Contributing to a Discussion Board

One of the major benefits of a Ning is the use of a discussion board. A discussion board is a forum for online conversation. Each discussion starts with an initial post. To create one, click on the Forum tab and then click on "Add Discussion"

Another way to start a discussion, if there is a discussion pane on the Main Page, is to click the "Start Discussion" link there.

 

Once you have done so, you will see the area to type your comment. For the Description, you will type the subject for the question (much like an email). You also have the ability to attach a document here, again like an email. Click Add Discussion when you are finished.

 

The result is that the discussion will be added to the list. When there are multiple discussions, the list can be sorted by newest discussion, latest activity (meaning the most recent comment), or most popular (meaning the most comments).

 

From there, users can reply to the post with their own comment. In this case, I need to click on the text "Question for Week 1". Once I added my text, I would need to hit the "add reply" button.

 

And then, another person can either reply to the original post or any of the comments. Depending on the level of replies, the comments will be indented, developing a threaded discussion.

 

By the way, look at the bottom. There are 2 different ways to keep track of this discussion, even when you are not in the Ning. On the bottom left is an RSS icon. Clicking on that allows you to subscribe to the discussion in your RSS reader. And on the bottom right, you can click on the word "follow" to receive emails when people reply.

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