Addressing messages to conferences
Replying to messages in conferences
Sending messages from conferences
Liking or rating items in conferences
Approving messages in conferences
Subscribing conferences to Internet mailing lists
A FirstClass conference is an online forum for multiple people in your organization to exchange information. You can send a message to a conference instead of sending it to many recipients. You can also create collaborative documents in a conference, and upload files to it.
Conferences can be created by your administrator or by yourself and other users. On your homepage, you'll see those conferences you have created there as well as those of which you are a member. You become a member of a conference when someone gives you membership, or you open that conference and choose Add to Home from its menu.
The conference owner determines what you can do in their conference. For example, you may only be able to read material in a conference that covers personnel policies, but also be able to add material to a conference that deals with a project you're working on. In this scenario, the personnel conference serves to broadcast information without the need to send private messages to all concerned. The project conference lets everyone involved in the project discuss it and add useful information.
You address a message to a conference just as you would address a message to someone else in your organization, using the conference name as it appears in the Directory.
To automatically address a message to a conference, open that conference, then create the message using the New Message button.
You reply to a message in a conference just as you would reply to a private message in your mailbox. Open the message, then use the Reply button. The reply is sent to the conference's default reply recipients. Often, this means the reply just goes to the conference itself.
If you want to reply to different recipients, or want the reply to appear to come from the conference itself, use the Reply Options button beside Reply and choose the option you want.
You can also forward the message using the Forward button.
In some cases, you may want a message to appear to come from a conference rather than from you personally. This is useful, for example, if a conference has been set up as a help desk.
To send a message from the conference itself, choose New Message from Conference from the conference's menu.
If a conference is set up to allow you to "like" items, you'll see a like (thumb up) icon beside each item. To like an item, select this icon.
If a conference is set up to allow you to either like or dislike items, select the like icon to like an item or the dislike (thumb down) icon to dislike it.
Hovering over an icon tells you whether you have already liked/disliked it.
If a conference is set up to allow you to rate items, you'll see five stars beside each item. To rate an item, select the appropriate star. For example, to rate an item three stars, select the third star from the left. Where multiple people have rated an item, you'll see the average rating. Hovering over the rating shows you how many people have rated it, and whether you have already rated it.
Conference permissions control whether you can change your mind after liking/disliking or rating an item. To reverse your like/dislike response, select the icon again. To change your rating, select the appropriate star.
A conference may be moderated to ensure that everything sent to it is appropriate. In a moderated conference, either all messages, or just messages with files attached, can't be read until a moderator approves them. Until that time, they appear dimmed or are hidden.
Only someone given permission as a moderator can approve these messages. If you have this permission, you can approve a message by choosing Approve from its menu.
You can create conferences just as your administrator does. Conferences are a useful way for you to collaborate with a group of people that you define. If you have trouble getting your conferences to work as you expect, contact your administrator.
To create a conference on your homepage, choose New Container from your homepage's menu, then select Conference. Follow the prompts to give your conference an icon, name, and description.
Tick the Do not publish in Directory checkbox if you want to prevent the conference from showing up in the Directory. This keeps others from knowing about your conference unless you tell them. It also means you can use any name you want for the conference, without it conflicting with a published name.
When you are done, select Create. Your new conference is added to the end of your homepage.
To create a conference elsewhere, open the container where you want the conference to be created, choose New Container from the New button's dropdown menu, then follow the same procedure you would on your homepage. You can access your new conference using the container's Folders button.
To protect your conference from being deleted by accident, open it, choose Properties from its menu, then tick the Protected checkbox. If you really want to delete this conference in the future, you must first clear this checkbox.
You use conference permissions to control how your conference behaves (for example, when messages expire and what others can do in the conference).
