Joining the Group

A discussion database is shared among those in your workgroup and is usually focused on one topic, such as an advertising campaign, a new product line, or some other special interest. Think of a discussion database as a meeting place where you can share your ideas on the subject at hand. A discussion database is based upon a discussion template and always follows a certain format:

• Main Documents Documents based upon a category or keyword. For example, your company has a discussion database built for introducing new product ideas. To propose widgets as a new product idea, create a new, main document containing your thoughts on "widgets."

• Response Documents Documents created to respond to a main document. For example, Mary knows that widgets were a big item in the 70s, and marketing trends show that items from the 70s are making a comeback. Mary creates a response document, responding to the main document "Widgets." In her response document, Mary shares information about products from the 70s as they relate to widgets.

• Response to Response Documents created to response-to-response documents. For example, John knows that the total widget sales in the 70s exceeded 4 million dollars. He responds to Mary's response document with a response-to-response document, sharing that information.

You must know the difference between these types of documents, even though the forms used to create the documents might look the same. The purpose for these different types of documents is to determine where they sit within a view: Main documents are not indented; response documents are indented under the main document to which it is responding, and a response-to-response document is indented under the document to which it is responding. In a discussion database view, a discussion thread is always displayed, as follows:

Main document

Response document

Response-to-response document

Even though discussion databases can be developed for different kinds of discussions and forms might look different between databases, the common denominator is that all discussion databases follow the discussion thread outline, as shown in the previous paragraph.