Listbox to Topicbox: the basics

If you're comfortable using Listbox, we have a quickstart guide for you on Topicbox so you can get back to business as rapidly as possible. This guide explores where you'll find familiar features, what's different and where to go next.

Terms have changed

Not sure what some of the terms mean? Here's how Listbox items translate to Topicbox items:

• A Listbox account is an organization; an account admin is called an organization owner.
• A Listbox list is now a group; list owners are group administrators. Moderators are the same.
• A group's archive is now its discussions. Your archive is the collection of all the discussions for your organization.
  
• Topicbox threads discussions by subject. This is a topic. Messages appear in topics.
  
• A Listbox subscriber is a member.

List types

Listbox has two list types: newsletter/email marketing lists and discussion forum lists. The primary difference between these two types is who can send messages out. A newsletter list is for the list owner only to send mail to all the list subscribers, while a discussion forum allows all subscribers to reply to each other.

In Topicbox this is handled through the group settings. The Topicbox privacy settings allow for far greater control over who can access your groups and web archive, providing many more possibilities for different kinds of lists for different audiences. The web interface also lets members of your organization discover other lists available to them that they can ask to join.

Creating a newsletter in Topicbox

To create a Listbox style newsletter in Topicbox, your group needs to be set so that only the group administrators can send (In Group settings, Sending, set Permissions to Group owners). For the personal touch, we recommend setting the list to send from the administrator, and to each recipient. (In Group Settings, Message rewriting, From and To)

The other group settings are your choice. You can control who can see the newsletter list exists, whether the member list is visible, whether to moderate messages, along with who the mail appears to be sent from.

Creating a discussion forum in Topicbox

To create a Listbox style discussion forum in Topicbox, your group needs to be set so that all members can send (In Group settings, Sending, set Permissions to All its members).

The other group settings are your choice. You can control who can see the newsletter list exists, whether the member list is visible, whether to moderate messages, along with who the mail appears to be sent from, to and who replies go back to.

Visual Tour

Left hand menu bar

• Find a list of your current groups here, to easily access their messages.
• Use the All Groups item to access all the groups in your organization that are available to you.
• Moderators and group administrators can access their review dashboard from here.
• Selecting your account name will reveal the settings options: change your password and security. Organization owners can adjust their organization settings and member list here too.

Central content area

• Where all the action happens. 
• The titles in the top hand section allow you to navigate back to where you were, or compose a new topic.
• The right hand side contains additional information relevant to what you're doing. This can be either information and actions about the group and its members, or information and actions about the particular topic you're reviewing.

Setting notifications per list

In Topicbox, notification preferences are set per group. Navigate to the group page you wish to change notifications for, use the "Edit delivery options" in the sidebar to access the group settings and adjust how you wish to be informed of new posts.

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