To set conference permissions, open the conference, choose Permissions from its menu, then fill in the permissions form:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Do not publish in Directory | Lets you change what you chose when you created the conference. |
| View | To see this and other fields in this section, use the disclosure triangle at View, Message options, Approval, Size limit, Expiry. To make your conference layout use column view and always reset to your original layout, tick the Use view from server checkbox. If you don't tick this, everyone with access to your conference can change their own view of the conference layout permanently. Don't turn this on if you want to enable liking or rating. To prevent others from customizing their view of your conference completely, tick the Use template view only checkbox. If this will be a moderated conference, you can hide unapproved objects from all but moderators by ticking the Hide unapproved items checkbox. |
| Message options | Choose the default form to be used when new messages are created in your conference at Form to use. If you don't want to dictate the default message form, leave the dash in this field. Choose the default method for addressing replies to the messages in your conference at Reply preference: Reply All replies to the sender and all other recipients. Reply Sender replies to the sender only. Reply Conference replies to the conference only. Default is used by your administrator when creating conferences. Allow liking or rating lets people like/dislike or rate an item in your conference: None means no liking/disliking or rating is allowed. Like means people can like something, then change their minds. Like (Locked) means people can like something, but they can't later change their minds. Like Dislike means people can either like or dislike something, then change their minds. Like Dislike (Locked) means people can either like or dislike something, but they can't later change their minds. Rate means people can rate something from one to five stars, then change their rating. Rate (Locked) means people can rate something, but they can't later change their rating. |
| Approval | To make all messages sent to your conference require approval by a moderator, tick the Messages require approval checkbox. To make only messages with files attached, or files uploaded directly to your conference, require approval, tick the Attachments require approval checkbox. |
| Size limit | You can specify a maximum size for messages (message content plus attachments) posted to your conference at Limit messages above. Messages above this limit will be handled the way you specify in the next field. If you impose a size limit on messages, choose how you want oversize messages handled at Handling: Reject with NDN rejects the message and returns a nondelivery notice to the sender. This is probably the best option for most conferences, except conferences replicated to a non-FirstClass system such as the Internet. If a conference was an Internet newsgroup, NDNs would be sent back out to the Internet and from there to hundreds of thousands of sites. Reject and Report rejects the message without informing the sender, and reports the incident in a server log available to your administrator. Requires Approval accepts the message, but makes it unapproved. This is useful if your conference will be gatewayed and you are concerned about users posting messages with large attachments. Reject Quietly rejects the message and takes no further action. This is the best option if your conference will be gatewayed from a non-FirstClass system such as the Internet. |
| Expiry | You can specify a maximum number of objects allowed in your conference at Item limit. After this limit is exceeded, FirstClass begins to delete the objects with the oldest expiry dates. You can also specify the number of days a message can stay in your conference before expiring at Message expiry. Once a message has expired, FirstClass deletes it automatically as part of routine maintenance. |
| Belongs to | Unless you are familiar with conference groups and how they affect behavior, we recommend you leave this field as is. All conferences belong by default to conference groups. Your administrator sets up conference groups to control conference behavior for groups as a whole. You'll see the groups that your conference belongs to here. You can add or remove conference groups. To add a conference group, type its name just as you would address a message to a conference. |
| Who | This is the area where you set permissions that control what others can do in your conference. It's described below. |
If you want the contents of your conference to appear in columns, tick the Use layout from server checkbox in the View... section of the permissions form.
Conferences are intended as collaborative areas, so you probably want to give some other people access to your conference. To do this, you first set permissions that control what they can do in your conference, then you make your conference available to them.
To specify what you want someone to be able to do in your conference, update the Who section of the permissions form. You must do this for every person and group with access to your conference.
First, enter the person or group's name under Who just as you would address a message to them. The order in which you list people matters, because when someone opens your conference, FirstClass checks the Who list from the top down. When it finds the first occurrence of this person, or the first group to which they belong, it uses the permissions it finds there. This means that if the first thing you list is the All Users group, and make the access for that group Disallowed, no one will be able to access your conference.
