HI,
My tutors upload all of their discussion forums posts at the start of the semester and hide them. As the semester progresses and they unhide the posts, they all show the date that the post was original uploaded into the forum. Is there any way to change the date/make the date reflect the "unhide" time instead?
As far as I know, you can’t “hide” an individual forum post once it’s been posted so I’m not quite sure what you’re actually doing. You can hide whole forums though, so are you using one forum per post?
Anyway, how about timed posts? https://docs.moodle.org/36/en/Forum_settings#Timed_forum_posts
I imagine they're hiding the entire forum.
My immediate reaction is that it sounds like an 'unusual' way to use forum...
I think that I know what you are trying to achieve. You want to make all posts at the beginning of the semester to hidden forums, as a way to prepare in advance. But the problem with this approach, as you have discovered, is that these original posts contain the date that the posts were made and not the date that the forum was unhidden.
No, as far as I know from using forums for 10 years, Moodle doesn't allow you to change dates on forum posts. Even editing a forum post (as manager) does not change its date. So, can't do.
Another problem with this "prepare" method is that I am not sure how Moodle handles the emailing of these posts. If a forum is hidden, I don't think that the post goes out. But I also don't think the post goes out when the forum is unhidden. So this situation needs careful thinking.
Also, I don't think one can create a new copy of a course from a backup and have all initial forum posts retained. (In Blackboard 9, one could do it. But Blackboard's forum tool was a real wimp compared to Moodle's.)
In my own practice, the only solution that I have found is that when I am turning a topic on for students, this is when I copy and paste initial forum posts from older courses. It just a step in my entire process, and even if I happen to have 8-10 topics, I can knock this off in several minutes. (Having Moodle open in side-by-side browser windows helps.) Yes, I wish that I could drag and drop old forum posts into a new course's forums, but this feature does not exist (yet.)
I think you'll find that Moodle looks at the date, decides the posting is "old" and does not send the email. Which normally would be the sensible thing to do.
In my experimenting, I find the following:
1) If I make a post to a forum and immediately hide the forum, Moodle will send it out.
2) If I hide a forum and make a post to it (as manager or instructor, of course) it is not sent out.
2b) If I then unhide the forum, the post that I had made while hidden does not get sent out.
This all seems to be correct and logical behavior.
Jon, I don't know how to make a "timed" post.
Rick - see https://docs.moodle.org/36/en/Forum_settings#Timed_forum_posts
Tara - if you are using timed posts but the display date is wrong, I would say that’s maybe a bug. There’s not a lot of point of having a display date set to the future and then showing the original date of the post 🤔
It was fixed in MDL-50993 which predates the 3.5 release. Can you please check again and file a bug report in the Tracker if it’s not working as expected.
Jon, thanks. I had never seen that setting. I am going to give it a try.
I am a little puzzled by what the overall logic might be when the forum, itself, is hidden, and when a forum is not hidden, but is in a topic that might be hidden.
So, the teaching assistant creates topics within a forum, but sets the date to the distant future, and hides the topic for, let's say, two weeks. When two weeks arrives, the topic is unhidden, and the teaching assistant undoes the topic's delay date. Does Moodle then send this out?
What I notice is that the post's date, even with timed posts, still shows the date that the post was made, not sent. This might still be fine, it is just what I have noticed.
Yep, that’s what Tara is reporting too. I thought that had been addressed in MDL-50993 though 😟
Hi Jon,
That ticket is closed, for some reason I can't raise a new ticket, and I've searched everywhere for a similar ticket that is still being addressed. My discussion form is definitely not working properly. I created a discussion post yesterday and set it to post this morning, and while email I received for it shows the right date, when I log on to Moodle it shows yesterdays date.
HI,
I'm trying to create a bug report because my discussion forums are not working properly. I've watched and voted for things and searched everywhere for the same issue but can't find anything. I've done a test yesterday, created a new discussion in the forum, set it to post today. I got an email this morning that showed the right date, and when I logged on to Moodle it shows yesterdays' date, when I created the post.
Yup, time zones are all correct. But appreciate the response!
The tutors post at the start of the semester and gradually the posts appear as the course goes, but all the posts have the same date (the date the tutor created them) rather than the release date. So it could be a month later that is shows, and the post still says "22 Feb" etc...
You can still comment on the closed issue Tara - I’ve just flagged it up on MDL-50993, you might want to expand on that though
I’m still curious as to why timed posts wouldn’t work... 🤔
I think they are using timed forum posting in the first place. They upload everything they want to post in the forum at the beginning, and then they use the "timed" section to put in when they want it to show. For some reason though, it still displays the time the tutor originally uploaded the post, even though he selected a later time for the post to display. As you can see in the attachment, the grey areas show what is still to be posted, and the dates are all the same on the right hand side,
I think they will just have to copy and paste as they go instead of uploaded at the beginning.
OK awesome, thanks for the information. I'll let my tutors know.
My first time posting on here, was very excited to get a response/help!
