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.