Managing Q&A messages

To get a quick overview of managing  Q&A messages, watch this video.

The moderation functionality is there to ensure the questions/ comments/ ideas that are being submitted are appropriate for all to see and to make sure that the session moves forward and doesn't get stuck on a certain question. 

Use the 'Moderation' feature in meetings, sessions or classes where presenters, educators or organizers:

• Are concerned that participants might be offended or upset by people’s questions or comments.
• Want to remove the potential impact of disruptive individuals.
• Wish to reveal questions only at certain points of a meeting, session or class.
• Plan to choose and share only the most relevant questions.

How to manage the moderation feature

There are two options when it comes to managing and moderating your Q&A message board.

1. You can have Moderation OFF - When you want to let your audience speak their minds freely without censorship.   Leaving the moderation off means as soon as a participant sends a message it will appear immediately for everyone to see. Participants will be able to see these messages in present view as well as on participant devices. 
2. Or Moderation ON - Offering greater control over what content you allow your participants to see.  'Moderation on' means that every message sent by a participant will require a review process before the message is made available for participants to see on their devices or in present view.

To turn your moderation ON:

Go to the Settings option in the main navigation menu.

Select the 'Features' tab.

Toggle the 'Moderation' option to ON.

Moderation OFF gives you 2 simple lists:

1. Published - these are the messages that all your participants can currently see.  When a new message is sent by a participant, it automatically comes here.
2. Archive - these are messages that have been received but you have chosen to hide them from view.  You can choose to archive a message if it is not related to the topic of discussion or perhaps it's a question you've already answered. Use the archive icon next to the comment you want to move. As soon as you select the archive icon, the message will move out of the published list. 

Messages on the Q&A board can easily be archived from either the dashboard (see image above, selecting the down arrow) or directly from present view, by pressing the hide icon on the message itself.

Moderation ON gives you 4 lists:

1. Needs Review - this is where all new messages will appear when sent in by participants.  This is the first step of the review process where you can decide what to do with the message, safe in the knowledge your participants can't see it yet. From the 'Needs Review' list, you can move your message to any of the other three list options below. 
2. Reviewed - this is an optional second step in the review process.  Messages can be placed here if you want a second person involved in the review process.  Messages that are off-topic can be filtered in the first step (Needs Review) so the second reviewer or host, only gets to see relevant messages.
3. Published - these are the messages that all your participants can see.  If you approve of a message that you want to let your participants see, send it to the 'Published' list. 
4. Archive- these are messages that have been received but you have chosen to hide them from view.  Maybe it's not related to the topic of discussion or perhaps it's a question you've already answered.

Example of messages in the published list. All participants can see these messages in present view as well as on the Q&A message board on their devices. 

Using the 'Reviewed' List:

Hosting a meeting session can be stressful. Managing Q&A messages helps the host focus on important topics only. When the host shares the reviewing process of the Q&A board with another person, the host can use the 'Reviewed' list so they don't get distracted with too many questions or comments. 

Moving messages

Moving messages between the different lists is now touch screen friendly (via present view), enabling the host to be mobile when handling the Q&A session.

There are two ways to move messages between lists

1. Moving one message at a time or
2. Moving multiple messages at once. 

1. Moving one message at a time
Every message has quick action buttons to move a message with just one press.  The icons relate to the different lists that are available.  Press the one you prefer and the message will move to its new list.

2. Moving multiple messages at once
If your message board is too popular you might want to do a bulk action and move a number of messages at one time. 

Select the messages you want to move by selecting the checkbox next to each one.  If you want to select all the messages in the list, press 'Select all'.

For bulk actions use the icons at the top of all the messages. Press the icon for your list of choice, and the messages will move to the new list in an instant.

There is also a 'Delete' option so you can get rid of messages at once. If you select the 'Delete' option the messages will be removed permanently.  It will also be removed from the reporting. Use the 'Archive' option as a safer alternative.  

Anonymity

To ensure your participants stay anonymous when taking part in the Q&A sessions, your session settings in 'Identification' should be set to 'Anonymous'. When creating your Vevox session the default identification setting is 'Anonymous' meaning all participants will remain unidentified. Learn more about how to identify your participants.