All administration of the Discus program is performed using the administration interface. One special user, called the "superuser," has special rights to add and remove moderators and to establish those moderators' editing permissions. When the board is initially set up, the "superuser" is the only moderator that exists on the system.

To access the administration program, click on "Administration" from the program's main menu. This will bring you to the administration login screen. In the Username blank, type the superuser's username. The superuser's username will be admin unless you changed it in the installation process. Leave the Password box empty (do not type anything there). Then click on "Submit."

The first time you log in (with the blank password), the administration program will not give you any options other than to change your password. To change your password, use the "Set Password" screen, which is loaded into the right frame upon logging in, to enter and verify your password. Save your password by clicking on "Save Changed Password."

When you have changed your password, you will be prompted to register Discus. To register, click on the "Register Now!" button. This is the only registration that is necessary for Discus.

Possible Error: If you successfully see the left menu frame upon logging in to the administration program but the right frame displays a "Bad Username/Password Combination" error, then the problem is that you have not enabled cookies on your browser. The administration program stores your encrypted password in a cookie. Set your browser to accept cookies. Then click on "Cancel" and repeat the login procedure.

When you have changed your password and registered Discus, you should log in to the administration program again. There is a link on the bottom of the "Thanks for Registering" screen that takes you to your board; from your board, click on "Administration" and log in as you did in step 1, except that you should now use the password you specified in step 1.

Upon logging in with the changed password, the full range of administration options are available to the superuser. The Administration Instructions are available as a link from the administration main menu. These instructions fully document all operations in the administration interface. These instructions also contain this tutorial as well as a "Getting Started" tutorial for other moderators. You should feel free to consult the Administration Instructions if you want additional information about a feature or if you want to learn how to use a feature.

Establishing groups and topics

Discus editing privileges are controlled using "groups." The superuser is responsible for adding, removing, and editing groups. Groups are added and removed from the "Group Manager." Access the Group Manager by clicking on the link from the administration main menu.

You can create a group that will later be used for system announcements. To do this, type system into the text entry box under "Add a Group." Then click on the Add this Group button. Also create a group called test using this procedure. Later, we will set up moderator accounts with various editing privileges based on these groups.

At this time, you have not yet added any topics to the top page. Discus is structured so that only the superuser can add topics to the top page (this allows you to keep the top page orderly).

Topics are added and removed from the top page using the "Board Manager." Access the Board Manager by clicking on the link from the administration main menu.

Under "Add a Topic" create a topic with "Topic Name" System Announcements, with "Topic Group" System. Change "Posting Privileges" to Private (since you don't want the general public to be posting messages there), and change "Initial Content" to Blank page ("Private Index"). You may enter a description for the topic if you wish; this description is displayed on the topics page under the topic name. Then click on "Add this Topic" to create the topic. We will see later what all of these options do by looking at the topic you created.

In a similar manner, add another topic named Test Messages, belonging to group Test, with posting privileges as Public and initial content as "Create New Conversation" button and brief message.

Intermission

At this point, you have added two of your own topics to your discussion board. You have gone through the basic steps that are necessary to create a topic. Of course, when you create topics in the future, you could make them belong to an existing group (without creating another group specially for the topic). You can have more than one topic belong to a single group. You can also change the group of a topic using the Board Manager.

At this time, click on "Go to Board" from the administration main menu. On the topics page, you will see the two topics you created. Click on the "System Announcements" topic. You will see that there is absolutely nothing on the form -- no "Add a Message" form, no "Create New Conversation" button -- nothing. We will need to change the page layout to make the topic usable by users of your board.

Now look at the "Test Messages" topic. You will see a "Create New Conversation" button there and a welcome message. Click the "Create New Conversation" button, and you will see that the test topic allows public posting. The "Moderator Getting Started Tutorial" will explain how to use the "Access Manager" to configure public/private posting privileges.

Configuration of your topics

Log in to the administration program again. This time, you should see a list of the topics on your board in the right frame. If not, click on "Page Manager" from the administration main menu to bring up this list. We will configure the "System Announcements" topic first. Click on "System Announcements" from the list in the right frame.

The "Page Manager" is the interface that you will use the most as a moderator. It allows you to edit announcement messages, add, remove, edit, rename, reorder, and move subtopics; add, remove, edit "about messages;" and add, remove, edit, reorder, and move messages.

First, we will change the layout of the page to add an "About Message." An about message is a message that only the moderator for the page can add, remove, or edit. It is useful for giving static information to the users to identify the purpose of the page. Note that there is a similar function called an "Announcement Message" differing only in its location on a page (announcements go before the list of subtopics on a page, while about messages go after the list of subtopics).

To access the page layout, click on "[Page Layout]" from the "Quick Options" panel. By default, you will notice that the "List of Subtopics" option is checked. For now, check the About message box, the Messages box, and the Add a message form box. Leave the other boxes unchecked. Then click on the Save Page Layout button.

We will now add an about message to describe the purpose of the topic. In the text entry box under the "About Message" heading, type the following:

This page will contain system announcements and information for users.

Then click on the Preview/Save Message button. Verify that the preview is correct and then click on the Save Message button.

