.. _Discussions for Students and Staff:

###############################################
Participating in Course Discussions
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.. please suggest a better title ^^ for this section!

Course discussions give you the opportunity to start conversations with other
students, ask questions of the course team, and participate in the course
community.

Features of edX discussions that can make your participation more effective
include ways to:

* :ref:`Find Posts`

* :ref:`Keep Up with New Activity`

* :ref:`Follow Posts`

* :ref:`Vote for Posts or Responses`

* :ref:`Report Discussion Misuse`

.. _Find Posts:

==================
Find Posts
==================

Finding out whether someone else has already started a conversation about the
subject you're interested in, and then reading and contributing to that
exchange instead of starting a new one, helps make course discussions more
productive for everyone. You can search for something specific or you can
browse through the posts in a single discussion topic.

Search the Discussions
****************************

To search for text, click **Discussion** and enter a phrase, a word, or part of
a word in the **Search all posts** field above the list of posts. When you
press Enter, the search tries to find:

* A match or close match to your text in any post, response, or comment. The
  display updates to show a list of the posts that have a match at any level of
  interaction.

* A similar value in any post, response, or comment (if no exact matches are
  found). A "No results found for {text}. Showing results for {similar}" message
  displays above the posts that have similar text at any interaction level.

* Any usernames that are an exact match to your text. A "Show posts by
  {username}" option displays above any posts that have an exact match at any
  interaction level. Click the username in the message to read that user's
  posts, responses, and comments.

Review Posts About a Single Topic
**************************************

To review posts about a particular part of the course or type of issue, click
**Discussion** at the top of the page and then select a topic from the drop-down
list. (**All Discussions** is selected by default.) Only posts about the topic
you select appear in the list of posts.

.. _Keep Up with New Activity:

===========================
Keep Up with New Activity
===========================

Read New or Updated Posts
***********************************

The list of posts provides visual cues to help you identify posts that are new,
or that have responses or comments that you have not read yet, and to
distinguish them from exchanges that you have already read completely.

* Posts that you have not read yet have a blue dialog "bubble".

* Posts with responses or comments that you have not read yet have a white
  dialog "bubble".
 
* Exchanges that you have read completely have a gray dialog "bubble" and
  background.

 .. image:: ../Images/Discussion_colorcoding.png
  :alt: The list of posts with posts showing differently colored backgrounds and bubble icons

These color-coded dialog bubbles appear when you sort the list of posts by
recent activity or by most activity. If you sort the list of posts by most votes
instead, the number of votes that the post has received appears in place of the
bubble icon. See :ref:`Vote for Posts or Responses`.

Receive Daily Digests
***********************

You have the option to receive an email message each day that summarizes
discussion activity for the posts you are following. To receive this daily
digest, click **Discussion** and then select the **Receive updates** checkbox.

.. _Follow Posts:

=====================
Follow Posts
=====================

If you find a post particularly interesting and want to return to it in the
future, you can follow it: view that post and click the star icon in its top
right corner.

.. image:: ../Images/Discussion_follow.png
 :alt: A post with the Follow icon circled

Each post that you follow appears with a "Following" badge in the list of
posts.

To list only the posts that you are following, regardless of the discussion
topic they apply to, click the drop-down Discussion list and select
**Posts I'm Following**.

.. image:: ../Images/Discussion_filterfollowing.png
 :alt: The list of posts with the "Posts I'm Following" filter selected. Every post shows the following badge.

.. _Vote for Posts or Responses:

===========================
Vote for Posts or Responses
===========================

If you like a post or one of its responses, you can vote for it: view the
post or response and click the **+** at top right.

.. image:: ../Images/Discussion_vote.png
 :alt: A post with the Vote icon circled

You can sort the list of posts so that the posts with the most votes appear at
the top: click the drop-down list of sorting options and select **by most
votes**.

.. image:: ../Images/Discussion_sortvotes.png
 :alt: The list of posts with the "by most votes" sorting option and the number of votes for the post circled

The number of votes that each post has received displays in the list of posts.
(Votes for responses are not included in the number.)

.. _Report Discussion Misuse:

===========================
Report Discussion Misuse
===========================

You can flag any post, response, or comment for a discussion moderator to
review: view the post or response and then click **Report Misuse**. For a
comment, click the flag.

.. image:: ../Images/Discussion_reportmisuse.png
 :alt: A post and a response with the "Report Misuse" link circled, and a comment with the flag icon circled

.. Future: DOC-121 As a course author, I need a template of discussion guidelines to give to students