Getting Started Tutorial for Board Administrators

This tutorial assumes that you have successfully installed Discus or Discus Pro 4.0 or higher onto your server. Throughout the course of this tutorial, you will learn how to access the administration program, create topics and users, configure options, and post messages.

1. Set up the administrator's password & register Discus

   Note: The Discus installation instructions also instruct you to perform this step. If you requested Discus installation services, this has also already been completed. If your administration password has already been set up, skip this step.

   To set up your administrator's password, click the administration link from the user interface of your discussion board. Enter "admin" for your username, and leave the password box blank. Click the "Log In" button. You will be prompted to set up your administration password and register Discus. From the registration confirmation page, click the link to return to your board.

2. Log into the administration program

   Click the administration link from the user interface of your discussion board. Enter "admin" for your username, and the password you chose in step 1 (or that was previously chosen or assigned) for your password. Click the "Log In" button. You will see five sections in your administration main menu, as follows:

   • Navigation: Allows you to return to your board quickly, to log into administration again, or to log out entirely.

   • Moderator Tools: Functions to manipulate existing pages and messages, set posting and reading privileges, create and edit users, and in Discus Pro, to approve or reject queued messages and to analyze logs.

   • Administrator Tools: Functions to create top-level topics, create and edit moderator accounts, and create groups of users. In Discus Pro, configuration and performance of automatic and manual archiving and pruning are also accessed in this section. Only you, the board administrator, have access to these functions.

   • Board Controls: Functions to control the appearance and operation of your board. Options Manager presents hundreds of options to configure the operation of your board. Backup Manager (Discus Pro only) allows you to back up and restore data files of your board and to create export files (tab-delimited and offline viewing). Data Recovery helps you recover from data loss. Appearance Manager lets you choose colors, set up text on the topics page, and choose skins. Database Manager allows you to interface Discus data with that in a MySQL database. Version Manager helps keep your Discus version up to date by checking for new versions and allowing subscriptions to the DiscusWare automated upgrade service. Quota Manager helps you monitor available disk space and diagnose problems. Diagnostics checks for the proper installation of the software. Only you, the board administrator, have access to these functions.

   • Documentation: Here, you and ordinary moderators have access to selected documentation for the administration and user interfaces.

3. Create a topic

   Only you, the board administrator, have the authority to create top-level topics. To create your topic:

   • Click the "Topic Manager" link from the "Administrator Tools" section of the administration main menu.

   • If there are no topics on your board, you will be taken to the "Add Topic" tab immediately. If there are topics, click the "Add Topic" tab at the top of the screen to access the topic addition screen.

   • Enter the name for your topic, as well as an optional description. For the purposes of this tutorial, name your topic "Test Topic" and leave the description blank.

   • You can also select posting (and in Discus Pro, reading) privileges as well as other settings. For the purposes of this tutorial, leave all of the other settings at the defaults.

   • Click the "Add this Topic" button to add your topic to the board. You will return to the topic addition screen with a confirmation message that the topic was created.

   • Click the "Topics" tab at the top of the screen to view the list of topics now on your board. Your new topic will show up there.

4. View user interface

   We suggest that you open a separate browser window to keep view your changes in the user interface. You can do this by right-clicking on the "Return to Board" link from the "Navigation" section of the administration main menu, and choosing to open the link in a new browser window. You should see your topic on the topics list. If you click on your topic, you should see a blank list of threads with the ability to add a new thread.

5. Create a group

   In Discus and Discus Pro, user accounts allow privileges to post and read messages and various other settings such as e-mail notification, and in Discus Pro, preferences, additional personal information, picture, signatures, and favorite topics.

   Each user account belongs to one or more group. Think of a group as a "container" for user accounts. The group itself is not associated with any particular topic on the board.

   To create a group to hold your users:

   • Click the "Group Manager" link from the "Administrator Tools" section of the administration main menu to bring up a list of all groups on your board (which at this point is likely to be empty).

   • Click the "Add Group" tab at the top of the screen to access the group addition screen.

   • Enter a name for the group to be created, using 1-15 alphanumeric characters. For the purpose of this tutorial, name the group "public".

   Click the "Add this Group" button. You will return to the group addition screen with a confirmation message that the group was created.

   • Click the "Groups" tab to return to the group list. The group "public" should now show up on the list of groups.

6. Create a moderator account

   As the board administrator, you have the ability to create moderator accounts in order to delegate the main administrative responsibilities to others. You also have the ability to define precisely what topics and groups of users that each moderator can edit (more on this later). To create your moderator:

   • Click the "Moderator Manager" link from the "Administrator Tools" section of the administration main menu to bring up a list of all moderators on your board (which at this point is likely to be only yourself).

   • Click the "Add Moderator" tab at the top of the screen to access the moderator addition screen.

   • Enter a username and password, and optionally an e-mail address and/or a full name, for the moderator you wish to create. For the purposes of this tutorial, give the moderator a username of "buddy". We leave it to you to decide on the password.

   • Click the "Add this Moderator" button. You will return to the moderator addition screen with a confirmation message that the moderator was created.

   • Click the "Moderators" tab to return to the moderator list. The moderator "buddy" should now show up on the list of moderators.

7. Optional: Log in as buddy

   At this time, we recommend that new users log in as the moderator "buddy", created in the previous step. To do this, click the "Log In Again" link from the "Navigation" section of the administration main menu, and enter username "buddy" and the password you chose in the previous step to log in.

   You should notice the following differences from when you logged in as "admin":

   • The list of options in the administration main menu is much shorter. This is because none of the "Administrator Tools" or the "Board Controls" are available to ordinary moderators, such as buddy.

   • When you click on Page Manager, Access Manager, or User Manager, you note that you are not permitted to edit any of the topics/groups on the board. This is because the Board Administrator has not yet authorized you to hold those editing privileges.

   If you performed this step, please log in again as "admin" to continue this tutorial.

8. Authorize buddy to edit topics and groups

   Editing privileges for topics can be assigned in one of two ways. You can go to the Topic Manager and click the moderator icon from the topic list next to the topic for which you wish to assign editing privileges. This brings up a list of all moderators; select the moderators you want to have editing privileges, and click the button to save your settings. This is handy when assigning many moderators at once to edit a topic. You can also go to Moderator Manager and click the topics icon next to any moderator account, and then select all topics this moderator may edit. These two methods actually update the same database, meaning that changes made in one interface will be reflected in the other.

   Editing privileges for groups can be similarly be assigned in one of two ways. You can go to the Group Manager and click the edit icon from the topic list next to the group for which you wish to assign editing privileges. This is handy when assigning many moderators at once to edit a group. You can also go to Moderator Manager and click the groups icon next to any moderator account. As when assigning topic editing privileges, these two methods actually update the same database, meaning that changes made in one interface will be reflected in the other.

   For the purposes of this tutorial, we leave it as an exercise to authorize buddy to edit the topic "Test Topic" and the group "Public". HINT: You can accomplish this entirely with Moderator Manager, or you can use Topic Manager and Group Manager.

After completing this section, you have successfully performed the necessary administrative tasks to create and assign editing privileges to a topic, a group, and a moderator. Your user interface is set up so that you can post messages in your test topic, and your moderator "buddy" will be able to edit that topic (log in to administration as "buddy" to confirm this). You can also now create users through User Manager in your "public" group.

For an introduction to moderator functions, such as creating and deleting pages and user accounts and setting posting and reading privileges on particular topics, we suggest that you follow through the moderator getting started tutorial, found in the administration instructions for your board.