At this point, go to the board by clicking on "Go to Board" from the administration main menu and go to the "System Announcements" page. Observe the layout that is employed. You will also notice that the topic is configured for private posting (meaning that only authorized users/moderators can post).

We will now use the user interface to post a message into the system announcements topic. Note that there is also an "Add a Message" form in the administration interface that functions similarly.

Into the "Add a Message" box, type the following:

I have successfully installed the Discus web conferencing software package.

Please feel free to post test messages in the "Test Messages" topic. If you have any questions about this web conferencing system, please contact me.

Enter your username and password in the appropriate boxes beneath the "Add a Message" text entry box. Remember that your username is admin and your password is whatever password you set in step 2. Click on Preview/Post message to view a preview of your message. When you have entered your message correctly, click on Post this Message. You will notice that your message is added to the page.

Possible Error: If your message does not show up, you need to reload the right frame. Alternatively, view "My post does not show up" in the "Troubleshooting" document. This problem is experienced by users who have not set their browsers to verify documents upon each load.

Administering a board is a big responsibility, and you will likely wish to delegate administrative responsibilities to other people. Those entrusted with such responsibilities are called moderators. You can create as many moderators as you wish. For your security, only you, the superuser, can create moderators.

To create a moderator, log into administration as the superuser and access the Moderator Manager using the link from the Administration Main Menu. Under "Add a Moderator" create a moderator with username buddy and a password you choose. You may optionally specify an e-mail address or a full name for buddy. (There is nothing special about the username buddy -- we are using it as an example only.) Upon clicking "Add this Moderator" buddy will show up on the list of moderators.

At this point, buddy has a moderator account, but buddy is not authorized to edit any topics. If you wish to verify this, log in to the administration program again as buddy.

Because in most cases you don't want to give moderators permission to edit every single topic on the board, Discus allows you to selectively delegate moderator authority. Moderators are assigned to groups to determine their editing privileges. There are two ways by which you can configure moderator editing privileges.

When setting the privileges for one moderator, the easiest method is to click the group icon () next to the moderator whose editing privileges you wish to change. The following list will present a list of all groups. If the box is checked next to a group, the moderator belongs to that group. In this case, you want to add buddy to the System group because you want buddy to be able to edit "System Announcments." So, check the box next to System and click the "Save Settings" button. The screen will refresh showing the groups that buddy can edit. To return to the Moderator Manager, click the link on the navigation bar at the top of the screen.

A second way to set group privileges is to use the Group Manager. This method is useful if you want to add more than one moderator to a particular group; this can be done from one screen without needing to add each moderator individually. To edit groups, select the Group Manager from the Administration Main Menu. (Note that if you logged in as buddy you won't be able to see the Group Manager, because only the superuser can access the Group Manager. If this is the case, you need to log in as the superuser at this time.)

Upon accessing the Group Manager, you will see a list of groups containing the Test group and the System group. Since we want buddy to be able to administer the "Test Messages" topic as well, we will make buddy be a moderator in the Test group. (Remember that when you performed step 4, you made the "Test Messages" topic belong to the Test group.)

To add buddy as a moderator of the System group, click on the edit icon () next to the Test group. Under "Add Moderators to Group" click the add icon () next to buddy. The screen will refresh showing that buddy is now a moderator in the Test group. If you now log in as buddy you will see that you have editing privileges for the "Test Messages" topic but not for any other topics on the board.

Because buddy is an ordinary moderator and not the superuser, he can't access any of the "Superuser" functions such as the Board Manager, the Moderator Manager, or the Group Manager. This ensures that only the superuser can add new top-level topics, create new moderators, or assign editing privileges. Thus, by manipulating topics and groups, you can configure with a high level of specificity the exact editing privileges that each moderator on your system will have.

In the first portion of this step, using the Moderator Manager, you added buddy to the System group. In the second portion, with the Group Manager, you added buddy to the Test group. Note that these two methods accomplished exactly the same function, and in your administration activities, you can choose the most convenient method.

The Discus software contains an e-mail notification feature that allows your users to receive messages through their mailbox. In most cases (on unix hosts), Discus can configure itself automatically with only a couple clicks in your Options Manager. On other systems (Windows hosts, for example) you first need to install a compatible mail program.

To use auto-configuration of e-mail notification on a unix host, click on Options Manager from your administration main menu. Click the "Configure" link next to "Server is capable of sending e-mail messages" to access the e-mail configurator. On a unix host configured in a standard way, you should see a message in orange near the top that reads as follows: "It appears that sendmail on your system is located at /usr/sbin/sendmail. Unless you have a strong reason to do choose otherwise, you should choose this as the default mail program." Note that the "/usr/sbin" may vary and be something such as "/usr/lib" or "/usr/bin" -- this is fine.

If you see this message, scroll down the page, briefly checking the settings to make sure that they look reasonable. You can set the "From Name" and "From Address" as desired, and set the format of the subject line as you wish. The "Use the page title as the subject line" is the most common option for the format of the subject line. Scroll down to the "Test Parameters" section and click the "Test" button with your e-mail address in the box. If you receive the message in your mailbox, you should save your settings.