Sherwood Using Plinkit
Maintaining the Staff Forum Area
The Staff Area folder also contains the Staff Forum, an online discussion area that can only be accessed by Staff users and Editors.
The Staff Forum folder can actually contain multiple forums, which you can think of as discussion areas. Your Plinkit site will come configured with one general-purpose forum called General Discussions, but you can add other forums as appropriate. Only Editors can add forums, but all staff can read and post messages in the forums once they have logged in.
Each forum can contain multiple “conversations,” which are basically collections of individuals posts and replies around a particular conversation threads. Both Staff users and Editors can start and contribute to conversations.
The following sections cover some of the basic tasks Editors can perform in the Staff Forum.
Viewing and Creating Forums
To get familiar with the structure of the Staff Forum and create a new forum:
1. Log in to Plinkit.
2. In the navigation portlet, click Staff Area and then Staff Forum to display the contents of the Staff Forum in the main content window.
Initially, the Staff Forum contains a single forum called General Discussions.
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3. To create a new forum, click the add forum link on the green menu bar.
An Edit Forum form opens on the edit tab.
4. In the Title field, enter a name for the forum.
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Tip: The small red square indicates that this is a required field. You must enter a name for your new forum. |
5. If desired, enter a description of the forum in the Description box.
6. Click save at the bottom of the Edit Forum page.
The new forum opens in the view tab.
7. To restrict access to the forum, click free for all on the green menu bar and then select make member-posting.
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Note: Always perform this step as soon as you create a new forum, in order to ensure that only logged-in users can read and post to the forum. |
Your new forum is now ready for members to start conversations.
Starting a New Conversation
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Note: Both Editors and Staff users can start and contribute to conversations. |
To start a new conversation:
1. Log in to Plinkit.
2. In the navigation portlet, click Staff Area and then Staff Forum to display the contents of the Staff Forum in the main content window.
3. Click a forum name to view its contents. In our example, we’ll click Technology Topics. The view tab opens for Technology Topics.
4. Click the start a new conversation link.
Conversations are made up of messages, or individual posts, so an Add message form opens.
5. In the Title field, enter a title for your post and the conversation thread you are starting and enter a message in the Body text box.
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Tip: The title will tell others what the main topic of the conversation is, just like a subject line in e-mail correspondence. |
6. When you have finished your message, click preview. In the Staff Forum, you must preview all of your messages before sending them.
7. If your message looks satisfactory, click post to submit it.
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Note: If you click change you will be returned to the Add message field to continuing editing your message. If you click cancel, the conversation will be abandoned. |
Your message is posted and displayed as the first conversation in the new forum.