<!doctype linuxdoc system>
<article>
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<title>
daCode administrator's guide
<Author>Jean-Baptiste Combes
<date>v 0.1.1, 2001/06/15
<abstract>
This document describes how to moderate and administer a forum
using daCode. It refers to the standard layout, as found on
<htmlurl url="http://linuxfr.org" name="LinuxFR">. It is the duty of
the administrator to adapt this document to the particular layout of
their site. 
</abstract>
<!-- *************** SECTION 1: Guidelines *********************-->
 
<sect>
Guidelines 
<p>
This section describes the basic principles and gives some
guidelines to ensure proper moderation. 
<sect1>
Before you begin: some definitions 
<p>
<itemize>
<item> 
Administrator: the person/group who runs the website. They are omnipotent. 
<item>
Moderator: a normal user, who has been given special rights by
the administrator. He has the power to determine if a story shall be
posted; and to edit stories. There is normally a team of moderators,
to balance load and avoid personal bias. 
<item>
Scorer:  a normal user, who has been given special rights by
the administrator. He has the ability to score comments. 
</itemize>
Of course, any user may have several of these roles at the same time,
perhaps even all of them. 
<sect1>
Basic principles of daCode 
<p>
daCode separates contributions into two categories: news and
comments. News headlines appear on the front page, while the comments
are viewed by selecting "comments" below the headline on the front page.
<p>
All articles are moderated: before they are published, they are read
by the team of moderators, who can decide to publish it on the front
page, on the section page only, to put it on standby, or even to
delete it. The comments, on the other hand, are scored. They are
published as soon as they are sublitted, and they cannot be
deleted. 
<p>
The score range is from -1 to 5. 5 is the best comment possible,
-1 the worst. A comment scored -1 disapears from the page, and you
need to explicitly request it to be able to see it. This is close to
deletion. So, use this score with caution, and only for insulting or
stupid posts (like "first post" on Slashdot) and for redundant
comments. The defaults scores are 0 for anonymous posts and 1 for
used who have logged in.
<sect1>
Moderation rules 
<p>
First and foremost, as a moderator or scorer, you should avoid any
bias, and let people have their say. You have the power of censorship but
try not to use it!
<p> 
Before moderating news, always try to verifiy it. Don't hesitate
to ask for confirmation in the body of the news if you're unsure. A
news should also bring something new to the table. Just delete those
that have already been published on the site! For the rest of the
guidelines, ask the site's administrator.
<p>
As for scoring the comments, you must avoid any bias. A good
comment is a comment that relates to the news's subjet, with a clear
argumentation, no matter what opinion expressed. Always tell yourself that
it is a free discussion space.
<!-- Ça devient un peu trop politique non? :) -->
<!-- ******************** SECTION 2: Scoring **********************-->
<sect>
Comment scoring 
<p>
When you are a scorer, you can see numbers beside the
title of each comment (except yours). Click on any number to score the
comment to that score.
<p>
When you click on a score, you will see a small window apear, with an
input field and a "submit" button. In the input field, type your
opinion about the commment (interesting, off-topic, informative,
etc...). You can also leave it blank. Then click on the button to
proceed.
<!-- ***************** SECTION 3: Moderating news ******************-->
<sect>
Moderation 
<p>
In the righthand column, below the box showing your name (or
login), there is an adminstration box. In this box are the links
to the submissions left to moderate. If there are no submissions, this box
is left empty.
<p>
Click on a link to moderate this submission. A form will appear:
<!-- You are in a maze of twisty forms all different --> 
<itemize>
<item>
first line: the author's name 
<item>
Second line: the author's e-mail
<item>
Third line: the title 
<item>
Fourth line: the topic (pulldown menu), the section (pulldown
menu), and the department (text area). 
<item>
Fith line: the date (format: YYYYMMDDHHMMSS), a checkbox "change
for now" which substitutes the current time for the time indicated, and
the format of the news: html or txt (for text, to keep linebreaks as
they appear in the input form).  
</itemize>
Below lies an input form, containing the body of the
submission. You may edit it as you please. 
<p>
Below this input form are some lines to enter links to
more information. The first field is the name of the link,
as it will appear in the news, and the second field the web address,
which must begin with http://. At the end of the line, there's a little
pulldown menu: "Language". Don't forget to set it to the language of
the link. If you forget this step, the link will not appear on the
news. 
<p>
Then you can choose what to do with the news. You have two fields
on this line: "action" ("ok" by default) and a checkbox "View", plus a
"send" button. If action is "ok", the news will be published, in this
case, if "view" is checked, it will be published on front page, if
not, only on section page. By selecting "wait" action, you will let
the opportunity for others moderators to moderate it. If you choose
delete, well, you delete the news as you could guess...) 
<p>
You can preview the news right at the bottom of the page. 
<p>
All the changes and decisions you made will be made when you
click on the "send" button 
<!-- ******************** SECTION 4: Admin ****************************-->
<sect>
Site administration 
<p>
<itemize>
<item>
"Clear cache" : clears all cache data. Thus you can force an
update. 
<item> 
"Edit users": by following this link, you can modify users'
preferences and privileges.  
<item>
"Edit topics": allws you to change the name of the topics 
<item>
"Add topic": allows you to add a new topic 
<item>
"Themes" : to create an archive from an installed theme, or to
install a new one 
<item>
"Polls" : to change the status of polls 
</itemize>
<sect1>
Edit user settings
<p>
This is almost the same as the users' preference page. See the
corresponding page in the user's guide for more information 
<p>
You can also grant privileges to the user. These privileges are: 
<itemize>
<item>
"Moderator": the user has the privilege to moderate and edit
submissions 
<item>
 
"Sysadmin": the user can do anything... you may want to keep that
for you only. 
<item>
"Scorer": the user can score comments. 
<!-- Euh, cette faute est elle dans daCode? -->
</itemize>
</article>
