Sub forum or topic?

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Sub forum or topic?

utohva
I am not clear on what I need. Is it a sub forum or sub topic? I am preparing to migrate from another forum to a Nabble forum. On the old forum I can create sub topics like this:

2017 Meeting Schedule
     Location 1
     Location 2
     Location 3

In this example, 2017 Meeting Schedule is the main topic and Location 1, Location 2 and Location 3 are sub topics under it. To create a structure like this in my Nabble forum do I need to create sub topics or sub forums. And what is the difference between pinned and not pinned?

So far, it appears I can create topics and people can reply. I cannot figure out how to create sub topics as illustrated above. If this is possible, can forum users create or is this restricted to the admin?

THANK you!    
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Re: Sub forum or topic?

GregChapman
In Nabble terminology a "topic" is a message together with any replies to that message. These are held within a forum. Forums can hold both sub-forums and topics. A sub-forum is used to hold a number of topics of a particular type.

You can see an example of this if you look at Nabble's "Free Support" forum. You will see it has a number of sub-forums, (most are  to hold topics in different languages) all of which are "pinned". The majority of items that you see are topics (two of those are pinned).  When you pin a sub-forum or topic you ensure it is presented at the top of the list.

I assume that your forum is to provide for a touring meeting whose general topic will be the same at each location, so like "Free Support" the "Forum" app could be right for you, as questions about the content of the meeting that will apply at all locations will be of interest to those attending at any location. However, people attending at location 1 will probably have no interest in the conference centre or hotel to be used by those attending at location 2, so it will be best to keep those topics in separate sub-forums.

Had this been a forum to handle successive AGMs held at a different location each year, then I might want all posts made to the appropriate location sub-forum and a would adjust user permissions, so that no posts could be made at the top level and all posts had to be made in the appropriate location sub-folder.

For administrators running the second type of forum having a mix of sub-forums and topics could be confusing for  users. For them Nabble provides alternative "applications", such as "Mixed", "Category" and "Board". Each of these presents the posts in slightly different formats, but all are designed to separate sub-forums from topics and ensure that all posts are made within a specific sub-forum.

Some administrators with your one "meeting repeated at several locations" pattern would choose to add a "2017 Campaign" sub-forum to the list of locations sub-forums and then bar posting at the top level, to ensure that any message had to be posted in a specific named sub-forum. This could make it easy to add a "2018 Campaign" sub-forum next year and use the same forum all over again.

If you have any doubt about which application might be best for you, create some sub-forums with a few posts in each and try out the various options at:
Options > Application > Change application type
to see which will suit you best.

I also always recommend that new forum administrators create a second user for themselves, so they can test the effect of the various user permissions that are available at:
Options > Users > Change permissions
Administrators have total control. It's worth reading this post to get an understanding of "User Groups" on Nabble:
http://support.nabble.com/Moderating-free-forum-tp6873076p6873871.html
Volunteer Helper - but recommending that users move off the platform!
Once the admin for GregHelp now deleted.
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Re: Sub forum or topic?

utohva
Greg,
Pardon the delay getting back to you on this. First, THANK you for so patiently detailing how this works. I was finally able to wrap my head around it. I've completely re-organized the forum I was working on and the more I use it the more I LIKE it. Being able to move Topics to the new Sub-forums was a huge time saver.

I manage two active web sites and I'm working on two more. One of the development sites will have a Nabble Forum. The club for one of the active sites wants a Member Directory. It occurred to me that since Nabble supports embedded images it COULD also support a sub forum called member Directory with Topics for each member entry. The one disadvantage I found is the members who would have to make entries are not the most computer savvy group. Most are senior citizens who struggle with technology. The only way I can see for it to work would be an initial  topic that has instructions and a list of field names for them to copy then paste into a new topic for their entry. Otherwise I really like it. Here's a permalink to my test. [click here]

THANK you VERY MUCH again for the outstanding help!  


​​
Mike Blevins
UT OHV Association Web Administrator
The only feeling better than needing something on the trail and having it, is having it and not needing it!
Ride prepared!



On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 2:16 PM, GregChapman [via Nabble Support] <[hidden email]> wrote:
utohva wrote
I am not clear on what I need. Is it a sub forum or sub topic? I am preparing to migrate from another forum to a Nabble forum. On the old forum I can create sub topics like this:

2017 Meeting Schedule
     Location 1
     Location 2
     Location 3

In this example, 2017 Meeting Schedule is the main topic and Location 1, Location 2 and Location 3 are sub topics under it. To create a structure like this in my Nabble forum do I need to create sub topics or sub forums. And what is the difference between pinned and not pinned?

