Message boards can be configured by an administrator to best serve the needs of the working group using them.
Message Board Security
Consider security and notification settings for your message boards when defining them. A user with "Editor" permissions on the folder can edit any message posted to the message board. Users with the "Message Board Contributor" role can add new messages to discussions and edit or delete their own messages, but cannot edit or delete the messages added by others. Learn more about roles in this topic:
Security Roles Reference.
If a board is configured to email all users, you may want to restrict posting access or implement a
moderator review process. Recipient users can also customize their own email notification settings on a per-message board basis.
Message Board Overview
A message board is the set of messages created in a given folder container. There are two web parts available for displaying messages:
- The Messages web part displays the first few lines of text of most recent messages. Each message is labeled with its author and the date it was posted, and includes a link to view or respond to the message. This is the default and primary view of a message board available in many new folders by default.
- The Messages List displays a grid view of all messages posted on the message board.
As with all web parts, when you are in
Page Admin Mode, you gain additional options on the web part
(triangle) menu , such as moving web parts up or down the page. You can also control which users can see web parts in this mode. See
Web Parts: Permissions Required to View for more information.
Message Board Administration
The
Messages web part is the primary way to view a message board. When you are not in page admin mode, a limited set of user options are available on the menu.
Note that the "Customize" option on the web part menu lets you customize the web part itself as described below, and is not used to change message board configuration.
To
administer a message board, specifying the behavior and properties, use
page admin mode:
- Enter > Page Admin Mode.
- Click the (triangle) menu in the header and choose Admin.
Board name: The name used to refer to the entire message board. Examples: "Team Discussions," "Building Announcements," etc.
Conversation name: The term used by your team to refer to a conversation. Example: "thread" or "discussion."
Conversation sorting: Whether to sort by initial post on any given conversation (appropriate for announcements or blogs) or most recent update or response (suitable for discussion boards).
Security: By default, security is "OFF": conversations are visible to anyone with read permissions, content can be modified after posting, and content will be sent via email (if enabled by users). Turning "ON" security limits access so that only editors and those on the member list can view conversations, content cannot be modified after posting, and is never sent by email, even if users have set their preferences to request email.
Moderator review: Adding moderator review can help reduce "noise" messages, particularly with message boards that are generally open to the public (e.g., when self-sign-on is enabled and all site users are assigned the "Author" role). Messages from users with the "Author" or "Message Board Contributor" role are subject to review when enabled.
(Messages from Editors and Admins are never subject to moderator review.) Options:
- None: (Default) New messages never require moderator review.
- Initial Post: Authors must have their initial message(s) approved by a moderator. Subsequent messages by approved authors are approved automatically.
- All: Every new message from an Author must be approved by a moderator.
The
Moderator review process is described below.
Allow Editing Title: Check to enable editing the title of a message.
Include Member List: Check to enable the member list field, allowing the selection of members to notify about the conversation. On a secure message board, you can use the member list to notify a user who does not have editor permissions on the message board itself.
Include Status: Enables a drop-down for the status of a message, "active" or "closed", for workflow applications.
Include Expires: Allows the option to indicate when a message expires and is no longer displayed in the messages web part. The default is one month after posting. Expired messages are still accessible in the
Message List.
Include Assigned To: Displays a drop-down list of project users to whom the message can be assigned as a task or workflow item. You can specify a default member for all new messages.
Include Format Picker: Displays a drop-down list of options for message format:
Wiki Page, HTML, or
Plain Text. If the format picker is not displayed, new messages are posted as plain text.
Show poster's groups, link user name to full details (admins only): Check this box to provide only admins with access to view the group memberships of whoever posted each message.
Email templates: Click links to:
- Customize site-wide template. You can also select Email > Site-Wide Email Template directly from the messages web part menu.
- Customize template for this project. You can also select Email > Project Email Template directly from the messages web part menu.
Message Status
Administrators have the option to adjust the
Status of a message. Messages are "Active" by default, but could also be set to "Closed" if necessary. Use the
Edit link for a message to see the status dropdown.
Moderator Review
When
moderator review is enabled (in page admin mode, under
Messages > Admin), an administrator must approve messages written by users with the Author role before they are made visible, indexed for full-text search, sent in individual email notifications, or included in daily digest emails. (The "Message Board Contributor" role is the same as the "Author" role on a message board). Messages from Editors and Administrators are always posted without review.
Once enabled, the
Messages > Admin menu will include a link to the
Moderator Review Page.
Note that you have to save the enabled setting for this link to be shown.
All messages posted to the board requiring review are initially saved, but with the "Approved" column set to false, so they are not posted or included in daily digests. All administrators are sent an email notification that moderator review is required including link to the
Moderator Review Page and details about the new message.
On the
Moderator Review Page, review the messages and select rows to either:
- Approve: The message is posted and notifications sent.
- Mark As Spam: The message is marked as rejected and the user is blocked from posting.
Note: If you edit an existing message board to add moderator review of the initial post, all users who have posted messages in the past are already approved.
Customize the Messages Web Part
You can switch the display in the web part between a
simple message presentation and
full message display by selecting
Customize from the
Messages menu.
Messages List Web Part
The
Messages List is an alternative user interface option, providing a grid view of all the messages in the current board. It can be filtered and sorted, new messages can be added by clicking
New and the contents of any existing message can be accessed by clicking the conversation title.
Like the Messages web part, the options available on the web part menu vary depending on whether you are in page admin mode. Note that the administration options available
When not in page admin mode:
In page admin mode, the following options are available:
- Email: With the same submenu options as the page admin mode of the Messages web part.
- Admin: Edit the message board settings.
- Permissions: Control permissions needed to see the web part.
- Move up/down: Adjust the position on the page.
- Remove from page: Note that this removes the user interface, not the underlying message board.
- Hide frame: Hide both the box outline and web part menu from users not in page admin mode.
Email Notifications for Messages
Preferences
Users who have read permissions on a message board can choose to receive emails containing the content of messages posted to the message board. A user can
set their own preferences by selecting *Messages > Email Preferences.
Administration
Project administrators can set the defaults for the message board's email notification behavior for individual users or for all users at the folder level. Any user can override the preferences set for them if they choose to do so.
- Enter > Page Admin Mode.
- Click the (triangle) in the Messages web part.
- Select Email > Administration to open the folder notifications tab.
- See Manage Email Notifications for more information.
- Options available:
- Select desired Default Settings and click Update.
- Select one or more users using the checkboxes to the left and click Update User Settings.
- Remember to click Exit Admin Mode when finished.
Site and Folder Email Templates
Learn to customize email templates in this topic:
Email Template Customization.
Example Scenario: Broadcast Email to All Site Users
In some cases you may want to set up a mechanism for emailing periodic broadcast messages to all users, such as notification of a server upgrade affecting all projects. You would probably want to limit the permission to send such wide broadcasts to only users who would need to do so. Individual users can still opt-out of these email notifications.
- Create a folder for your broadcast announcements and grant Read permissions to All Site Users.
- Grant Author or greater permissions only to individuals or groups who should be able to send broadcast messages.
- Create a new message board.
- Enter > Page Admin Mode.
- Select Email > Administration.
- Set Default Setting for Messages to "All conversations."
- Create a new message. Notice that there is an alert above the Submit button indicating the number of people that will be emailed.
If you only need to send a one time email to all users, another approach is to open
Admin > Site > Site Users, export the list to Excel, copy the contents of the
Email column, and paste into a new email message.
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