Introduction - DISCUS Administration Instructions

Introduction

DISCUS Administration Instructions

Terminology

Several terms used throughout these administration instructions are defined here.

About message: a statement or paragraph added by a moderator to any page, displayed between the subtopics and the messages on the page. About messages can be changed or added only by moderators.
Announcement message: a statement or paragraph added by a moderator to any page, displayed before the subtopics on the page. Announcement messages can be changed or added only by moderators.
Group: a collection of moderators that is established to "own" a topic. Moderators within the group can edit topic pages with the Page Manager and add users to the group with the User Manager.
Message: a note posted by a moderator or a user into a topic. Messages are stamped with the author of the post.
Moderator: an account that has administrative privileges in topics owned by groups to which the moderator belongs.
Superuser: a special moderator who has permission to add and remove moderator accounts, to add or remove moderators from groups, and to add and remove topics on the board, as well as having all privileges of an ordinary moderator.
Subtopic: an additional level of discussion created within a topic (or another subtopic) that allows further classification of the discussion. This is sometimes called a "thread" or a "conversation."
Topic: a broad area of discussion created by the superuser and listed on the top page of the discussion board. Topics are "owned" by groups; moderators in the group that owns the topic have permission to edit that topic.
User: an account that has posting privileges in topics owned by the group to which the account has been added; a user account has no administrative privileges.

Overview of Administration

To access moderator functions, the moderator must be logged in via the administration program. This is accomplished by selecting "Administration" from the main menu of the board and subsequently supplying a valid username/password combination.

Simply having a moderator account does not in itself convey administrative privileges. Moderators must be added by the superuser to a group in order to have administrative privileges. Moderators may access the Page Manager, Access Manager, or User Manager only for topics that are owned by groups to which the moderator belongs. If a moderator belongs to a group that owns a topic, that moderator has full administrative privileges within that topic.