As an administrator, you can perform a number of actions to manage the posts users add to your community discussions, including editing, pinning, promoting, moderating, and deleting them. These management tools ensure you have complete control over the content posted in your discussions.
Reindex content
Higher Logic gives Admins the ability to "reindex" much of your community content, including Discussion Posts.
- Reindexing is simply "refreshing" the content, similar to reloading a page in a web browser.
To learn about reindexing content in your community (e.g., who site can reindex content; which content can be reindexed), see Reindex Content Items.
Edit posts
To edit one of your discussion posts (or those of other users, if you're an admin), simply navigate to it and select Edit from the dropdown menu.
Moderate posts
Alternatively, rather than having all new content automatically sent to the queue for approval, you can also set the community to Self Moderation; this surfaces the Mark as Inappropriate option for each post.
This option is available to all members, enabling everyone to moderate a community's content. Upon selecting it, the content is sent to the moderation queue where an admin can decide whether to approve the moderation request to keep it in moderation or reject it to add it back to the discussion.
NOTE: If more control is desired over the content being posted to a discussion, Community and Super Admins can set a community to Full Moderation to have all new posts placed in a queue requiring admin approval before it's viewable by others.
See Manage Community Settings to learn more about moderation and how to enable it.
Close & re-open posts
Super Admins and Community Admins can close and re-open discussion posts. When a discussion post is closed, it is still visible to users, but they cannot add a reply.
The Show Close Thread Option parameter is not enabled by default, so you have to enable it on the Discussion Thread View widget for discussions, as shown below.
When the feature is toggled on, admins will see a Close Thread option in each discussion's dropdown menu, as shown below.
If selected:
- The discussion thread will not accept new replies;
- A message displays, indicating that the thread has been closed by an admin;
- The thread displays a lock icon next to the star ("you are following") icon on the community's Threads tab;
- The discussion thread and it's pre-Close replies remain visible; and
- The Re-open Thread option displays next to the Reply option, as shown below.
NOTE: If a closed thread is re-opened, the reply functionality is fully restored.
Delete posts
IMPORTANT: Deleting a post is different than removing one. A deleted post is permanently and irrevocably deleted from the system; whereas a visual record of a removed post remains in the thread, as described in Remove posts, below.
Delete a post
- Navigate to the post that you want to delete and expand its actions menu.
- Click Delete reply and then click Yes in the confirmation message.
Post-deleting dependencies
Every post in a thread can be deleted. However, not every post can be immediately deleted; there are some "dependency" considerations.
A post — whether it's an "original" post or a reply — cannot be deleted as long as there is a "child" post (i.e., a reply) associated to it. Replies can have their own replies!
Child posts have to be deleted before you can delete:
- the thread's "original" post or
- the reply to which it is a child.
TIP: If the Delete option is not available for the post you want to delete, take a moment to analyze the flow of replies in the thread. To demonstrate reply-dependency, we present two examples below.
Wolf Talk is a post that has received two replies ("child" posts)
In this scenario:
- Wolf Talk cannot be deleted until both of its "child" posts have been deleted
- Each Wolf Talk "child" post can be individually deleted (or removed, as described in the next section)
Tiger Talk is a post that has received a reply from Liz and a reply from Jane; Jane's reply has received a reply from Tom
In this scenario, one of the "child" posts has its own "child" post, so:
- Tiger Talk cannot be deleted until all of the "child" posts (in this case, three posts) have been deleted
- Liz's post can be immediately deleted (or removed, as described in the next section)
- Jane's post cannot be deleted until Tom's post has been deleted (however, Jane's post can be removed, as described in the next section)
- Tom's post can be immediately deleted (or removed, as described in the next section)
TIP: As posts and replies receive additional replies, this "delete-dependency" becomes increasingly difficult to manage.
