Channels are the persistent chats within your community and your events. You can monitor, edit and moderate all group chats within the dashboard at the community level, or within a specific livestream or meeting event.
Note: As an admin, you are not able to view or moderate messages between users.
Community Channels
Group conversations at the community level are called Channels in Gradual. Channels engage members in topical discussions, Q&A and other conversations directly from the homepage.
Note: To engage in Channels, members must complete their profile.
Settings, Edits & Search
Create Channels
Channels are created in the dashboard, in the Channels tab by selecting the + Add New Channel button in the upper right-hand side.
Space restricted Channels
Channels can now be space-restricted so only members of a certain space can see and engage with that Channel discussion. Learn more about Spaces here.
To restrict a Channel by space(s), navigate to your dashboard and select the Channel you'd like to edit, or add a new Channel. Under 'Access' select 'Selected Spaces Only' and select the space(s) you would like to view and engage with this Channel from the drop down. Make sure to select 'Submit' to save your work.
Edit Channels
Sort Order
From within the Channels list you can re-sort the channels so they appear in the preferred order on the front end
Customize name and color
From within the Channels list, select the edit icon and change name and color of the Channel
Visibility
You can make all Channels at the community level visible, or hidden by toggling the Visibility setting at the top of the Channels page in your Dashboard.
If you'd like to change the visibility of a certain channel or chat, you can select the edit icon for the specific Channel, from within the Channels list, and toggle visibility on for community members or off to hide the channel
Search Channels & Messages
From within the Channels list, select a channel and search for posts, users or from a certain time frame by using the fields at the top of the list
Moderation
Log into your dashboard, select Channels and select the channel you’d like to moderate and manage.
Deleting posts: Select the Trash can icon to delete a post (it will hide it from the channel). You can also bulk delete all posts from one member if they are disruptive.
Restore posts: Select the 'Restore' button to make the post visible again.
Pinning a post: Select the Pin icon to pin a post to the top of the channel or chat. Only one message may be pinned at a time.
Unpin a post: Select the Unpin button to remove it from the top of the chat. Pinning another post will also replace the previously pinned post.
If you'd like to have front-end real-time support of your Channels and moderation, you can assign Chat Moderators to Channel(s). Learn more about Chat Moderators here.
If you need to take action to ban a member from chatting in the channel, follow the steps listed here.
Event Channels (Chat and Q&A) Management
Within livestream and meeting events, there are chat messages and Q&A threads between attendees called Channels.
Livestream Events
Within Livestream events, each stage has its own channel or chat thread that is created automatically when building the agenda. All livestream event channels can be accessed from the event dashboard, in Channels. Here you can enable, manage, and moderate each stage channel and add, enable, manage, and moderate any additional channels in Customized Channels or Q&A.
These chat messages can be exported from the Channels page in the event dashboard → Channels → Select the stage → 'Export' in the upper right hand side or from the Chat History Report from the Reports tab.
Customized Channels
You can also add other public channels to events, called Customized Channels. These can be accessible by all attendees and titled with a topic or discussion point for all to engage with, or private channels that are only visible and accessible by attendees you select as the admin in the dashboard.
Q&A
Chat Moderators are the only users who can see all questions posed by attendees, pin or mark questions, and moderate questions coming in through moderated Q&A
Chat Moderators & Event Collaborators can see all messages, and sort by questions answered questions, unanswered and deleted questions from the drop-down menu in the upper right of the Q&A tab
If they are moderating chat, they do so on the front end, live, during the event.
Chat moderators & Event Collaborators can:
Approve questions on the front end during the event, and only those approved questions will appear in the Q&A tab during the event
Pin a question that is being answered or addressed to the top of the Q&A tab during the event (and unpin, if necessary)
Mark question(s) as answered (and marked unanswered, if necessary)
Delete questions (and recover them on the front end by chat moderators during the event or by admins in the channel thread in the dashboard)
Clear Q&A board which deletes all questions (questions can be recovered one-by-one on the front end by chat moderators during the event or by admins in the channel thread in the dashboard)
Meeting Events
Within Meeting events, there is one channel or chat thread that is created automatically when buidling the event. Meeting room channels are evergreen, so anyone who's joined the room can see the chat in their Messages menu item after the event, and the channel remains persistent and can be a place for those attendees to continue the conversation. Moderation is handled by Hosts assigned in the dashboard.
Q&A
Assigned meeting Hosts are the only users who can moderate the meeting event chat and they do so on the front end, live, during the event. Learn more about how to assign hosts and their controls here.
Hosts can:
Approve questions on the front end during the event, and only those approved questions will appear in the Q&A tab during the event
Pin a question that is being answered or addressed to the top of the Q&A tab during the event (and unpin, if necessary)
Mark question(s) as answered (and marked unanswered, if necessary)
Delete questions (meeting room questions cannot be recovered if deleted by host)
Clear Q&A board which deletes all questions (meeting room questions cannot be recovered if deleted by host)
Moderation
Chat moderation in events follows a very similar experience listed above in the admin dashboard, and a front-end real-time solution for event managers and chat moderators.
Here Is A Resource that dives into chat moderation for livestream and meeting events, and event attendee management for when you need to take action on a disruptive attendee.
Here is a resource on adding and utilizing Chat Moderators for front-end real-time support of your chat.
If you need to take action to ban a member from chatting in the event channel, follow the steps listed here.