Discuss content

ArcGIS Hub discussions allow you to have content-based conversations within channels. With channel permissions, you can set roles for members and managers of the public, an organization, or groups. Channel roles determine how those managers and members participate in a discussion.

Channel members can provide feedback, share information, and ask questions related to documents, images, datasets, web maps, and more.

License:

The discussions feature requires a license to ArcGIS Hub Premium.

Start a discussion

Users can participate within their channels in discussions that are based on any item in a content catalog. Posts and replies will only be visible to members of the participation channel.

Learn more about discussion channels

To start a discussion, complete the following steps:

1. From the live view of discussable content, click Discussions .

   You can view and contribute to an existing discussion or create one within your channels.

2. Click Add a post.
3. Select a channel as the audience for this post.

   A channel is required for you to add a post.

4. Optionally, add a title as a summary of the post.

   Note:

   Titles can help differentiate among sets of posts and replies that comprise the full discussion of a content item.

5. Type a comment in the post window.

   Use @mentions to notify others by email, and select or draw map features to add a location to the post if necessary.

6. Click Create a post.

Reply to a post

To reply to a discussion post, complete the following steps:

1. On a discussion post, click Reply.
2. Type a comment in the reply window.
3. Click Create reply.

The reply is added to the discussion post. To view the replies on a post, click View reply.

React to a post

To add an emoji reaction to a post, complete the following steps:

1. On a discussion post, click the add reaction button .

   A menu of common reactions appears.

2. Click the more button to show an expanded set of reactions if necessary.
3. Click a reaction.

The reaction is added to the post.

Add a location to a post

When the content item is geographic (map based) and you are viewing the data, you can select existing geographic features or draw features on the map to add to a post or reply. You can associate multiple drawn or selected features with each post and reply. From the map, you can view and explore posts and replies.

To add a location to a post, complete the following steps:

1. Follow the steps to open a discussion and start a new post or reply if necessary.
2. Click the Add location button on the post or reply window.

   A menu of draw tools appears.

3. From the menu, choose one of the following:
   • Select —Highlight an existing feature. You can only select features from map-based content items.
   • Drop a point —Create a single point location.
   • Draw a line —Create a line using straight segments or freehand shapes.
   • Draw an area —Create a polygon using straight segments or freehand shapes.
4. Click the map to select a feature or add a point.

   When drawing lines and polygons, click to add additional vertices, or click and drag to draw freehand shapes. Double-click the map or press Enter on your keyboard to finish drawing. Press Esc on your keyboard to cancel drawing.

   The shape is added to the map and a menu appears with options to add a post or reply, edit or move the location, or delete the location.

5. Click Add to post or Add to reply.

   The location is attached below the text of your discussion post.

   You can click the Edit button to update the drawn features, or click the Delete button to remove the location from the post if necessary.

6. Click Create post or Create reply.

Edit a discussion post

To edit a discussion post, complete the following steps:

1. After creating a discussion post, click the More actions button under the post.
   A menu appears with options to edit, delete, hide, or copy a link to the post.
2. Click Edit .

   Alternatively, you can delete the post by clicking Delete from the menu options.

3. Update the text or locations as necessary.
4. Click Save post

The post is updated.

Edit a reply

To edit a reply, complete the following steps:

1. Under a discussion post, click View reply.

   The replies to the post appear.

2. Find your reply in the thread, and click Edit.

   Alternatively, you can delete the reply by clicking Delete.

3. Update the text or locations as necessary.
4. Click Save reply.

The reply is updated.

Notify others by email

When contributing to a discussion, you can notify other channel members through email using @mentions. The email notification will contain a link that goes directly to the relevant post or reply. In a post or reply, use the @ symbol to search for @username, and select a user to mention. This allows you to notify other channel members of new posts or replies or that something needs attention, such as reviewing changes to a document or dataset.

You can manage preferences and change notification settings (opt out) to stop receiving email notifications when you are mentioned in a discussion. You can also resume (opt in) to start receiving notifications again.

Moderate a discussion

Discussion moderators can hide or approve (show) individual posts or replies. For private channels, only the channel owner and managers of groups assigned to the channel can moderate. For private and organization channels, the channel owner, managers of any of the channel's groups, and organization administrators can moderate. On a post or reply, select the More actions button at the bottom to hide or show it.

Channel members can edit or delete their own posts and replies. The organizational administrator can edit or delete any posts or replies within any channel. Once deleted, they are no longer available. The owner of the channel is by default the owner of the discussion occurring within that channel. This owner (manager) or the organizational administrator can delete the discussion.

Users with appropriate permissions can determine if discussions are allowed for a site or content item by opening the item in the workspace (Discussion pane). Those with edit access can make discussions unavailable for an item. In a live site view while viewing a content item, click the Discussions button , click the More actions button , click Discussion settings, and choose whether the item can be discussed.