Remove posts
IMPORTANT: Removing a post is different than deleting one. The content/text no longer displays when a post is removed, but a visual record of it remains in the thread. Whereas, a deleted post is permanently and irrevocably deleted from the thread and the system, as described in Delete posts, above.
Remove a post
- Navigate to the post that you want to remove and expand its actions menu.
- Click Remove and then click Yes in the confirmation message.
NOTE: A post that was removed remains in the thread structure but its content is removed and replaced with the default text "This post was removed." Additionally, all reference to the author is sanitized.
WARNING: Removing the initial post in a thread is the same as deleting it: It will be permanently deleted. The remove functionality is applicable only to replies to a thread or post.
Delete a removed post
After a reply to a post has been removed, its content is replaced with the default message, "This post was removed."
To permanently delete a removed post:
- Navigate to the removed post and expand its actions menu.
- Click Delete reply and then confirm the deletion.
Make Best Answer
When someone starts a thread asking a question, there's generally a reply that offers the best answer. While disabled by default, Super Admins can enable the Best Answer feature, which enables Super Admins, Community Admins, and the thread's original poster to mark a reply in a discussion as the Best Answer by selecting Make Best Answer from a post's menu.
NOTE: You can clear a best answer post at any time by selecting Clear Best Answer from the menu. Only one post can be flagged as the Best Answer at a time.
The post is then visually highlighted to indicate this, ensuring other users know.
In addition, threads with a reply marked as the Best Answer include a Jump To Best Answer link at the top right, making it easy for users to quickly see the best content.
How to enable the Best Answer option
The ability for Community Admins, Super Admins, and original posters to mark discussion posts as the Best Answer is disabled by default. This is done intentionally in case this feature is not wanted or applicable to specific communities. If you want to use this feature, it must be enabled on a community by community basis via the Discussion Thread View widget.
To enable this feature:
- Navigate to the Discussion tab in the community for which you want to enable this feature.
- In the Admin Toolbar, click (or right click for a new tab) Edit Page.
- Select the Discussion Thread View widget (it may have a different name in your community) and click the edit icon.
- In the widget configuration window, toggle the Show Make Best Answer Option? toggle to YES.
Pin a post
Within a given thread, there's often a post that holds significant importance. In these instances, you'll likely want to ensure it's not overlooked by your readers, especially in large threads with dozens of posts, and the best way to do this is to flag it with the Pin post to top feature, available in the post's actions menu.
NOTE: Pinned posts are marked with a pin. You can unpin a post at any time by selecting Unpin this post from the menu.
What does pinning a post do?
The main thing to understand is that pinning a post does NOT display it at the top of the discussion thread but rather it's added to the Latest Discussions List widget - this widget is generally displayed on a Higher Logic Thrive Community's Home page and individual community Home pages, as shown below.
Keep in mind that, by default, this widget is not configured to show pinned posts; if you'd like it to do so, you need to enable one of the following options:
- Show Only Pinned Posts? - Enable this to only display pinned posts.
- Show Pinned Posts at Top? - Enable this if you want a mixture of pinned and unpinned posts, with pinned posts given priority at the top of the widget.
Expand/collapse the Summary View
Within a discussion thread, there's what's called the Summary View above the initial post and its various replies.
This view makes it easy to quickly see all of the replies a post has received, and jump to any you're interested in reading (just click a link to do so).
You can directly control whether the Summary View is fully expanded or collapsed by clicking the Expand all and Collapse all buttons at the top right of the page.
If the Summary View is not needed, collapsing it saves space on the page, and looks like this:
TIP: You can click the chevrons of individual replies to more granularly expand/collapse the Summary View.
NOTE: Whether the Summary View is expanded or collapsed has no bearing on the actual posts and replies in a thread; the Summary View is a separate section on the page.
Discussions widget
Discussions have a dedicated widget — the Latest Discussions widget — that displays by default on a site's home page and provides easy access to the most recent Discussion posts.
See Best-practice Feed widgets in Widgets - Vehicles for Dynamic Content for more information.