As you start your online-community journey with Higher Logic Vanilla (Vanilla), you should take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with some of the basics of Vanilla communities.
š NOTE: Even if you have experience with an online community on a different platform, this information is valuable because it is specific to your Vanilla experience.
This article provides high-level introductory information about some of the most-used features of a Vanilla community. Additionally, it's your chance to become familiar with terms and nomenclature that you will encounter in Vanilla.
Dashboard (the "Back End")
The Dashboard is the gateway for your Administrators and Moderators to manage various aspects of your Vanilla community.
The Dashboard has fourĀ high-level tabs:
- Moderation - This tab has multiple configuration pages on which you manage your community users, messages, rules of behavior, and other aspects of your community.
- Analytics - This is where you configure and view metrics for the various user activities in your Vanilla community (discussions, page views, and comments).
- Appearance - This is where you set community properties to reflect your unique brand identity, and apply a theme and design your page layouts.
- Settings - This tab has several configuration pages on which you set and manage user roles and permissions; configure connection settings; manage addons; and manage other community features, such as Reactions, Ideas, Posts, and Categories.
Each tab has aĀ left-side navigation panelĀ with expandable/collapsible sections that you use to access the various settings for your Vanilla community.
User content
In a Vanilla community, users can generate a variety of content types (e.g., discussions, comments, and ideas). All of this user-generated content is referred to as aĀ Post.
All of the following are user-generatedĀ PostsĀ in Vanilla:
- Discussion: content thatĀ initiates the exchange of information; seeĀ Discussions & Comments.
- Question: aĀ request for information; seeĀ Questions & Answers.
- Comment: aĀ reply or follow up to a Discussion, or anĀ answer to a Question; seeĀ Discussions & Comments.
- Idea: a suggestion thatĀ provides informationĀ andĀ solicits feedbackĀ from other users; seeĀ Ideas.
- Poll: aĀ solicitation of community users' opinionsĀ about a topic or event in which users can also leave comments to expand the conversation; seeĀ Polls.
- Event: aĀ public announcementĀ of an upcoming event; seeĀ Events.
Categories
Categories are the high-level organizers of your community discussions (each discussion must be placed in a Category). Categories are accessible by clicking Categories in the main menu at the top of all community pages.
Managing a community's Categories involves, for example, creating and editing; setting display layout and list order; and assigning a type on the Manage Categories page in the Dashboard > Settings > Discussions > Categories.
User permissions via Roles
Roles are like high-level categories in which your community users are grouped. Each Role can be customized with a unique set of permissions that control what users can access (i.e., which content displays, per user) and do (e.g., moderation abilities and administrator access) in your community.
ļ»æš NOTE: Every user must be assigned at least one Role.
Ranks
Ranks are an additional way to manage users in your community. Ranks differ from Roles and permissions in that they grant/remove specified community privileges. Ranks can be assigned automatically or manually.
š NOTE: A user can have only one rank at a time.
- To learn more, see, Ranks.
Site themes, layouts, & editors
A theme is the best (and easiest!) way to customize your Vanilla community pages so that they reflect your specific branding: colors, fonts, images, etc. Vanilla offers you a variety of themes that are complemented by pre-designed, tried-&-tested layouts.
Choose a theme that suits your community and then customize it in Theme Editor. You can control numerous aspects of your community pages, such as:
- global styles,
- banners and titles,
- default colors and images,
- ...and you can add widgets!
Foundation & Layout Editor
Be sure to check out Vanilla's theme, Foundation, which has been built to ensure that your theme remains accessible, mobile friendly, and compatible with future enhancement as we continue to improve and introduce new features!
Along with Foundation, Vanilla has released Layout Editor with which Admins can create custom page layouts. The easy-to-use editor gives Admins complete control over the layout of a page and its content, and the assortment of widgets simplifies adding static and dynamic content from your community.
Check out these articles to learn about these great features!
- Read an introduction to the behind-the-scenes tool that maintains the look of your Higher Logic Vanilla (Vanilla) community and knowledge bases in Style Guide Overview.
- Get started by learning how to Create a Custom Layout.
Addons
Addons (also called "plugins") are features that can be enabled in the community in order to enhance an existing feature or functionality or add a feature or functionality that doesn't currently exist.
Vanilla offers a wide range of addons that you can enable in order to manage trolling; mitigate spam; offer badges as rewards; and track who is online -- to name just a few!
Gamification & rewards
Everyone likes to have their efforts acknowledged and rewarded. And doing this is especially important in a community; and especially when it comes to those who regularly contribute -- they are the lifeblood of the community.
Vanilla's GamificationĀ is a simple and effective way for you to reward community engagement and foster participation.Ā It features a points-based gamification system that incentivizes users to engage with others in the community because they receive points for doing so and for performing various actions.
- Learn how to start rewarding member engagement in your community in Gamification.
