When you create a space, all the discussion messages are in a single discussion section. However, when there are a larger number of messages it may sometimes make sense to divide them up into different discussion areas.
When to use discussion areas
Advantages
- Can make it easier to find threads on the relevant topic being searched for.
- Can be useful when the subject is not different enough to justify splitting it into a separate space.
Disadvantages
- Members have to remember which area to use and especially if using email may send to the wrong one.
- Group administrators and moderators may have extra workload moving threads to the appropriate area.
How to use discussion areas
In the space go to Settings and then choose the Discussion areas option. You can create a new area by selecting the New button. You will be asked for its name, a short identifier used to generate the email address for a specific discussion area, which area it should come after in the list and a description. You can also choose a default discussion area for cases where none was used by the user when they emailed a message to the space.
Now when users select the Discussion section they will be shown the list of discussion areas, with their names and descriptions in the order you have chosen.