Introduction to Topics

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Topics
Topic Types and Workflow
Discussion
Question
Problem
Idea
Announcement

Topics

The core objective of any user community is to provide avenues for users to communicate, query and find relevant information. Zoho Discussions offers a robust mechanism based on the online forum paradigm for users to contribute and seek content by allowing them to classify topics into different varieties. Currently Zoho Discussions offers five topic types - one each to:

• Conduct a Discussion
  
• Ask a Question
  
• Report a Problem
  
• Propose an Idea
• Make an Announcement
  

Topic Types and Workflow

Discussion

A discussion is an ideal topic type to start a conversation on any subject and get related suggestions from your community.Example: You can post your views on a latest technology and allow your colleagues to share their view on it.
The below diagram is the pictorial representation of the discussions workflow:

• An author starts a new discussion and publishes it to the community.
• Once a discussion is posted, members can participate by adding their responses using "Reply to this discussion" button or post their views on a specific response using "Comment" link.
  
• Members also have the freedom to vote for the discussions topic using "I find this discussion Useful" link. This helps authors to gather support for the discussion and also helps members get noticed.

Question

The below diagram is the pictorial representation of the Question workflow:

• An author raises a query and publishes it to the community.
• Once a question is posted, members can send their answers using "Reply to this question" button or post their views on a specific answer using "Comment" link.
• Members also have the freedom to vote for the response that provides a relevant answer using "This answers the question" link.
• Further more, members can also post the same query using "I too have this question" link.
  
• Finally, topic author can decide the most accurate answer from the number of votes using "Choose this as best answer" link.

Problem

Problem helps you to report the issues that you face in a product/service and get solved by experts. Example: You can report an issue stating that "Service is slow" and the corresponding support experts will respond with the solution.

Let us now take a look at how a problem evolves:

• An author reports a problem and publishes it to the community.
• Once a problem is posted, members can post their solutions using "Reply to this Prolem" button or post their views on a specific solution using "Comment" link.
  
• Members also have the freedom to vote for the response which provides a relevant solution using "This solves the problem" link. This helps authors to gather support for the topics and also allows other members to get noticed about the relevant solution.
  
• Further more, members can also report the same issue using "I too have this problem" link.
  
• Finally, topic author can go ahead and decide the most accurate solution from the number of votes using "Choose this as best solution" link.

Idea

• An author proposes an idea and publishes it to the community.
• Once an idea is posted, members can post their feedback using "Reply to this idea" link or post their views on a specific feedback using "Comment" link.
  
• Members also have the freedom to vote for the idea using "I like this Idea" link.
• Finally, topic author can decide the most accurate feedback from the number of votes using "This adds value to the idea" link.

Announcement

• A portal administrator posts announcement to the community.
• Once an announcement is posted, members can only post their responses and comment using "Reply to this " or "Comment" button.

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