So far, it appears I can create topics and people can reply. I cannot figure out how to create sub topics as illustrated above. If this is possible, can forum users create or is this restricted to the admin?

THANK you!
In Nabble terminology a "topic" is a message together with any replies to that message. These are held within a forum. Forums can hold both sub-forums and topics. A sub-forum is used to hold a number of topics of a particular type.

You can see an example of this if you look at Nabble's "Free Support" forum. You will see it has a number of sub-forums, (most are  to hold topics in different languages) all of which are "pinned". The majority of items that you see are topics (two of those are pinned).  When you pin a sub-forum or topic you ensure it is presented at the top of the list.

I assume that your forum is to provide for a touring meeting whose general topic will be the same at each location, so like "Free Support" the "Forum" app could be right for you, as questions about the content of the meeting that will apply at all locations will be of interest to those attending at any location. However, people attending at location 1 will probably have no interest in the conference centre or hotel to be used by those attending at location 2, so it will be best to keep those topics in separate sub-forums.

Had this been a forum to handle successive AGMs held at a different location each year, then I might want all posts made to the appropriate location sub-forum and a would adjust user permissions, so that no posts could be made at the top level and all posts had to be made in the appropriate location sub-folder.

For administrators running the second type of forum having a mix of sub-forums and topics could be confusing for  users. For them Nabble provides alternative "applications", such as "Mixed", "Category" and "Board". Each of these presents the posts in slightly different formats, but all are designed to separate sub-forums from topics and ensure that all posts are made within a specific sub-forum.

Some administrators with your one "meeting repeated at several locations" pattern would choose to add a "2017 Campaign" sub-forum to the list of locations sub-forums and then bar posting at the top level, to ensure that any message had to be posted in a specific named sub-forum. This could make it easy to add a "2018 Campaign" sub-forum next year and use the same forum all over again.

If you have any doubt about which application might be best for you, create some sub-forums with a few posts in each and try out the various options at:
Options > Application > Change application type
to see which will suit you best.

I also always recommend that new forum administrators create a second user for themselves, so they can test the effect of the various user permissions that are available at:
Options > Users > Change permissions
Administrators have total control. It's worth reading this post to get an understanding of "User Groups" on Nabble:
http://support.nabble.com/Moderating-free-forum-tp6873076p6873871.html
Just a Volunteer Nabble Helper - because the nice folk at Nabble have helped me!



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http://support.nabble.com/Sub-forum-or-topic-tp7597754p7597760.html
To unsubscribe from Sub forum or topic?, click here.
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Re: Sub forum or topic?

GregChapman
utohva wrote
The club for one of the active sites wants a Member Directory. It occurred to me that since Nabble supports embedded images it COULD also support a sub forum called member Directory with Topics for each member entry. The one disadvantage I found is the members who would have to make entries are not the most computer
savvy group. Most are senior citizens who struggle with technology. The only way I can see for it to work would be an initial  topic that has instructions and a list of field names for them to copy then paste into a new topic for their entry. Otherwise I really like it. Here's a permalink to my test.
I maintain one site:
http://www.seahawk17.org.uk/forum.php
with a facility similar to that which you are working on. As with your group many there are not the most computer literate.

Partly as a spam protection measure I require that new users post an introduction at:
http://seahawk-forum.968426.n3.nabble.com/Introduce-Yourself-f1616007.html
before I grant them "Member" status. It's the only place they can post while still a "Registered" user.

You'll note that at the head of the page I only ask for some pretty free form information about themselves. Experience has suggested that almost no one would be able to follow the kind of strict tabular layout that your forum has. It's also why I don't ask for photos. The geeky code that appears in the post rather than the image itself, would intimidate many at the sign-up stage.

I let them find their feet first, with a simple text introduction. The other issue is the pain of pinning and sorting  the introductions into alphabetical order. These days I dread new users with names early in the alphabet. WIth a state-wide association such as yours I can imagine it being a bigger headache than my seven year growth of the forum.

You'll see I have a FAQ on inserting images. (Feel free to copy and edit it as you will.)
Volunteer Helper - but recommending that users move off the platform!
Once the admin for GregHelp now deleted.