ClubExpress includes a powerful discussion forums module, allowing members to participate in online discussions on a variety of topics. Original messages and their replies are organized into threads that are listed within a forum. Forums in turn are grouped into categories, allowing a club or association to organize forums for different purposes.
Forums configured as an email list (“listserver”) push messages out to forum members’ email boxes and allow members to reply via email. The reply is posted to the forum and then sent back out to every forum member. But these forums can also viewed online like any other forum and are fully integrated into the rest of ClubExpress.
Clubs have full control over forum membership. Forums can be defined where all members have access by default, or where members can opt-in, or where a moderator adds members manually. Clubs can also build forums around an interest group, a committee or a member type, and ClubExpress will maintain forum membership automatically.
ClubExpress supports multiple views, message posting icons, forum handles, message attachments, user pictures, rich content within messages and many user-configurable options. There is also a full suite of administration tools at the forum, thread and message levels.
Forums can be configured to be moderated, where new messages must first be approved before they are made visible. Individual members can also be moderated so that only their messages must be approved. Administrators and moderators can also block members from posting completely if they are not following forum rules.
Forums can be placed on the public side of the club’s web site, to make their content available to any site visitor. But in this position, they will be read-only; all editing functionality is disabled.
The Administrators’ Discussion Forum
Club administrators have access to a special forum that is available to all administrators across all clubs and associations using ClubExpress. It provides a place for admins to ask questions and share their expertise with administrators from other clubs. It will be shown at the end of the list of forums. In order to access the administrator forum, forums must be enabled on your website. You do not need to give members access to the module, or even configure your own forums to participate.