Create a separate Forum Page for Administrators; This would give the administrators one more level to organize. What I mean is presently one has to create a forum within the “User Forums” ours is called “Reunion Committee” in this forum we created topics one of ours is “Missing Classmates” that’s as far as you break it down. In reality we need to refine it further, we need another level. The only way to do that we can achieve this presently would be to move our topics up one and create multiple password protected forums visible to all. With that said I recommend the creation of a new password protected Forum module (separate page) to be used by Administrators.

Thanks for your consideration,

John Braunscheidel
SHHS Class of 1980

What's in it for us? Any special deliveries, baked goods, Super Bowl pizzas for the staff or anything like that?

All I can offer is my recommendations to fellow Reunion Committee’s.

You have to admit it’s a good idea. You already have the module, just need to change the name.

Brad,

I don't know about the others who would like to have this advanced feature, but I will be happy to give you a few more smiley faces when I tell you THANK YOU!!

I think Sweet Home HS class of 80 should buy yiou guys superbowl tickets for all the help Brad and Kyle have been!

How quickly I am forgotten lol

DONE!

Changes may occur after Brad sees the implementation.

Wow! I am impressed.

Close but still need the third level (just like the forum we are in).

When admin rights are implemented this would be perfect.
If this page could be moved up to the User Section and be password protected. (Then we could allow committee members in without making them Site Administrators).

Tell me where and when the pizzas need to be delivered. You deserve it.

Thanks,

John Braunscheidel

SHHS 1980

So you don't actually want this to be for "Administrators" as the subject of this thread suggests?

Won't putting it in the user function area of the navigation just perpetuate the feeling of "exclusivity" that you're concerned about?

Terry Sweeney wrote:

I think Sweet Home HS class of 80 should buy yiou guys superbowl tickets for all the help Brad and Kyle have been!

Will we be going next year?

John Braunscheidel wrote:

I would only want to put the link in the Users links if we also added a feature to allow you to select which Members had access to these private forums. And then only show the link to those members. Otherwise we'd needlessly take up link space most users wouldn't need.

I think what you ultimately want of course is Admin Rights, where you could make somebody an Admin and then ONLY grant them access to this private forum, and nothing else. And that's exactly what you'll be able to do when we get to ADmin rights. As mentioned a few other places here, Admin Rights is a significant system overhaul, will take a fair amount of time to develop, and can't even be started until we're through a handful of pressing issues at the top of the list. It is coming as soon as possible though, hopefully what you have now will be good enough to get you through.

I am sorry I was referring to our “Reunion Committee” as the administrator’s.

My thought was to create a new page identical to “User Forums” call it “Admin Forums” place it in the User section and have it password protected. The users of this forum will be (Committee Chairman, Project Managers, Web Administrator’s)

Having the “Admin Forums” in the ADMIN FUNCTIONS section will work once "Admin Rights" Function is implemented. As it stands right now I would have to grant full admin rights for my committee members to us it.

And I am serious about the Pizza but I can’t afford Super Bowl Tickets

This will be good enough if you add the third Level, it only has two levels. It is not any different than what I already have.

Again Thanks,
John Braunscheidel,

(Call me sometime if you have a moment forums are great but it can get a little frustrating trying to get your thoughts across)

What extra level are you seeking? Our own forums here, the User Forums, and the new Admin Forums are all clones of each other, all with the same number of levels. You're creating more than just one forum at the top level aren't you? Maybe that's the level you are talking about. You can create as many separate forums as you want there, just like we've done here.

If I still don't understand maybe you're just referring to Admin Rights as the final level you need, which I totally understand.

You're always welcome to call if you wish, but I think if you explain it to me in your next response I'll get it. I hope.

Brad,

Starting from “Admin Forum” you are already at the post new topic page. http://www.sweethome1980.com/class_forums_threads.cfm?fid=10010

Starting from the “User Forums” I can Add/Edit Forums.
http://www.sweethome1980.com/class_forums.cfm

716 574-0548

Oh. Oops. You're right. I'm sure Rick can adjust that.

can't you just copy the The user forum and rename it

Copy it
http://www.sweethome1980.com/class_forums.cfm

Copy it,Rename it and add password protection put link under user forum. Done
http://www.sweethome1980.com/admin_forums.cfm

If it was just that easy.

Rick's the smart one here, he'll have to answer. I suspect he dropped that level thinking it wouldn't really be necessary for a small group of admins to be communicating. It think in many cases it would be necessary though. And it could certainly never hurt.

It's Done

Great Job Guys, I really did not expect it to be completed on Super Bowl Sunday. You are really committed.
We are going to test drive it. My thought is to give admin rights to the top level committee chairman and keep the project coordinators in the classmate side of things for now. When the "Admin Rights" feature rolls out we will consider other options.

One more quick question. If a classmate with admin rights abuses there privilege is their way to know who does what?

Thanks Again

John Braunscheidel,
SHHS Class of 1980

Mostly no but sometimes yes. We don't log every single move somebody makes. We do for some key items where we've had problems in the past though. For instance, if an Admin were to go into the Message Forums and delete a bunch of posts, we log exactly who did it and the exact time they did it. We'll most likely be setting up more of this type of tracking where needed after the completion of Admin Rights.

We've added the ability to turn the admin forums on and off. It's in the Forum Preferences area. You can also change the nav link from the default "Admin Forums" if you like.

Also, the default is disabled, so if you're planning to use the admin forums, make sure you turn them on, otherwise only the root admin will see the link!

Hey,

I appreciate all your hard work on this project. I think it will be a grand feature once “Admin Rights” are implemented but for now it will not serve the purpose intended in the vision. No “Root Admin” in his right mind would let 26 committee members into the “Web Admin” side of this web site. This would be chaos, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. My spider senses tell me you are close to having “admin rights” completed otherwise you would grant my third wish and move it up to the user side. Passwords protected with RSS feeds of course. (this could even be temporary)

This is my last post on this topic, I have subscribe to the posts to follow the progress. Please don’t take this as complaining. I am one of your biggest fans and want to see it succeed.

Thanks Again,
John Braunscheidel
SHHS Class of 1980