EdGateway Discussions - EdGateway

FAQ

What if my email address has changed?
Why am I getting other people's replies in my email?
How can I change my own account information?
How can I get off (leave) a discussion group?
How can I retire a discussion group (make it inactive)?
How do I create a discussion?
How do I manage a discussion?
How do I use discussion groups?
What do the error messages mean?

What if my email address has changed?
	If your email address has changed, but you remember your login and password, you can change it after logging in by clicking on “My Profile”. If you’ve forgotten your login, and you no longer have access to the email account you were using when you first signed up, please contact the Help Desk: helpdesk@wested.org .
Why am I getting other people's replies in my email?
	Replying to a discussion group message in email automatically sends a reply to the whole group. Replies that are more appropriate for the sender ONLY should be addressed directly to the sender's email. You can remind participants to write directly to the sender with messages that are not applicable to the whole group.
How can I change my own account information?
	My Profile The My Profile link leads to a page of information about you, the logged-in user. You will see the following links: Edit/Update Profile Click here to change your contact information, including your email address, or add a photo, biography, etc. to your profile. Your profile in WestEd Discussions is the same as the one in EdGateway. Change Password Click this link to change your password. Note: changing your password in WestEd Discussions will change it in EdGateway as well. Select Email Subscription Preferences Click this link to change the way you receive messages from all your discussion groups. For each group, you can choose "Receive Emails:" Every message will come to you as a separate email "No Emails:" You will not receive any email, but can read the discussion on the Web "Daily Digest:" You will receive ONE email per day containing all the messages for that day. If you choose this selection for more than one discussion group, you will still receive ONE Daily Digest, with all the emails from all the discussions you indicated.
How can I get off (leave) a discussion group?
	Go the page for the discussion you want to leave. Click Unsubscribe. You also have the option to stay in the group but stop receiving the messages in your email. To do so, Click My Profile. Click Select Email Subscription Preferences link near the bottom of the page. You will see a list of all the discussions you are subscribed to and can click in the circle next to "No Emails". This way you can still visit the discussion from the Web, but won't receive email messages.
How can I retire a discussion group (make it inactive)?
	Rather than delete a discussion group, we remove all the members. To do so, the manager can Go to the discussion and click Remove Members. Check off every name on the list, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click OK to Remove. This removes everyone from the discussion so that they will NEITHER see the discussion when they go to the Web, NOR will they receive any email messages from the group. Click Edit Description and add text to indicate that the discussion group has been retired.
How do I create a discussion?
	Note: These instructions are for www.WestEd.org/discussions. Login to www.WestEd.org/discussions. At the top of the page, click Create New Discussion. Follow the instructions on the form and click Submit. Note: If you wish to make your discussion private (so only members will see it), please send an email with the discussion group name or url to the WestEd Help Desk: helpdesk@wested.org.
How do I manage a discussion?
	If you create a discussion, you are automatically made the manager of that discussion group. Managers see the following links: Add Members Click this link to add new members to your discussion group. Adding members works the same way as adding an approver to your profile on the Intranet: Search on a piece of each person's name to see if they are already in the EdGateway database. If they are found, put a check next to their name and click Add. If someone you would like to add is not currently in the database, they need to register (or be registered) in EdGateway. Contact the Help Desk if you encounter this problem. We can show you how to register people, and we can pre-register a group of people for you. Remove Members Click this link to remove members from your group. This works the same way as removing approvers from your profile on the Intranet: Put a check in the box next to the name of anyone you would like to remove Then click OK to Remove at the bottom of the page. You can remove several people at once. Edit Description Click here to change the title, description, or message header of the discussion. Click Save/Submit when done, or Cancel if you didn't want to make any changes. List, Add, Remove Managers Click List Managers to see everyone who has permission to manage the group. Managing the group means making any changes listed in this section. You can also Add or Remove managers. There can be more than one manager of a discussion group. Note: Some staff may have multiple Edgateway accounts. If so, you may want to add both of the records to the discussion group. Please also contact the person and/or the Help Desk to try and sort it out.
How do I use discussion groups?
	You can participate in discussion groups via email and/or the Web. Email Read Messages: You will receive each posting to the discussion group in email. Alternately, you can choose to receive a "Daily Digest" of all the messages sent in one day. To set up the Daily Digest, click on My Profile and click Select Email Subscription Preferences. Write Messages: To start a new topic for discussion, address an email to the discussion's email address, e.g. "discussionname@email.edgateway.net". This email address appears on the page for that discussion, as well as in each email message you get from the discussion. To reply to an existing message, for the WHOLE GROUP, simply reply to the email. Note that your reply will go to the whole group. To reply to the SENDER ONLY, write to the sender's email directly. The discussion group email messages will have links at the bottom to indicate how to reply to the sender, versus the whole group. Web Read Messages: Click on the name of the discussion group, and you will see the message threads. Click Full Text to see the text of every message. Click on the message subject to read only one message. Write Messages: To start a new topic for discussion, go to the discussion page and click Start a New Message. To reply to an existing message for the whole group, click on the subject of the message, then click Reply to the GROUP. To reply to the sender and NOT the group, click Reply ONLY to Sender next to the sender's name.
What do the error messages mean?
	Invalid Email Account This means that the participant sent the e-mail from an address which is not subscribed to the discussion group. First, check: is the participant subscribed? Next, check that the participant is sending mail from the address they subscribed. For example, John Doe registered with the e-mail address jdoe@work.org, and then tried to post to the discussion group from home, where he uses johnny@hotmail.com. Adding johnny@hotmail.com to the "email2" field allows him to post to the discussion group from that address, though he will continue to recieve e-mails only at jdoe@work.org. If that doesn't seem to help, check to make sure that the participant's registered e-mail address is the same as the one that appears in the "From" field in e-mails from the user. Occaisionally, people give out their e-mail address in the form "name@work.com", whereas their e-mails come from the address "name@server.work.com". Posting messages from the website will circumvent this problem. Discussion Does Not Exist This means the participant has mis-addressed his e-mail, eg rgoup@wested.org. Ask the participant to double-check his typing and try again. Posting not Authorized A participant may receive this message if you requested that your group be made Web Only, or that only certain people be allowed to post messages. Otherwise, check to make sure that the participant is subscribed to the group. Unsubscribe Request This is not an error message, but a confirmation that the participant unsubscribed successfully via e-mail.