Discuss content

ArcGIS Hub discussions provides the ability to have private content-based conversations. Channel members can provide feedback, share information, and ask questions related to documents, images, datasets, web maps, and more. Read the discussions frequently asked questions.

License:

The discussions feature requires a license to ArcGIS Hub Premium.

Start a discussion

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

To start a discussion, complete the following steps:

1. Sign in to ArcGIS Hub.
2. In your user workspace, select the Content pane.

   If needed, select your user profile and select View workspace to open your user workspace.

3. Select the name of an item (to be the discussion topic) to view it.
4. Select the discussions button .
5. Select Create a post or Add a Post. Select a channel or a group as the audience for this post.
6. Add a title (optionally) as a summary of the post.

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

7. Enter the message in the post window. If needed, use @mentions (See Notify others by email), and select or draw map features to include in the post (See Add a location to a post).
8. When finished, select Create a post (or Cancel if needed).

   You can return to a post or reply and edit or delete it.

Select the Add reaction button to add an emoji reaction to a post or reply. Select the Plus sign to choose from an expanded set of reactions. You can add one reaction to each post or reply.

To view a discussion, go to the item of content it references. You can see the item's full discussion (connected sets of posts and replies) in the left sidebar. These are sorted chronologically with most recent at top. Select the Discussions button again to view the content as full screen.

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.

1. While entering or editing a message, select the Add location button on the post or reply window.
2. Use the Select tool to choose a geographic feature on the map (point, line, or area) in an existing data layer.
3. Use a Draw tool to add a point, line, or area to the map.
   • Pin —Mark a location.
   • Freehand —Draw a line.
   • Area —Draw a polygon.

   Note:

   Selecting and drawing locations is currently desktop-only. For map-based content, you can select only Data type items.

4. After selecting or drawing features, choose to add, edit, or delete them.
5. When finished, select Create post (or Cancel if needed).
6. After creating a post or reply, select the More actions button at bottom right on post or reply to edit or delete it. Choosing edit allows you to edit the message, or edit or delete locations.

Notify others by email

When contributing to a discussion, you can notify other channel members via email by using @mentions. The email notification will contain a link that goes directly to the relevant post or reply. In a post or reply, enter 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 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 in the relevant workspace (Discussion pane). Those with edit access can make discussions unavailable for an item. In live site view while viewing a content item, select the Discussions button , select the More actions button , select Discussion settings, and choose whether the item can be discussed.