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.
Edit posts
To edit one of your posts (or those of other users, if you're an admin), simply navigate to it and select Edit from the 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, available in its ellipses menu.
This option is available to all members, both admins and non-admins alike, enabling everyone to help 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
NOTE: This section is not applicable to customers whose Community site is based on the Community Essentials model.
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
While every post in a thread can be deleted, not every post can be deleted immediately. Only the latest reply to a post can be deleted at any given time; this means if you want to remove the original post in a thread comprising four replies, you must delete each of them in order, from the latest on up.
NOTE: There is some nuance to this logic, depending on whether users reply to the original post or its subsequent replies. 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 delete a post, select Delete (permanently) from its actions menu. Then, click Yes in the confirmation pop-up.
NOTE: Deleting a post is different than removing one: While removing a post leaves a visual record of it in the thread, deleting a post permanently removes it from the system.
Remove posts
To remove a post, navigate to it and select Remove from the menu. Then, click Yes in the confirmation pop-up.
NOTE: Removing a post is different than deleting one: 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 "This post was removed" message
After a reply to a post or thread has been removed, its content is replaced with the default message, "This post was removed."
- If you do not want this message to display, create a case and request that it be deleted.
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
NOTE: This section is not applicable to customers whose Community site is based on the Community Essentials model.
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.