How can potential conflicts between staff members be avoided (regarding content moderation)?
Answer
Composr incorporates "conflict detection" features to prevent staff from accidentally overwriting each other's work. When multiple staff members attempt to edit the same resource simultaneously, a warning message appears, prompting communication and coordination.
Open communication and transparency are crucial. Encourage staff to share their ongoing tasks and plans with each other to prevent overlaps and potential conflicts. Utilizing shared tools like the staff checklist and private forums can further facilitate coordination.
What should be considered when assigning roles and responsibilities to staff?
Answer
When assigning roles, it's recommended to start new staff with limited responsibilities and gradually increase their authority based on performance and dedication. This fosters a sense of progression and prevents discouragement among existing staff.
Always consider the individual's skills and interests when assigning tasks. For example, someone with strong writing skills might be well-suited for managing content creation, while a technically-minded person could excel at site maintenance.
How can staff be effectively managed in a Composr community?
Answer
Successful staff management requires a mindful approach that prioritizes fostering a positive and productive environment. Key recommendations include:
Respect staff limitations: Avoid overwhelming staff with excessive workload or overly ambitious site expansions.
Active involvement: Maintain active involvement in overseeing staff activities and ensuring their effective functioning.
Open communication: Engage in regular communication, providing feedback, addressing concerns, and recognizing achievements.
Foster teamwork: Encourage collaboration and information sharing among staff members.
Lead by example: Ensure staff adhere to community rules and demonstrate expected behavior.
Empowerment and trust: Grant sufficient freedom and control to enable staff to excel in their roles.
By fostering a supportive and empowering environment, community managers can enable staff to contribute their best efforts and drive the community's success.
How should staff members be chosen for a Composr-based online community?
Answer
Choosing staff for online communities differs from traditional hiring processes due to factors like unpaid positions, varying time commitments, and remote interactions. Focus should be placed on identifying individuals with:
Genuine interest: Look for members passionate about the community and its goals.
Available time: Ensure potential staff can dedicate sufficient time to fulfill their responsibilities.
Relevant skills: Prioritize skills and experience aligned with the specific role requirements.
Maturity and discipline: Seek individuals who demonstrate responsible behavior and commitment.
Recruitment methods like directly approaching active community members or allowing the Composr points system (or the karma non-bundled addon) to identify dedicated contributors can be more effective than traditional advertising.
How can content issues be reported and addressed by staff?
Answer
Composr's content reporting system, powered by the Tickets addon, allows users to report problematic content to staff. Key features include:
Report links: "Report this" links embedded throughout the site enable users to flag content for review.
Custom reporting interface: Forums offer a dedicated interface for reporting individual posts.
Anonymous reporting: Logged-in users can choose to report content anonymously.
Ticket-based management: Reports are automatically created as support tickets, facilitating staff collaboration and record-keeping.
Comprehensive report details: Tickets include content title, type, ID, submitter information, an embedded rendering of the reported content, and the reporter's explanation.
This system ensures efficient handling of content issues, allowing staff to address concerns effectively while maintaining a transparent record of actions taken.
How can staff members collaborate effectively in Composr?
Answer
Composr offers various tools to facilitate staff collaboration:
Private forums: Dedicated forums with restricted access enable staff to discuss site operations and coordinate activities. Composr installs a staff forum by default in Conversr.
Conflict detection: When multiple staff members attempt to edit the same resource simultaneously, Composr displays warnings at the top to prevent accidental overwrites.
Staff checklist & dashboard: The Admin Zone dashboard provides a shared checklist for task management, along with space for notes and links.
Staff notifications and tickets system: Staff receive notifications about various site events, including support tickets from the "Contact Us" page, allowing for efficient issue handling.
Content notes: Staff can embed notes within Comcode or use dedicated "staff notes" fields for various content types to share information and context.
Validation and workflows: Content can be intentionally left unvalidated even by staff, enabling secondary checks before publishing. A dedicated workflows addon allows for complex approval processes with multiple stages involving different staff groups.
System-defined staff: This includes administrators and super moderators who have specific privileges within the forum/member system (Conversr).
Privilege-based staff: Anyone granted the necessary permissions for a particular situation is considered staff for that context.
Composr prioritizes flexibility by utilizing privileges over fixed roles, allowing for customized staff responsibilities. However, certain features like "staff reply" in tickets inherently rely on a pre-existing understanding of "staff."
How can I communicate privately with other members?
Answer
Conversr offers two ways to have private conversations:
Private Topics:
Start a private topic from a member's profile, by clicking "Whisper" on their post and selecting "Quote post to a new Private Topic with this member," or from your account by selecting "Start a Private Topic" and entering the desired username.
Participate in the topic just like a regular forum topic.
You will receive notifications for new posts in your private topics.
Topics can be moved to the "Trash" category or other categories of your choosing for organization.
Inline Personal Posts (Whispers):
Send a private message within a public topic by clicking "Whisper" on a post and selecting "In-topic personal post to this member."
Whispers are visible only to the sender and recipient, and the whispered post is highlighted.
How can I ensure the privacy of personal information stored in my catalogues?
Answer
Composr's privacy system can help manage personal data within catalogues. To leverage it:
Use specific field types: Utilize dedicated field types for sensitive data like member IDs, usernames, emails, IP addresses, and passwords for efficient handling by the privacy system.
Enable "May contain personal information": Mark fields that may contain personal information, enabling the privacy system to identify and handle such data during purging or downloading.
Catalogue breadcrumbs can be customized using XML code (Admin Zone > Structure > Configure breadcrumb overrides). By default, they include the list of catalogues. However, Composr provides default breadcrumb XML that removes this, focusing on the current category hierarchy. Tree catalogues omit the index link, while non-tree catalogues include it.
What is a tree catalogue and how do I create one quickly?
Answer
A tree catalogue has a hierarchical category structure (which can contain sub-categories), similar to the download system. Composr offers a special feature for creating tree catalogues by simply typing the desired categories in a specific format (which is explained and available when adding a new catalogue), which automatically generates the tree structure.
Alternatively, a non-tree catalogue is simpler and only has top-level categories.
Can I customize the look and feel of my catalogue?
Answer
Yes, Composr allows advanced users to customize catalogue appearance through Tempcode programming. This involves using template IF directives to apply specific styles based on the catalogue's name and manipulating template parameters for complex layouts. Alternatively, you can create new template files using the catalogue name in the file to specify complete templates for specific catalogues. Check out the tutorials for more information.
While Composr catalogues offer great flexibility, they can become complex if you need sophisticated data relationships, efficient searching, high data reliability, or advanced customization. In these cases, a programmer's expertise in database design, normalization, and templating can be invaluable.
Catalogues are custom databases you can create within your Composr website. They allow you to define your own records with custom fields and organize them into categories. Think of them as powerful tools for managing various types of content, like a database of books, a directory of businesses, or even a classified ads system.
