In traditional 'forum' tools the owners decide upon categories and then users post into the appropriate category. That's nice and it works. This forum tool has a different approach, like so: create few categories initially and let users define new tags, or 'topics', as the conversations happen. Organization is based around 'topics' and the topics 'dictionary' evolves with the community discussions.
PART 1: Using/Managing Topics:
For this to work the system must be trained on what topics are important. Here's how you tag things using 'topics':
- When creating a new post you have a field at the bottom saying "Add Topic". Add your topic there.. Type slowly in that field as it will auto-populate with existing topics! Use a comma to enter multiple tags.
- Or you use the hashtag character in your question/answer, like so: #Feed - this associates the topic "FEED" with this thread. Use square brackets after hashtag if you have spaces, for example: /#[my new tag]
Here is what the topics look like when associated with a thread:
PART 2: Navigating/Using Topics:
An individual topic can be 'followed'. If you see a topic of interest, click on it! For example I've clicked on the topic 'Insight' and it shows me:
The FOLLOW button now shows your options for following, like so:
Select 'Every Post' to get an immediate email on every post that is associated with this topic. Select 'Never' to only see the updates in "My Feed" (see below).
To only view the things you are interested in: find MY FEED after clicking the Home icon in the upper left. You now see only the topics that you have FOLLOWed. It doesn't matter where the conversation begins; if a conversation anywhere is tagged with a topic that you follow then you will see it in your feed (and/or get email notification).
Hope this helps. Please comment with questions, observations & feedback.
Kent
