Network & Community

In groups, members who are interested in a certain subject meet to discuss and exchange opinions.
Every member can suggest a new group which will be verified first before it gets created.
You can assign content like menus, stories and even applications to certain groups.

Blog is short for Weblog, a made-up word from ‚Web’ and ‚Logbook’.
Blog entries are listed in a reverse chronological oder. Usually blogs are linked with each other and can be commented by other users.

Portal Manager > Network and Community > Community Contol

Overview

The community control section of the Portal Master toolset allows you to monitor the various conversations that are going on around your portal, this can be used for various reason; for example moderation or CRM. 

Managing Conversations

In order to find conversations go to the community control homepage.
Here you will find the most recent postings.
Click the tabs across the top (blogs etc.) to see the latest postings in each field.
Click on the delete (dustbin) or view (the eye - to view as it will be seen by a user) to make changes to the posting

This role is required to edit, manage, create, delete and moderate any forum.

This role requires a license.

To assign a role to a user...

1. Go to Marketing and CRM
2. Search and find the user
3. Click access rights
4. Choose the role you wish to assign
5. Save

A forum moderator has the ability  to delete and edit forum entries a predifined set of forums in order control content and delete offensive material.

To assign a role to a user...

1. Go to Marketing and CRM
2. Search and find the user
3. Click access rights
4. Choose the role you wish to assign
5. Save

A Virtual Event replicates or complement a real time exhibition or trade show in an online environment removing the obstacles that surround physical location so broadening attendance.

Many online environments also offer a Virtual Presence Manager (VPM). A VPM creates a virtual presence within the event so that an event can run constantly without having to be constantly staffed.

Visitors can leave messages, or Business Cards (an online profile with contact details so staff can contact later), they can chat and use various social networking tools to collaborate with other visitors or the exhibitors themselves and much data is captured using Webmetrics for the exhibition organiser to examine later.

Using personalisation various user groups can be set up which define who can view various areas of the site, meaning that confidential information is kept safe. This also makes it possible to run various trade shows from one portal.

Virtual events are often broken up into various areas:

Firstly there’s the auditorium, this is area of the site where the conference takes place, pre recorded or live video streams are set up showing the various presentations that are to take place during the event.

Then there’s the exhibition hall; this is where the exhibitors create their virtual booths. Generally they show various pieces of information and allow downloads of documents, video and audio. Additionally they usually allow interested visitors to leave their business card for later contact by the company.

The lounge is where visitors/exhibitors can have group or private conversations. This is the main networking area of the virtual event and usually has a live chat function.

Finally, there’s the social network, this varies dependant on the platform (and some offer none), and allows users to create a database of contacts, to get in touch and collaborate with them, to write articles, upload files and network.

A Wiki is a collection of terms in need of explanation. With Wikipedia the method established that authors write, edit and publish entries directly online, voluntarily and without a fee. A Wiki article is only one single article, the explanation of one term in the whole Wiki, in the collection of all terms.

Access to content and applications is defined by user groups and user roles.

A user group allows you to personalize access to SITEFORUM elements like stories, menus, forums, polls, catalogs, products, etc.
User groups do not define access rights for administrative features but make certain content available for selected users.

The groups "All Registered Users and Guests" and "Registered Users" are part of the standard setup of your portal and cannot be deleted - every registered user is automatically assigned to both groups.
Every user who is not registered and is accessing your portal while not being loggged into it, falls into the group "All Registered Users and Guests".
Every user that is registered and accessing your portal while being logged into it, falls into the group "Registered Users".

If a portal is a "closed portal" only users who are logged in can access any content, guests can only access the login page.

User roles, on the other hand, define which functions a certain user can carry out in the portal, like manage menus, modify forums, create users, etc.
A user role is either equipped with permissions or other user roles - which, in turn, can inherit other roles.

These permissions therefore define which rights the respective user role receives in the portal.

Every user who is not registered and is accessing your portal while not being loggged into it, falls into the group "All Registered Users and Guests".
Every user that is registered and accessing your portal while being logged into it, falls into the group "Registered Users".

Both user groups "All Registered Users and Guests" and "Registered Users" are part of the standard setup of your portal and cannot be deleted - every registered user is automatically assigned to both groups.

Note:
If a portal is closed only users who are logged in can see any content, guests can only access the login page.

The 'Network Settings' provide a setting for this:
Network & Community > Network Settings > General > Show user name. When this checkbox is enabled the user name gets displayed in the community instead of first name and last name.

