Assigning Users and Roles

For every Forsta Discussions project, there needs to be a minimum of one or more moderators. In addition, each project can also have observers.

Moderators run and co-ordinate the project and are visible members of the discussion. Observers, however, can join a Discussion session, but are hidden from view and participants are not aware of their presence, nor can they interact with them.

The process for adding a moderator or observer is very similar.

1. Scroll to the Assign Users / Roles pane on the Project Detail page, and select the role you'd like to add by clicking on the Add Moderators or Add Observers button.
   

2. Begin typing the name of either the End User or Professional Author associated with your Hub that you'd like to add to the project, or select their name from the appropriate dropdown. To add End Users to your hub (useful for moderators or observers who don't have a Professional Authoring account), you can use the Manage End Users button. See the article, Managing End Users, to learn how to manage end users from within Forsta Discussions. To add users who have Professional Authoring accounts to your hub, see Adding Hub Permissions, ensuring they have Manage permissions. You can add multiple Moderators and Observers to your Discussions project.
   

3. Once you have selected the appropriate user(s), click the Add Moderator(s) or Add Observer(s) button as appropriate to confirm the list of moderators/observers.
   

4. Your added Moderator(s) or Observer(s) now appears on the Assign Users / Roles list.
   

Note: If you attempt to add a user who is already added to the list as a different role, the newly selected role will replace their previously assigned role.

Changing a Moderator or Observer's Role

You can change the role of a user between being a Moderator or an Observer at any time. To change the role:

1. In the Project Detail page for the specific project, locate the Assign Users / Roles pane, and click the pencil icon next to the appropriate user.

2. Select the preferred role from the pop-up overlay and click the Save button to confirm the change.
   

Setting a Default Moderator

Setting a default moderator will automatically choose the selected moderator as a default for any sessions created within the Discussions project. More than a single default moderator can also be chosen. You can always remove the moderator(s) added by default. To set the default moderator:

1. In the Project Detail page for the specific project, locate the Assign Users / Roles pane, and find the moderator you wish to assign as the default.

2. Click the check box in the Default Moderator column for the relevant moderator.
   

3. A confirmation message will appear at the top of the screen, confirming your default moderator selection has been successful. The default moderator will now have a green check on their row in the Default Moderator column.
   

Any future sessions you create will have the selected default moderator already added on the Create a Session pane. If you do not wish to use your default moderator for the session you're creating, simple click the X next to their name on the Assigned moderators field. See Managing Sessions for more information on creating sessions.