Open Moderation

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ParaChat Open Moderation


There are 2 moderation modes into which a ParaChat Pro room may be configured:

    Moderated Chat
    When the moderated event mode is enabled, the main chat window becomes "read only". User submissions are filtered to a designated moderator for review. The moderator may reply to the question, or forward it to a designated speaker for reply. When the reply is posted, the original question appears along with the moderator or speaker's reply in the main chat window for all users to read.

    Open Moderation
    This is a unique mode where the features of open chat are coupled with the features of moderated chat. When invoked, the chat interface has 2 chat text input fields. The top chat text input field is used for submissions to the main chat window. The bottom chat text input field is used for submissions to a moderator. Open moderation allows users to chat freely in the main chat room, as well as to submit questions to a moderator or speaker who, in turn, submit an answer to the submitted questions. Questions and answers display together in the main chat window as you find with moderated chat mode.


Configuring Your ParaChat Server and Client for Open Moderation/b>


1. The ability to permit public chat to occur while moderation mode is enabled can be configured on both a server-wide level, and group-wide level. To enable the feature for all ParaChat rooms on the chat server, the following parameter must be added to the server configuration file, called "pchatd.conf" (.../ParaChat/ParaChat570/config/pchatd.conf):

    pchatd.moderation.AllowChat=true

Please note that any change to the pchatd.conf file requires a chat server reboot to take effect.

Or, to enable the feature for all ParaChat rooms within just a specific Group, the following parameter must be added to the Group profile, called "<group-name>.prof" (.../ParaChat/ParaChat570/group/<group-name>.prof):

    group.moderation.AllowChat=true

Changes to a Group profile will take effect once the chat applet has been downloaded again.

2. Add the following HTML parameters to your ParaChat applet HTML:

    <param name="ui.inputx.Enable" value="true">
    <param name="ui.inputx.Button" value="Submit to Room">
    <param name="button.Submit" value="Submit Question">
    <param name="button.Send" value="Submit to Room">
    <param name="ctrl.PrivateInMod" value="true">
    <param name="ctrl.MultilineInput" value="false">
    <param name="ui.TypeHere" value="">
    <param name="msg.QuestionSubmitted" value="Your question has been submitted to the moderator.">

    Values other than "true" and "false" may be customized to accommodate your requirements.

3. Save the changes to your applet HTML and upload the edited web page to your webserver.

4. Reload the web page that contains your ParaChat room in your web browser. You may need to clear your browser's cache of temporary files to view the changes.

5. Log into your ParaChat room as the room administrator, and turn the moderation feature ON. The moderation feature is turned on from the GUI Admin Console. The top chat text input field is used for submissions to the main chat window, as you find in Open Chat mode. The bottom chat text input field is used for submissions to a moderator, as you find in Moderated Chat mode.

6. Some other helpful HTML parameters for use in the Open Moderation mode may be the ability to customize the color of the Questions and Answers that are posted to the main chat window by the moderator and/or speaker. In this fashion, it may be easier to differentiate the "moderation" Q&A from the open chat submissions. You may set the RGB color value of the question text that appears using this HTML parameter:

    <param name="ui.mega.QuestionFg" value="003300">

    You may set the RGB color value of the answer text that appears using this HTML parameter:

    <param name="ui.mega.AnswerFg" value="000066">

    The RGB values indicated in these parameters are already configured as the default colors.

7. You must turn on moderation in the room to enable open moderation mode.


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