Discussions reference

Here you can the settings for discussions.

Fastpath: Admin Console: System > Settings > Discussions

For more information on configuring discussions, see Configuring discussions application-wide.

Table 1. Discussion Feature Settings
Option Description
Read Tracking With this enabled, messages are marked as read by the person who has viewed them. You might also want to have them marked as read automatically if you have a lot of traffic and want to ensure that more recent messages get attention from readers.
Read Tracking Age Threshold The number of days after which unanswered discussions are marked as read.
Thread Mode
  • In the Flat mode, views display replies chronologically in the order they were received, and there is no indentation between responses.
  • In the Threaded mode, users can see which reply a person is responding to because replies appear indented beneath the post to indicate embedded replies. This can help users follow conversations because responses remain associated together visually.

This is a global setting for all users, but individual users can change their Discussion View Style under their General Preferences and that their preference overrides your global setting here.

When replies reach the maximum set in the thread.allMessageActions.messageLimit system property) (the default is 100), replies appear flat even if you or the user has set them to appear as threaded.

Note: If you're seeing a slower performance, try disabling read tracking and turning the thread mode default to Flat. Both of these features can tax performance on some configurations.
Table 2. Expert Settings
Option Description
Correct Answers When enabled, you can collect stats about Correct Answers in your community, such as the number of Correct Answers on a given day. There can be only one Correct Answer per discussion. The following kinds of users can mark a reply as the Correct Answer on questions:
  • Community administrators
  • Owners of the place where the question was posted
  • The user who posted the question

For more information abut statistics, see the Community Manager Reports Guide at .
New Thread Behavior Determines how new discussions are created as follows:
  • New Threads as Questions: Any new discussions that are created are marked as questions when posted.
  • Do Not Make New Threads Questions: Any new discussions are created as Discussions when posted.

Note that after a discussion is published, by default there is a 15-minute grace period during which the author can change the discussion into a question. As an administrator, you can change the length of the grace period by editing the value (in minutes) of questions.markAsQuestionTimeWindow under System > System Properties. You may need to add the property at the bottom of the page if it is not in the list. Community administrators and place owners can mark a discussion as a question at any time (but they cannot unmark it as a question, only the author can).