Discussions

Starting a new discussion thread

You should start a new thread anytime you want to start a discussion on a new topic. Each Kiva develops its own conventions for when new threads are started. You can start a new thread using the discussion tab in the Quick Post form on the left-hand pane of your Kiva's homepage.

Quick post discussion form

In this form, you need to enter a discussion topic, because the topic is the main entry point to the contents of the thread. The thread topics should be short, but meaningful, to anyone scanning the list of thread topics on the home page.

Click on the pull down arrow at the right side of the Select Recipients ... box. This brings up the list of all the groups in your Kiva. Select the group or groups that should read your post. If you select a group by mistake, click it again to deselect it. When you have selected all the groups, click on Done or click outside the selection box.

You can add files, links and images to your post. If you have problems with uploading files, see the tutorial section on uploading files

After you enter your message and press the post button, you will be taken to the page for the new topic. You can either continue the thread or click the Home page button at the top or bottom of the page to go back to your Kiva home page.

Note: if you select multiple groups, your post will appear once for each group. This happens because many users filter their view of the Kiva by their group memberships. While it would be possible for us to write code that would suppress the duplicates if you belong to several groups that receive a post, for the time being, you can just ignore the duplicates. All copies of the post on the home page lead to the same thread.

Reading posts in a discussion thread

Responding to a post in a discussion thread

When you open a topic thread, the page is opened to the first unread post. After the last unread post, the Kiva gives you an empty post box at the bottom of the page. If you want to respond to a particular message, you can press the Quote in reply button for that post. You will see the formatting marks around the quoted text. You can respond in between the lines of the quoted text if you want.

Note: Once you post, you cannot delete your post. You cannot change history. If you change your mind, or find new information, post again so that everyone can understand why you changed your mind.

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