Discussion Group Lifecycle

The discussion group is the container for discussion contributions. i.e. questions and completions. Every discussion group has the following lifecyle:

Created
A newly created discussion group is in the created state. In this state, the discussion group in visible only in the forum's administration part, i.e. by the forum administration and the assigned group administration. The created state is the stage where the group administration can set up the group's initial question.
Open
After setting up the initial question, the group administration has to open the group for that it becomes visible for the forum's member (in the application's forum area). The group is open and visible for that the members can register to the group if they intend to participate to the group's discussion. The group remains in the open state as long as the number of participants is less then the group's minimal group size. In this stage, the participants cannot add contributions to the group. The reason for the open state is that the group has to attract a minimal number of participants to make the review workflow work properly. The discussion group needs a pool of reviewers, else unbiased reviewing cannot be guaranteed. As soon as the threshold value is reached, the group's state is automatically switched to the next state and the group becomes active.
Active
In the group's active state, the participants are able to add contributions.This is the stage where the discussion in the group happens.
Suspended
Under certain conditions, the group administration may decide to disable new contributions to the discussion in the group. The group administration can do this by suspending the discussion. In the suspended state, the group is visible for read access. Of course, the group administration can reactivate the group, thus enabling contributions to the group again.
Setteled
If a participant adds a completion thus answering a question, this participant can advise the group administration to mark the question as 'answered'. If all questions in a discussion group are answered, the group should be marked as setteled. In the setteled state, making contributions to the group is disabled but the group remains visible for read access. Unlike the suspended state, switching to the setteled state is possible only if all questions of the group are marked as 'answered'.
Closed
A discussion group in the setteled state can be closed to disable read access. A discussion group in the closed state is completely hidden in the application's forum area.