I. Introduction to Discussions

Discussions are a great tool for board members who tend to be busy in other areas and may have difficulty coordinating schedules. Members can see and respond to a discussion at a convenient time. Discussions can be utilized to prep for meetings, organize ideas, expand knowledge, determine solutions, plan for the future, and so much more! A discussion may include a very small group, or a very large group, depending on the topic.

Discussions are supported for paid plans (Essentials, Professional, and Enterprise) only. This feature is not included with the Free/Core plan.

Organization Admins (Administrators) can only view discussions when they are included in the discussion. While in that discussion, they still have the typical administrator rights to edit, delete, close, or archive the discussion, even if they did not create it. However, with regards to messages, only the user who wrote the message can edit or delete it.

Discussions can be created from the Discussions page (click Discussions from the main menu panel) or from a group's page (select Discussions from the top navigation menu). Discussions can only be created by Organization Admins or Members. Observers can participate in discussions, but they cannot create a discussion. Anyone can click on the star on a discussion to mark it as a favorite for themselves; they can then view those discussions under the Starred discussion filter.

II. Filtering Discussions

Discussions can be filtered in a couple of ways for ease of viewing pertinent discussions at different times. This can be done by utilizing the two filter options at the top of the Discussions page: Latest is the discussions filter; All Groups is the groups filter.

When a viewer is not a member of any groups, no options are listed in the groups filter.

To use the discussion filter:

Click Latest to drop down options
1. Latest: lists all discussions
2. Starred: lists starred discussions
3. Unread: lists only discussions with unread messages
4. Mentions: lists discussions in which the viewer is mentioned
5. Archived: lists archived discussions

To filter discussions by group:

Click All Groups to view the drop-down options
Click a group from the menu this drops down

III. Search Discussions

The search box at the top of the Discussions page can be used to search for words within discussion messages as well as mentions (people noted using an @ symbol).

To search:

Click into the search box
Type the search term, phrase, or name, and then click the return button
Click on a discussion that is displayed in the left discussions list

IV. Notifications

Notifications will automatically be sent through the Boardable app, and via email, to all users involved in the discussion. A person who is mentioned in a message (using the @ symbol) will get an additional email showing they were mentioned and by whom.

To avoid getting a lot of emails/notifications, notification options can be adjusted through User Settings. To learn how to change notification settings, please see Related Articles.

V. Available Options

There are several options available as a member of a discussion.

Leave Discussion: lets a member of the discussion to leave the discussion
Copy Link: copies a link to the discussion to the user's clipboard. If a person receives a link to a discussion they do not have access to, it will simply show 'no results'.
- Provides ability to send a link to someone who may be having difficulty finding or navigating to the discussion
- Provides ability to create a quick, easy reference to the discussion in an agenda or chat in Spotlight
Mark as Unread: lets the user mark a discussion as unread in order to return to it later, or easily view it through the Unread discussion filter
- Read
- Unread
Print: prints selected discussion
Edit Description: only available to the person who started the discussion or an Organization Admin that is part of the discussion
Close Discussion: only available to the person who started the discussion or an Organization Admin that is part of the discussion
Archive Discussion: only available to the person who started the discussion or an Organization Admin that is part of the discussion
Delete Discussion: only available to the person who started the discussion or an Organization Admin that is part of the discussion

Please refer to Related Articles for more details.

Start a Discussion: learn about discussions, how to add a discussion, and how to choose who should be involved in the discussion
Edit Boardable User: learn how to edit settings, including notification settings
View / Participate in Discussions: learn how to be a part of discussions as well as understand the permissions within a discussion
Add / Edit / Delete a Message in Discussions: learn how to add a message to a discussion, as well as edit and delete messages
Formatting and Emojis: learn about the formatting options available for a message, and how to use emojis in Boardable
Edit or Delete a Discussion: learn who can edit a discussion, delete a discussion, or remove messages from a discussion
Upload Documents to Discussions: learn how to view and add documents to discussions
Close and Archive a Discussion: learn to close and / or archive discussions, as well view, re-open, and unarchive in Boardable

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction to Discussions