Message boards can become unwieldy if left unmanaged. The Message Boards in Site Administration facilitates day-to-day thread administration. You may wish to assign this function to a Role that you give to one or more users. This frees you to concentrate on other areas of your Site. For example, you can create a Role called Message Board Administrator scoped to the portal (globally), an Organization, or a Site. Members of a global Role can administer Message Boards throughout the portal. Members of an Organization or Site-scoped Role can only administer Message Boards in that Organization or Site, respectively.
Follow these steps to create a global Role:
-
In the Control Panel, select Users → Roles.
-
Select or create the Role.
-
Select the Role’s Define Permissions tab and navigate to Site Administration → Content & Data → Message Boards. A screen appears that lets you configure Message Board permissions.
Figure 1: Define the permissions you want to use for the message boards administrators.
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Select the permissions you want message board administrators to have, then click Save.
-
Add users to this Role.
Locking Threads
You may encounter threads that you think should be preserved, but stopped. You
can halt activity on a thread by selecting Lock from the thread’s Actions
menu
().
Moving Threads
If someone posts a thread to the wrong category, you can move it to the proper one. Follow these steps:
-
Select Move from the thread’s Actions menu (
). This opens the Move Thread form.
-
Click the Select button and select the new category.
-
If you want to add a post explaining the move, select Add explanation post.
-
Click Move to move the thread.
Deleting Threads
Sometimes users begin discussing topics that are inappropriate or that reveal
confidential information. In this case, administrators can delete the thread
from the message boards. To do so, select Move to Recycle Bin from the
thread’s Actions menu
().
Banning Users
Unfortunately, message board users can be abusive. In this case, you can ban the
user from the message boards. While viewing any of the user’s posts in any
thread, select the post’s Actions menu
() and select Ban this User.
To reinstate a banned user, you must use the Message Boards app in Site
Administration. Navigate to this app and select the Banned Users tab. Select
the user’s Actions menu
() and select Unban this User.
Splitting Threads
Sometimes a thread goes on for a while and the discussion completely changes
into something else. In this case, you can split the thread where the discussion
diverged and create a whole new thread for the new topic. To split a thread at
a certain post, administrators can select that post’s Actions menu
() and select Split Thread.
This brings up a form that lets you add an explanation post to the split thread.
Click OK to split the thread.
Editing Posts
Administrative users can edit anyone’s posts, not just their own. Sometimes users post links to copyrighted material or unsuitable pictures. By editing these posts, you can redact information that shouldn’t be posted, or remove content not conforming to your terms of use. You can also update the thread’s priority or mark a reply as an answer to a thread’s question.
To edit a post, select its Actions menu
() and select Edit.
Post Permissions
Permissions can be set not only on threads, but also on individual posts. You
can choose to limit a particular conversation or post to only a select group of
users. To do this, select the post’s Actions menu
() and select Permissions. You
can then choose which Roles have the following permissions:
- Delete
- Permissions
- Subscribe
- Update
- View
Use this, for example, to let some privileged users post on a certain thread, while others are only allowed to view it. Other combinations of these permissions are also possible.