The PRESTO forum is provided to help groups find information and collaborate.
It enables people to participate in multi-person discussions
in their group or across the entire PRESTO community. Using the forum is much like using email.
The main difference is that a forum makes it easy to keep track of
multiple large discussions at the same time.
Viewing Messages
Anyone can view community-wide messages in the forum. But to view
messages specific to your group, you must be logged in to your group. Group-specific messages are
shown above the gray bar, and community-wide messages below it.
The author of a community-wide message is not shown when the message is
listed or viewed. The author's name is shown for group-specific messages.
When you visit Self-Signup Home or Admin Home, the Visit Forum link shows the count of message
created by others since your last visit to the forum. When you enter the forum, these messages — plus your own new ones — are listed.
To scan thru them, just click on the 1st one's subject and then click on the Next Match link until you are returned to Forum Home.
To list a different set of messages, change the timeframe and/or the content to match
and then click on the Refresh Matches button.
When the Matches That Contain field is filled in, both the Subject
and Body of the message will be searched —
unless you put from:you or from:presto in this field. Then all messages from
you or from PRESTO will match.
Creating Messages
To create a message, you must be logged in to your group.
To create a new topic, click on a Create Topic button. To reply to
a topic, click on a Create Reply button. Then if you want the message you are replying to start your reply,
click on the Quote current message link at the top of the page.
When you create a topic, you must choose the audience for it (and its replies). You can share with: only people in your group, everyone in the PRESTO community, or only your support team (PRESTO Support and your Webmaster).
On Forum Home, group-specific messages are listed above the gray bar, and the others below it. The Support Team option is for private conversations with Support (and are designated with a red P). You may use this option whenever you wish, but in the interest of creating a shared PRESTO knowledge base, please use Share With Everyone when feasible. PRESTO Support will see the message either way.
You can enter a message using plain text or HTML.
If you use plain text,
you can put a web link into the message by typing a full web
address (e.g. http://prestogem.com/index.html). Note that you can cut and
paste between a word processor and the Create Message page.
You can later edit or delete any messages you create.
Moderator-only
If you login to your group
as Webmaster, you will have moderator-access to your group's messages.
- You can edit and delete any group-specific messages authored by your people.
- You can also
hide and unhide group-specific messages authored by your people. A hidden message can only be
seen by you and the author.
Although a group's webmaster is under no obligation to perform
moderator functions
for her group, doing so is encouraged.
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