Managing Ideas Forums
This article explains how to manage Ideas Forum of Agility.
A forum is an area within the Ideas system where users can submit and collaborate on feature requests, enhancements, and feedback related to a specific topic. Digital.ai Agility members who have been designated as Ideas Administrators and Forum Administrators can perform all the functions required to manage the forums to which they are assigned and the customer-submitted ideas contained within.
When working with forums, here are a few important points to remember:
- The Ideas menu options are only visible to members who have been designated as Ideas Administrators or Forum Administrators.
- Each forum is completely independent. Ideas in one forum are not related to ideas in another forum.
- Idea counts, vote counts, and searches are at the forum level.
- You can have an unlimited number of forums.
- Ideas Administrators can manage all of ideas within the entire Ideas system.
- Forum Administrators can only manage the ideas in the forums to which they are assigned.
To manage forums and ideas, your Ideas Role must be set to Ideas Administrator or Forum Administrator.
Accessing Forums and Ideas
To access the internal view of the Ideas system, click Product > Ideas > Ideas Forums.
Working with Forums
Forums
- Viewing Forum Details
- Creating a New Forum
- Creating a Private Forum
Forum Administrators
- Adding a Forum Administrator
- Removing a Forum Administrator
Forum Categories
- Creating and Assigning a Forum Category
Forums
Viewing Forum Details
- Click Product > Ideas > Ideas Forums.
- Click on a forum title.
Creating a New Forum
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Click Product > Ideas > Ideas Forums.
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In the Forums page, click Add Forum, and enter the following information the resulting Forum window:
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- Title : The name of the forum that displays in the Welcome message and in the forums list.
- URL Folder :Displays in the URL (Cannot be changed later). It is tied to the title of the forum and the URL folder name is appended to the base URL of the Idea's forum.
- Welcome Message: The message that displays at the top of the forum.
- Public (default): Allows all users unrestricted access to the forum's content.
- Private: Restricts all access to this forum except for the users or domains listed in the Privacy field below.
- Privacy: The list of email addresses (separated by commas) or domains (e.g., ourcompany.com) of the users who can access to the forum. Leave this field blank if you want to restrict all access. This can be helpful when setting up a new forum. See Creating a Private Forum below for more details.
- Owner: The designated internal point of contact for the forum.
- Hide Votes if Completed: Displays the completed icon instead of vote totals for completed ideas to prevent invalid comparisons to historical totals.
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Click OK.
Editing a Forum
- Click Product > Ideas > Ideas Forums.
- In the Forums page, click Edit next to a forum name, and then modify the details as appropriate.
- Click OK.
Creating a Private Forum
By default, all forums are public. This means that anyone can browse and search all forum content anonymously without registering. "Private" forums, however, are restricted and can only be viewed by selected users. Note that users are required to register before they can access the forum content.
To create a new private forum, follow the steps in Creating a New Forum above.
If you want to make an existing forum private, follow these steps.
- Click Product > Ideas > Ideas Forums.
- In the Forums page, click Edit next to a forum name.
- In the resulting Forums window, select the Private radio button, and then enter the email addresses (separated by commas) or domain names (example, yahoo) of the users who should have access to this forum.
- Click OK.
Private Forums are intended for a limited audience. For example, employees in your organization or a particular segment of customers. For this reason, the Private email address field is limited to 4000 characters. It is recommended that you use domain names unless you absolutely need the field limited to specific individuals.
Forum Administrators
Forum Administrators can manage what happens within a forum and the flow of information between Digital.ai Agility and the Ideas add-on. Note that Forum Administrators can only manage the forums to which they are assigned. Ideas Administrators, however, can manage all forums within the system. Refer to Ideas Administration Roles for additional details.
Adding a Forum Administrator
- Click Product > Ideas > Ideas Forums.
- Click on a forum name, and then click on the Forum Security tab.
- In the Add Forum Administrator field, start typing the member name to search.
- In the Create Ideas User Account dialog box, enter the member's name and email address.
- Click OK.
Removing a Forum Administrator
- Click Product > Ideas > Ideas Forums.
- Click on a forum name, and then click on the Forum Security tab.
- Click Remove next to the member you want to remove.
Note: Ideas Administrators (shown in gray text) can also manage all of the forums within the Ideas system. They cannot be removed from the Forum Administrator's list.
If you want to view an individual member's Ideas Administration role, you can do so on the Member Details page.
Forum Categories
Categories allow you to segment the collection of ideas within a forum. Note that external users are required to select a category when they submit an idea.
Creating and Assigning a Forum Category
- Click Product > Ideas > Ideas Forums.
- Click on a forum name and click on the Categories tab.
- Click Add a Category Inline.
- Enter the category name and click Save.
Note: Categories cannot be deleted but can be edited.
Related concepts
Related tasks
Using the Customer-Facing Ideas Site
Managing Your Member Account Details