Adding a Conference in WebBoard

To add a conference, click Add Conference on the management menu.

Conference Name:

In the Conference Name section’s Name field, type a brief  name for the new conference. This name appears in the Conferences list and conference profile. You’re limited to 255 characters. HTML and WebBoard tags are accepted. This is a required field.

Conference Description:

In the Conference Description field, type a description to give the user more detailed information about the conference purpose and contents. The description is included with the conference profile, which is available by clicking Conference Profiles on the More Options menu. A conference description is optional

WebBoard’s mailing list capabilities are one of its most powerful features. Mailing list subscribers not only receive conference content by email, they can also post to conferences by email. This ease of use is likely to broaden your user base and increase user participation in conferences; however, a conference does not have to have a mailing list.

Users subscribe to mailing lists in their choice of non-digest, digest, or ZIPped digest formats. For example, a product manager can subscribe the team members to the relevant conferences on the collaborative work board.

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Note

Mailing lists are enabled on an individual conference basis. Administrators, managers, or moderators can choose which conferences  will offer this feature.

1. In the Mailing List section, check the box to the left of Add Mailing List Support to enable this feature. The default setting is off—disabled.
2. For this conference, specify a mailing list name in the field provided; this is required. Messages appear in the user’s inbox as From “Listname listmanager” <listmanager@domainname.edu>, so you want a short name. For example, Bio-110 for the Biology 110 conference results in messages from “Bio-110 Listmanager”. Note the following tips and requirements:

Creating an associated newsgroup for a conference allows users to use their newsreaders for reading and posting messages. Many users prefer to use newsreaders because they can download the messages, yet maintain the threaded nature of the discussion when they read them offline, unlike email. You add newsgroup support and specify a name for the newsgroup in the Newsgroup section of the Add Conference form.

To add newsgroup support to a conference, follow these steps:

1. To create an associated newsgroup, check Add Newsgroup Support.
2. Enter a unique name for the newsgroup. This name will be used as the newsgroup name. For example, for the Biology 110 homework conference, enter homework.  To create a hierarchy of newsgroups, specify a common name, followed by a period. For example, to create a hierarchy of newsgroups on the Biology 110 board, enter bio110.homework as the unique name

To set the conference restrictions, follow these steps:

1. In the Settings section, select one of two options for message verification:
   • To let users post messages without having them reviewed first, leave checked the “Automatically verify new posts” checkbox. Selecting this option allows all messages to be immediately posted to conferences without prior verification by an administrator, manager, or moderator.
   • To require that all new messages be reviewed before they appear to other users in a conference, uncheck the  “Automatically verify new posts” checkbox. Selecting this option requires that the administrator, manager, or moderator verify a message before it appears to other users in a conference.
2. To restrict the conference to specified users, check the Private checkbox.
3. To specify this as a read-only conference, check the “Read only conference” checkbox. Only the WebBoard administrator, board manager, and conference moderators can post to read-only conferences. Check the “Allow spell-checking” checkbox (default setting) to enable the spell-check function in this conferen

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Conference Room Chat Settings:

IRC chat

1. To enable chat in a conference, check the “Allow chat” checkbox. If this checkbox is unchecked (disabled), this conference will not offer chat. By default, chat is disabled. When chat is disabled, the Chat button does not appear in the menubar.
2. If you enable chat, you must also enter a channel name. In the  “Channel name” field, type the name of the chat channel you want to use for this conference. In choosing a channel name.

The JavaScript chat provides many capabilities for you and your users. You can choose whether active links and images are allowed in your chat rooms, just as with posted messages. You can also use Chat Spots. Finally, you can maintain records of chat sessions by logging chat dialogue to disk. For example, you may want to record brainstorming sessions, group meetings, or possible infractions of your rules of conduct for this chat room. If WebBoard’s internal chat is available on the board, follow these steps to specify settings:

1. To enable chat in this conference, check the “Allow chat” checkbox. If the checkbox is left unchecked, this conference will not offer chat.
2. To allow active links in chat messages, check the “Allow active links in chat mode” checkbox.
3. To allow active images in posted chat messages, check the Allow active images in chat mode checkbox.
4. To keep a record of chat sessions, check the “Log chat dialogue to disk” checkbox.

 Allowing users to add file attachments to messages makes WebBoard more dynamic as an information pipeline. Your users can attach files such as documents, multimedia, sound, and images when they post a message. In the File Attachment section, you specify the number of attachments allowed for each message as well as the size limit of any attached files. File attachments are not included in messages sent from the mailing list nor can they be included when messages are posted by email. Many current browsers support uploading files, but if most of your WebBoard users have browsers that do not support file uploads, you may want to disable this option. 