Second, choose the access level for the person in the field to the right of their name. Access levels are predefined sets of permissions. You can assign an access level as is, or customize it by selecting and clearing the individual permissions which follow.
| This level | Gives these permissions |
|---|---|
| Disallowed | Prevents the person from accessing your conference. We recommend that you add the All Users group at the end of your list with this access level, to prevent anyone from inadvertently being able to access your conference. |
| Summary | The person can look at the list of objects in your conference, but not open them. |
| Browser | The person has the permissions of Summary plus can open messages. |
| Reader | The person has the permissions of Browser plus can download attachments, view item histories, and search. |
| Contributor | The person has the permissions of Reader plus can send messages to your conference, delete any objects they added, and view this permissions form. |
| Approver | The person has the permissions of Contributor plus can read and approve unapproved messages. |
| Moderator | The person has the permissions of Approver plus can delete any items, move items to subcontainers, post messages that exceed the size limit, edit documents, and move subcontainers. |
| Creator | The person has the permissions of Moderator plus can change the conference view and sort order, and create subcontainers. |
| Controller | The person has the permissions of Creator plus can edit this permissions form, the conference's description, and messages sent by others. |
| Custom | Access is defined by the individual permissions that are selected. If you add or remove individual permissions for someone with another access level, their access level automatically becomes Custom. |
The icons to the right of the access level field represent the individual permissions that make up the levels. To toggle a permission on and off, select its icon.
Limitation
Be aware that certain permissions will only work if the person has been given appropriate privileges by your administrator.
From left to right, the individual permissions are:
| Permission | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Edit permissions | The person can edit this permissions form. This includes adding people at Who and making them members of the conference. |
| Moderator | This just gives the person the Moderator label. The Approve items permission is required to enable the person to approve items. |
| Delete any item | The person can delete any object, including messages sent by others, and move objects into subcontainers. |
| Create items | The person can create documents and subcontainers, move objects into your conference, post oversize messages, and upload files without having to attach them to messages. |
| Edit read-only items | The person can edit objects that aren't normally editable, such as sent messages. For this permission to work, you must also select the Edit items permission. Be cautious about giving this permission, because it overrides normal FirstClass behavior. |
| Edit items | The person can edit any document and move subcontainers. |
| Save window and view properties | The person can change the conference layout permanently. Be cautious about giving this permission, because a person with this permission is dictating the default conference layout for others. |
| Approve items | The person can open and approve unapproved messages. Messages sent by this person are automatically approved. |
| Delete own items | The person can delete and change the properties of their own objects. |
| Open conference | The person can open your conference. This lets them see the objects in the conference, but not open them. |
| Search items | The person can search your conference. |
| Send items | The person can post messages to your conference. |
| Open items | The person can open messages and documents in your conference. |
| Create subconferences | The person can create subcontainers in your conference. |
| Download files & attachments | The person can download attached files and files that have been uploaded directly to your conference. |
| View permissions | The person can view this permissions form, but not edit it. |
| View history | The person can view the history of objects in your conference. |
To create a description of the conference for others to read, use the About button on the conference's permissions form.
To make your conference available to someone, either create it in a container to which they already have access, or make them members of your conference. Making someone a member puts a link to your conference on their homepage.
To invite someone to become a member of your conference, use the Members button on the conference's permissions form. Enter the person's name in the members list just as you would address a message to them.
When you are done with the members list and permissions form, close them using the x button in the top right corner. Your changes are automatically saved.
You can use conferences as access points to Internet mailing lists. When you subscribe a conference to a mailing list, messages sent to the mailing list will appear in the conference.
Each mailing list has its own instructions for subscribing. In some cases, you send a subscription request and the mailing list returns a reply saying the conference is subscribed. In other cases, you must respond to the mailing list's reply before the conference is subscribed.
To subscribe a conference to a mailing list, send the subscription request, as instructed by the mailing list, from the conference itself (New Message from Conference).
If you need to respond to this reply, reply from the conference itself (Reply from Conference).
Some mailing lists let anyone write to them. In this case, you and others using a conference can just send messages to the mailing lists, or respond to mailing list messages in a conference.
Other mailing lists only let registered users write to them. These mailing lists consider the actual conference to be the registered user, not you or others using the conference. This means that you can't send messages directly to a mailing list, or respond to mailing list messages directly from the conference, with yourself as the sender. To write to these mailing lists, you must send the message from the conference itself.
As well as sending messages to mailing lists, you can send commands such as help commands or requests for information about who is subscribed. These commands must also be sent from the conference itself.