Only the one who posed the message can edit it. But the Portal Master and the Forum Moderator can do this as well.

You can format messages when activating the option "Message toolbar". You can find this setting under Network & Community > Forums > Details (after you clicked  othe name of one forum to get to the editing mode).

If a message is not displayed then the forum is pre-moderated which means that new messages don't get visbile immediately. They have to be accepted by the forum moderator first.

1. Read and write rights of the forum have to be right
and
2. the particular user groups have to be assigned to the forum group.

There are two possibilities to sort forums:
1. You can add forum groups to separate forums thematically (Network & Community > Forums > Forum Groups).
2. In the overview of all forums you can sort single forums by clicking the arrows in the column Position.

Portal Manager > Network and Community > Forums

Setting up Forums

• In forum Overview click add tab at top of screen.
• Fill in Name Description and Forum Group (see later), select BBcode on/off, define the maximum size of uploads to forum and set a moderation size.
• Click Next
• Assign Reading Rights – i.e. which user groups this will be available to read the content (guest by default).
• Assign Writing Rights – i.e. who will be able to create content (guest by default).
• Save - your forum is now set up.

Editing a Forum

• To edit a forum simply click the edit tab in the forum overview page.

Creating Forum Groups

• In Forum overview click the Forum Groups button on the left hand navigation, then choose add. Type in the name if your group
• Choose the user groups who will be able to see forums in this group in assign user groups
• Choose the network groups that the forum will be visible to in assign network groups.
• Save – this completes this section.
• Note – to assign a forum to a new group you must edit the forum not the group.

Creating Moderators for your forums

• In the left hand menu of the forum overview page choose Moderators Overview this gives you a list of all current moderators on the portal.
• To Create a new moderator click the add tab at the top of the screen.
• If the user is already registered on the site then use the auto-search functions to find them, if not fill in the details and they will be automatically registered on the site.

Assigning Moderators

• Choose the Assign in the left hand menu
• Choose the name of the moderator you want to assign and the forum you want to assign them to it the two drop downs.
• Save – the selected person is now a moderator for this forum.

Moderating a Forum

• Once a moderator has been chosen for a forum a series of edit buttons will appear under each forum entry to allow the moderator to change / edit content.

To write a blog Tags have to be created first, which are then assignent content-wise to the blog. You can add tags under Tools & Administration > Tags. Don't forget  to assign them to blogs, otherwise the tags don't get displayed.

In the network in the area "Top Groups" groups are displayed according to the random principle. To display featured groups enter the desired groupIDs in the field Featured Groups in the area Portal Manager > Network & Community > Network Groups/Settings.

A group can have two different settings concerning the new entrant of members:

1. New members will be approved by the Group Manager
2. Everybody can join the group

With #1 the Group Manager has to approve every single member, who wants to joint the group.
With #2 every new group member can join the group by click, without being approved.

If you want to change that, please click as Group Manager in your group, click the tab Settings and change the selection box New Members.

Guests are all persons who are not registered and browse the portal without a login.
Regulars are all persons who are registered and who log in with their log in data.

There are several landing pages for the wiki available. Go to Network & Community > Wiki > General. In the area Menus & Articles you find the selection box Homepage which contains the options. Choose an option and save the settings.

Categories can be added by Portal Masters or members with the role "Contact Manager".
Categories for wikis get added in the area Tools & Administration > Categories > Wikis.

A Wiki article is a normal story (but written by your members), which gets stored in the menu which was defined to be the Wiki menu. With the function Stories (Website & CMS > Stories) the corresponding Wiki article respectively the desired story can be selected and deleted.

In order to edit the content of your booth you will need to use the customise booth button below the booth itself. When you open this you will see a blueprint of your booth.  

Here you can:
• Edit the left and right panel of the booth. Type in the title of then either choose a template (which can be edited using the edit content button below the dropdown) or type text straight into the panel; if you use the edit content button you will open a page with a wysiwyg editor (see below).
• In the centre box you will see an add/edit video button. Clicking this will open a page where you can upload a new/change the current logo of your booth, upload a video to go in the centre panel of your booth or select a USTREAM video to embed.
• The text below the screen allows you to edit the text that is below the video in your booth, simply type in the text directly and save to add this to the booth, note you can use html here to add functions such as a link.
• Once you have edited all the areas you desire simply save the settings and go back to your booth to see how it all looks, go back to edit where necessary.

Go to Network & Community > Memberships, click in the navigation on the left Settings. There you can activate the checkbox Invitations with its settings.