Overview of Administration

Accessing Administration

The Discus administration program is accessed by clicking on the administration link from a board's main menu or a message page. In the case that the board administrator has hidden or removed the link, administration may be accessed by entering in the full URL to the administration program. This URL will be similar to the following:

http://www.server.com/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi?pg=admin

Accessing the administration program brings up two frames. In the left frame, enter your administrator or moderator username and password, and click the button to log in. (If this is your very first time accessing administration, enter "admin" as the username and leave the password blank.)

Upon a successful login, the administration main menu appears in the left frame, and the "Page Manager" interface opens automatically in the right frame.

Account Types (User, Moderator, Administrator)

There are three levels of accounts on a Discus board: users, moderators, and the board administrator.

Users are accounts on the discussion board that have no administrative privileges. User accounts are typically assigned to members of a forum that post and read messages. It is common for a Discus board to have several hundred (or even several thousand) users.

Moderators are accounts with administrative privileges. Moderators can manage pages (delete, edit, add, reorder, and otherwise manipulate discussion pages and messages) and manage users (delete, edit, add, and otherwise manipulate user accounts). Moderators can also control posting, and in Discus Pro, reading, privileges for board topics.

The board administrator is a single account that has absolute control over the function of the discussion board. The administrator can configure settings, choose templates and skins, and create and delete top-level topics. The administrator also can create and delete ordinary moderators and assign editing privileges to those moderators.

Terminology

The following terms are used throughout these instructions and the interfaces of the Discus program.

• Board Administrator: The board administrator is a special moderator that has ultimate administrative privileges over all aspects of the configuration and operation of the discussion board. Generally the board administrator is the same person who installed the software.

• Category: A category is a classification that displays with topics on the topics page. The category is simply a placeholder; there are never any subtopics or other pages within a category.

• Description: A description is applicable to categories, subtopics, and topics. The description is additional text that is defined by the moderator (or board administrator) while creating the item, or later by editing properties of the item.

• Group: A group is a "container" to help you organize user accounts. User accounts are always created into one or more groups. The board administrator is responsible for creating groups and granting moderators permission to edit groups (this is done through the Group Manager).

• Message: A message is a note posted onto the discussion board. Messages are stamped with the author and date of the post.

• Moderator: A moderator is an account that has basic administrative pages to manipulate pages, messages, and user accounts. Depending on the selected skin, other information may be available as well.

• Skin: A skin is a series of templates that control the appearance of the user interface, including the documentation files, topics page, utilities, and all message pages. Several skins are distributed by default with the Discus program, and more are available for download through your Appearance Manager.

• Subtopic: A subtopic is a page of discussion created within a topic (or another subtopic). This page can itself contain messages, other subtopics, or both. A subtopic is sometimes called a "thread" or a "conversation."

• Superuser: Synonym for "board administrator."

• Thread: Synonym for "subtopic."

• Topic: A topic is a broad area of discussion created by the board administrator and listed on the top page of the discussion board. Posting and reading privileges for all pages within your topic as well as moderator editing privileges are assigned at the topic level.

• User: A user is an account that has no administrative privileges (suitable for ordinary members of your discussion board).