the members of your site. The tool works similarly to message boards from other web sites.

The Discussion tool is organized into Categories, Topics, and Replies. Categories are broad containers, consisting only of a title, and holding zero or more topics. Topics are placed within a Category. Topics consist of a title and some text content. They are the seeds of your discussion. Replies hang off of a topic. They are responses to the topic idea. You can also reply to a reply, if you allow that setting.

For example, you might have a category called Characters from Novels. Some topics in this category might be discussing the qualities of a particular character, or perhaps a topic asking members to talk about their favorite character from any work. Replies would then be responses from individual members, describing their chosen character, and whatever else the topic asks (such as reasoning, etc.).

When you enter the Discussion tool, the main page shows several tabs at the top, and a table of all your categories, topics, and replies arranged hierarchically below. Using the View: selection box, you can change from Row Layout, which shows the table above with the text of the current topic/reply below, or Column layout which shows them side by side. Next to categories, topics, and replies which have another item below/within is a black arrow. You can click on the arrow to expand/collapse the hierarchy at that point.

When you click on a topic or reply in the table, the content of that topic/reply will appear below the table or to the right, depending on which view you have selected. At the bottom of the content will be a Reply to Topic button, which allows you to begin composing a new reply which will be placed directly under the topic (the topic that this reply is ultimately under, if a reply is currently selected). If a reply is currently selected, and you have allowed replies to replies in the settings for the topic the reply is under, then a Reply to Message button will also appear. Using this button, your new reply will appear under the currently selected reply. Which button to use depends upon the content of your reply (is it a response to the original topic, or a response specifically to the currently selected reply message).

To add a new category, click on the Add Category tab at the top of the tool. The Create a Category page shows a list of your existing categories, and a text box where you can enter the title of your new category. Press Create Category when you are finished. You can also create a new category when you create a topic, as discussed below.

To add a new topic, click on the Add Topic tab. First, select the category your topic should appear in from the Category selection box. Alternatively, you can create a new category for this topic by entering the title of the new category in the Or Create a Category text box. Next, enter the title for your new topic in the Topic Title text box.

Below this is the Topic Format option. This is where you choose whether members are allowed to reply to other replies in the topic (allow replies to any message), or whether only responses to the topic are allowed (only allow replies directly to this message). This second choice results in a discussion structure that is only one level deep. This choice does not prevent members from discussing another response in their reply, but it should help guide them into the type of discussion you want to create.

Next, you can enter the content of your topic in the Message box, using all of the OWL-Space text editor options. There is also a button for adding attachments.

When you are done, you can press Add Topic to post your topic to the discussion board, or press Save Draft to save your work to be posted/edited another time. If saved as a draft, your topic will appear in the table on the Discussion tool main page with a red Draft label. It is only visible to you. If you click on it, the editing interface will appear in the message content pane of the main page, where you may edit and save your topic.

To add a reply, select the topic or response you wish to reply to, and press the Reply to Topic/Message button. The Your Reply page is very similar to the topic creation page. First enter a title for your reply in the Reply Title text box, then create the content of your response in the Message box. You can add attachments, and then Add Reply to post your message to the board. Alternatively you can use the Preview button to see how it will appear, or Save Draft to save it for future editing and posting.

The Previous and Next Message links in the Discussion tool tabs move the currently selected topic/reply up or down, respectively, by one message in the table. You can move from topic to topic with these links, but not past category boundaries.

The links Expand All and Collapse All in the tabs expand/collapse all categories, topics, and replies in the table. The link toggles from expand to collapse and back each time it is clicked.

The Permissions tab allows you to set what actions your members can take in the Discussion tool. Read allows members to view topics and replies; new allows them to create new replies; new.topic allows creation of topics; delete.any allows them to delete any topic/reply; delete.own allows deletion only of topics/replies created by that member; and the revise options do the same for editing topics/replies.