Adding Discussions and Knowledge Item Comments

Anyone can follow and read the discussions in Freshwater Life , but to participate in Freshwater Life discussions you must be a registered member.Register Here.

FreshwaterLife allows searchable text to be added to any topic and/or knowledge object. Discussions in FreshwaterLife are thus carried out in two distinct environments, although they serve a similar purpose.

1. "Topic Discussions" relate to specific topics, and are held in "Discussion Rooms" of that Topic. The icon signifying a discussion is a two faces opposite to each other.

2. "Comments" discussions relate to a certain knowledge item, for example a book. This type of discussion can be, for example, an exchange of opinions of the usefulness of a particular book. These Comments Discussions are held in the knowledge page for that book, and a yellow speech bubble appears next to the title of the knowledge item to indicate that there are comments on that e.g. book.

This twin feature makes FreshwaterLife an extremely powerful discussion tool that not only complements the rich information content of FreshwaterLife, but also enables the establishment of interest communities around specific topics and knowledge objects.

Topic Discussion allows you to set up conferences and discussions on important freshwater topics and issues. For example: you can set up a discussion on: Problems and difficulties in the implementation of the Water Framework Directive on a national level. You can initiate this discussion in a relevant topic under Policies and Regulation Worldview or you can set it up in your own Virtual Offices. You can also choose the people who are able to contribute or even read your discussion, thus giving you a decreed level of confidentiality.

Introduction to Topic Discussions

What are Topic Discussions?
Topic discussions are wide-ranging discussions attached to a specific FreshwaterLife topic. An example of a topic could be:
POLICY AND REGULATION: Biodiversity: Controlling Invasive Species: Aquatic Macrophytes.

Each Topic and Subtopic has its own discussion room, where you can add initiate several discussions relevant to that topic. In this case you could add a discussion under the topic Aquatic Macrophytes on:
Water Hyacinth: problems and cost efficiency of manual removal and disposal of Eicchornia crassipes in the Lake Victoria.

Participating in Topic Discussion
Participating is simple. After accessing the Topic Discussion in which you are interested, you enter the "Discussion Room" where you can view all entries (postings) in several ways. You can select your preferred way of viewing the flow of the discussion from Subject Lines Only, All Postings, All Postings (threaded) and Top Postings Only (threaded). Experiment with these to find the view that suits your purposes. If you are not logged into FreshwaterLife, you can only view postings and comments. If you are logged in, you can reply to exiting postings or start up some new debates. New debate postings do not need Topic Editor approval.

To add a posting, click on the Add Posting tab on the right hand side of the green Postings bar. If you want to reply to a specific comment, click on the Reply link associated with that comment. You can also delete your own comments when you are logged in to FreshwaterLife.

After you have browsed and contributed to the discussion, you can rate how useful this particular discussion was for you. Select one of the star rating options from 1 to 5 to cast your vote.

Will FreshwaterLife Search work for Topic Discussions?
Yes: all discussion text is fully searchable throughout FreshwaterLife

How do I set up a new Topic Discussion?
To set up a new discussion you need to be registered to FreshwaterLife website and logged in. First you should navigate to the topic you want to add the discussion to. Registered users can propose new discussions by logging in and using the +add Discussion facility (Select discussion from the dropdown list). This will direct you to a form that has additional help features on how to fill in each individual field (click on the red question mark related to the field you need help on in the add form). Add discussion facility allows you to add:

1. A new FreshwaterLife Topic Discussion
2. Link FreshwaterLife to an existing list discussion or set up a mailing list listener. For more information on this, please click here.
3. Add information and accessibility details of an externally based discussion such as a listserv online forum.

You can access more instructions and help on how to set these up in the suggest or add a Discussion form.

Proposed discussions need first to be approved through the respective Topic Editor's Inbox; so unless you are the Topic Editor, you will need to wait for this approval to come through.

How do I publicise my discussion?

Introduction to Comments on Knowledge Items

What are Knowledge item comments?
Comment notes are short threaded discussions that are attached to individual knowledge items such as books or multimedia objects. Members can post Comments to any knowledge item as a comment or critique on its content or value. This enables members to quickly develop focused debate around a particular piece of information. Although distinct from Topic Discussions, Comments function in the same way. Comments discussions are held in “Comments Pages", associated with the relevant knowledge item. These Comments pages are very similar to Discussion Rooms.

Access to Comments Discussions
To access Comments, first you click on any knowledge object title. You then access the Information screen that contains full information about that knowledge object.

To access Comments from the information screen you can click on the yellow speech bubble indicating that there already are some existing Comments on that item. You can also access comments and post new comments by clicking on the View/Post Comments on this knowledge item text.

N.B. Clicking on discussion knowledge objects will take you to a Topic Discussion environment, not to Comments. This is because discussion knowledge objects, being themselves discussions, logically do not require additional comments!

Participating in Comments Discussions
Participating is simple. After clicking on the View/Add Comments on this knowledge item or the yellow speech bubble, you enter a view where you can see all entries (postings) in several ways, e.g. Subject lines only, threaded. If you are not logged into FreshwaterLife, you can only view postings. If you are logged in, you can reply to exiting postings or start up some new debates.

Will FreshwaterLife Search work for Knowledge item comments?
Yes: all discussion text is fully searchable throughout FreshwaterLife.

How do I set up a new Comments discussion?
If there are no discussions, you will be invited to add Comments after clicking on the Add Comments on this item text. However, you may first have to Register. Registered users can then start up new debates and/or reply to exiting postings. Comments discussion does not need Topic Editor approval to proceed.

Setting up a Conference
Closed or open conferences can be set up easily in FreshwaterLife under any topic, preferably using Topic Discussion. However, Comments can also be used for conferencing, if the knowledge object is of certain significance. Closed conferences require that the topic is accessible only to a predetermined user group. User access is defined by changing the topic permissions. You can do this by clicking on the topic edit tab (you need to be logged in) and going to the permissions editing tools at the foot of the edit form. Using Explorer, you then can further define group membership. You may need to iterate a few times to get this right.