What is a forum?

Forums are on-line discussion sites where clients can communicate with each other and request and share information about products and issues related to all aspects of redLantern's products.  Additionally, the forums will enable redLantern to share news regarding product updates, conferences, webinars and other training opportunities, etc.

Why forums?

The existing listservs are being phased out of active use.  They were cumbersome and not user-friendly when it came to searching the email history and they were not largely customizable by the user who might want to choose which topics and products were of interest and valuable in their growing email files. 

Additionally, we were not guaranteed long-lasting support through Miami University.  We looked into continuing our listservs at another location, but the available solutions were not cost effective.

Forum Organization

Category -> Forum -> Topic -> Message

Categories and Forums are defined and organized by the host (us). Topics and messages are created and added by users.  Users can choose to watch the forums and/or topics of interest to receive automatic emails or choose to visit the forums as desired.

Categories are the top-most organizational unit. A category contains one or more forums.
Forums are also an organizational layer, but forums are where the 'action' starts. Each forum belongs to one category. Forums contain topics (i.e. questions) that are created by users.
Topics are the conversation starters of the forum. Topics are created by users under a forum (hopefully related to the forum under which they are created).
Messages are the replies to the topics that are posted by users.

Forums SEARCH

You can choose to search all forums or a specific forum.  NOTE: The search picks up words in the messages--not in the topics headers.

The best way to learn about forums is to use them.  Check them out here:

http://clients.redlanternu.com/forums/

Other Forum Concepts

Moderators
Monitor activity in a forum. redLantern does not require pre-approval of forum postings but may choose to lock message threads that are inactive or move a message from one topic heading to another.  A Forum can be created and limited to a specific group of users if the need arises.

Security
Our forums are directly associated with the Support Center security. Your Support Center sign-in information will grant you entry into the forums.  Any change of passwords will be done using the existing links in the Support Center.  Each forum can have it's own security settings which can be associated with a client's license.

Email Notifications

All clients with Support Center Accounts are automatically signed up for the Announcements forum.  This will be used to inform the community about product updates, webinars, Users Conferences, and other redLantern, LLC business news.  All other forums are configurable per user.  The forum emails can be set to 'none', 'all', or only reply to own messages (and topics).  If you opt to not sign up for email alerts from the forums, you are strongly encouraged to check them out on a routine basis so you will stay informed about product updates.  Additionally, the forums will be great resources as they are easily searchable and once clients start sharing advice, job descriptions, etc., these will be easily found when you have the need to look for them.

Forum Advantages (over listserv)

Tied to Support Center security.
Better Organized.

Easy to watch/stop watching particular forums and topics.  Simply click the link at the bottom of each forum and topic.

Easier to share information and to search for topics and other users.

Will the listserv history be lost?

No.  It will still be available via Miami University. 

Questions?

support@redlanternu.com