Chatter

Chatter is a way of holding real-time conversations with other members of your organisation. This document explains how to use chatter and create chatter zones for groups in your organisation.

Creating a Chatter Zone

Every chatter “zone” belongs in one of the groups of your site (in much the same way as a forum); whilst you will probably have a general “chat” zone in which anyone who is logged in can participate, you may also have some chatter zones dedicated to specific groups.  Access to these zones may be restricted to members of the group to provide a private area for discussion.

In order to create a chatter zone you will need the forums and chatter permission for your group.

To create a new chatter zone:

• If you haven’t logged into the web site already, do so now.  Click the Login link at the top of the home page and enter the login name and password as supplied.
• Once you have successfully logged in click the web office link at the time of the home page. The Web Office will be displayed shortly afterwards.
• Click on the   group folder where you would like to create your chatter zone.
• Open the chatter view by clicking on the chatter tab in the work pane.
• Click on the   Add a chatter zone to the groupname group task link. 
• Enter the following information about your chatter zone:

• Click the create chatter zone button once the information is complete.  The new chatter zone will appear in a list shortly afterwards:

The number of people currently participating in this zone is displayed in the members column.  If any member of the group has been reported for anti-social behaviour (for more information see “using chatter” below) this will be displayed in the reported users column.  The number of members who have already been banned from this chatter zone will be displayed in the banned users column.

Reported Users

When a member of a group has been reported for anti-social behaviour they can be excluded from future participation in that chatter zone.  When the reported users column indicates that a user has been reported for antisocial behaviour you can review the incident as follows:

• Click on the chatter zone title in the chatter view; the details of this chatter zone will be displayed shortly afterwards.

  At the top of the screen any messages posted in the last 15 minutes will be displayed.  Underneath any user who has been reported for anti-social behaviour will be listed:

  
  

• Click on the   icon to display a transcript of the conversation taking place when this member was reported.  If necessary adjust the time period and click the update page button to see more of the conversation before and after the incident.

   
• Once you have reviewed the transcript take one of the following actions:
  • To ban this person from future participation in this chatter zone click the  Ban name from this zone task link and select yes to confirm your choice. The chatter view will be updated with this person listed as a member banned for antisocial behaviour.
  • To ignore this report click the Ignore the reports about name’s behaviour and select yes to confirm your choice. The chatter view will be updated with this report removed.
  • Close the window to delay a decision for now. If no decision is made within 14 days the report will be automatically discarded.

Tips

• Use the show more link underneath recent messages to display transcripts for any period in the last two weeks.
• Try creating a chatter zone that's focused on a specific time period e.g. lunchtime chat between 12.30-1.30. This will limit when people enter the zone so you have more chance of users connecting in the chatter zone.
• You could use the chatter zone for online team meetings by creating a zone in a group that's only visible to the team.
• Once in a chatter zone if someone enters a sound will be made, this means you can minimize the chatter window and carry on working whilst you wait for others to join you.