To specify file attachment settings, follow these steps:

1. To enable file attachments, check the “Allow file attachments” checkbox.
2. To limit the number of attachments, type that number into the  “Number of attachments allowed per message” field. Type 0  (zero) to set no limitation on the number of files users can attach to a message. To set a limit, type a number between 1 and 255 corresponding to the number of attachments you want to allow per message.
3. To limit the size of file attachments, type a number for the byte size of file attachments.  Type 0 (zero) to set no limitation on the size of each file users can attach to a message, or a number greater than zero to set a limit (in bytes). Use numerals only. Do not use punctuation (such as commas) or characters (such as “K”).

Warning!

Once you delete a conference, you can’t retrieve it, messages, or its archives. You may want to consider the implications and anticipate the consequences of deleting a conference that has a mailing list. Mail sent to that conference will bounce if the conference no longer exists.

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To delete a conference, follow these steps:  

1. On the Management Menu, click Manage Conferences. The Manage Conference page appears.
2. On the Manage Conferences page, locate the conference you want to delete.
3. Click Delete in the Action column to the left of the conference name you want to delete. WebBoard prompts you to confirm the deletion. If the board currently uses IRC chat, are you about to delete the only remaining conference supporting a certain chat channel? If the conference has a mailing list, have you anticipated the consequences?
4. If you are sure you want to delete a conference, click Yes. To cancel this action, click No, and the conference will not be deleted.

:Private conferences are open only to those users designated as members by the WebBoard administrator, board manager, or conference moderator. Occasionally you may want to add users to or remove them from private conferences. Perhaps some of the current members are no longer involved in the project, or you’ve had a new team member join the project. You cannot give people access to a private conference who are not already users on the board.

1. On the More Options menu, click Administrator, Manager, or Moderator; the option available to you depends on your authority level. The Administrator or Manager menu appears for these two levels. If you’re a moderator, you’ll be presented with a list of conferences for which you have these privileges; skip to Step 3.

2. Click Manage Conferences. The Manage Conferences page appears.

3. In the Select column, click Users to the right of the private conference you want to add users to. The "Add users to Conference name" form opens. Any users with access rights for the conference appear in the Conference Members list box. If no users have access, no names are listed.

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4. To add users to a conference, click Add Show User List. The Select Users form appears in the left frame. You use Select Users to find the users you want to add as conference members. 

5. You can search for users by first or last name or login name; search by first letter of last name; or list all users.

6. WebBoard lists the names that match the search criteria. WebBoard displays 25 names at a time. Click the Show Next link to see the next batch of names.

7. Select the users to add to the private conference from the list generated by the search. As you click a name, it appears in the Conference Members list. Continue clicking names until you have added all the users. If the list returned by the first search does not include all the users you want to add, search again and add names from the new list.

8. To remove a name from the Conference Members list, click the name. It is removed from the list, but not from the user database, nor as a user on this board.

9. Click Submit to add the users in the Conference Members list to the conference.

To choose conference moderators, follow these steps:

Follow the same steps listed in " To select conference users" above.  In step #2  select "moderators" instead of "users" and then follow steps 3 through 9.

Verifying New Messages 

Conferences where “Automatically verify new posts” is turned off require a conference moderator (or board manager or WebBoard administrator) to approve any new message before it will be visible to conference participants. This allows the moderators to monitor, or exercise editorial control over what messages are posted in a conference. A moderator can verify, add, delete, and edit messages in a conference. Users in conferences requiring message verification can post messages (both to new and existing topics), but the moderator decides whether to post the message, discuss the matter with the user personally, or request that the user rephrase the message. Once the moderator approves the message, it appears in the conference and is available to other conference users. 

Users post messages to conferences requiring verification just as they would to any public or private conference. However, the moderator must first verify messages before they appear to other users.

To verify conference messages, follow these steps:

1. Log in as a moderator (or WebBoard administrator or board manager identity).
2. In the Conferences List, locate each unverified message. Unverified messages have a red checkmark to the right of the message. 
1. Finding them is easier when viewing only new messages. Click New at the top of the conference list. You may need to scroll to the right edge of the frame to see the red checkmarks.
3. To read, edit, or delete the message, click it in the Conferences List. The message appears in the message window. If the posting is acceptable, click Post. If not, you can edit or delete the message by clicking the appropriate command in the message window. To send email to the message author, click Email Reply.
4. To verify the message, click the red checkmark to the right of the message. Until you verify these messages, they can’t be seen or read by other users, except the person who posted the message.

Tip

If you verify messages once a day, a quick way to get a list of messages to be verified is to select Today’s Messages from the More Options menu.