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Using the Spaces feature [BETA]

Spaces allow you to create feeds for any topic of your choosing and automate prompts about any topic to encourage engagement .

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Written by Katya Bachrouche
Updated over 2 months ago

With Spaces, you can create a feed for any topic or use case. Use spaces to boost engagement, where you can create a themed feed where employees can post and share (i.e., Team Pets, Book Club, Volunteering, Tell Me Something Good, Trivia, TIL, etc.).

With our new 'Sparks' feature, you can add Sparks to any space to automatically prompt your employees with a topic or a question to respond to, tailored to the theme of your Space. Use our DoraAI tool to generate prompts or create the list yourself!

Who can use this feature?

  • Admins can determine who can create and manage spaces

    • Admins will always have permission to create and manage spaces

  • Spaces can be public or private

    • If public, anyone in your organization can join the space

    • If private, only invited members can join the space

Enabling/disabling the Spaces feature

If you are ready to enable the spaces feature for your organization, or if you need to turn it off for any reason, follow the steps below:

  1. Go to your admin page

  2. Select Spaces > Settings

  3. To turn the spaces feature ON, turn the toggle on

    1. Once enabled, the 'Spaces' page will appear in the main left navigation menu for anyone with permission to create/manage spaces

      1. The 'Spaces' page will only show for other employees if there is at least 1 space they can join or have been added to (meaning, we won't show employees this page in the navigation unless you have created a space)

    2. Any spaces that your or your employees are invited/added to will display in the Spaces menu

    3. Any public spaces that you or your employees can join, but are not members of, will also display in the Spaces menu

  4. To turn the spaces feature OFF, turn the toggle off

    1. When turned OFF, the spaces page will no longer display in the main left navigation menu and the feature will no longer be accessible

    2. All existing posts will be removed from the home page feed as well

  5. If you turn the spaces feature back ON, all previous spaces data will be restored, including the posts in the home feed.

Setting Spaces creation permissions

Give permission to specific people or groups in your Assembly to create and manage Spaces.

  1. Go to your admin page

  2. Select Spaces > Settings

  3. If you select 'admins', only admins can create and manage Spaces

    1. By default, admins will always have permission to create and manage Spaces

  4. If you select 'managers', managers will also have permission to create and manage Spaces

  5. If you select 'everyone', everyone in your organization can create and manage Spaces

  6. If you would like to designate specific people or groups to create Spaces, select 'custom'

Giving permission to add 'Everyone' to a Space

If you want to give other, non-admins permission to create Spaces, but you don't want them to be able to add 'Everyone' to the Space, you an leave the checkbox for this unchecked.

  • If checked, this means that the creator of the Space can add everyone in your organization to this space using the 'Everyone' group when adding members

  • If unchecked, they can still technically add everyone by selecting everyone individually, but it is much more manual

Selecting custom permissions

You can select any combination of:

  • Individual people

  • Departments

  • Work locations

  • Roles

Selecting or combining any of the above will give permission to every employee within each selected group to create Spaces

  • For example, if you select 'HR' department and 'Barcelona, Spain' work location, this will include all employees in the HR department as well as all employees in the Barcelona, Spain work location.

    • This will NOT specify the HR department of the Barcelona, Spain work office.

Creating a Space

This option will only be available for those who have permission to create and manage spaces, as designated in the admin settings. To create a new Space:

  1. Go to your home page

  2. Click 'Spaces' from your left navigation menu

  3. Click 'Manage'

    1. This page will only be visible to those with permission

  4. Click '+New space'

Space details

  1. Give your Space a name

  2. Select whether your space is public or private

    1. If public, anyone from your organization can join; and anyone in the space can add other members

      1. They will be able to see all posts/replies/reactions within the Space

    2. If private, you must be added to the space by a current member to join; anyone in the space can add other members.

Automation

Use this step to decide if you want to use our Sparks feature to boost engagement in your Space.

  • With Sparks, you can create a list of prompts that fit the theme of your Space.

    • This Sparks list will be automatically generated by AI based on your topic, but you can always adjust the Sparks (or enter your own!)

    • The Sparks will automatically prompt your members to post in the Space, based on the schedule you set

      • They will receive notifications that there is a new Spark to respond to, and they can see what their teammates have said in the Space feed as well!

    • This is a really fun way to engage your organization and learn some fun things about each other!

  • If you prefer to keep your space an open-format forum where people can post about whatever, whenever they want, choose the 'Forum' option

Choosing Sparks:

  1. Select 'Yes, I want to add Sparks to my Space'

  2. Enter a sentence about what kind of Sparks you want to create

  3. Click the 'Send' button

This will generate a list of Sparks using our DoraAI, and take you to our next step where you can edit your Sparks

Choosing Forum:

  1. Select 'No, I want to create a forum Space'

  2. Click 'Create Space'

  3. Once the Space is created, you can add new members

    1. If public, this Space will be visible to everyone in your organization in the Spaces menu in your left navigation

Editing Sparks

By default, we generate 25 Sparks for you to use. You can modify this list in any of the following ways:

  1. Edit individual Sparks

    1. You can manually edit any Spark by simply clicking into the Spark and changing the text

    2. You can also use our DoraAI to regenerate an individual Spark by clicking the 'Refresh' icon next to the Spark

  2. Add more Sparks

    1. Click the blue '+' at the top of the Sparks list to add an additional Spark to your list

    2. You can manually enter the Spark or use the 'Regenerate' button to regenerate using DoraAI

  3. Clear all Sparks

    1. If you want to clear all of the content of the Sparks and start fresh, click 'Clear all' at the top of the Sparks list

  4. Regenerate all Sparks

    1. If you want to regenerate all Sparks, and get a fresh list of prompts, click 'Regenerate all' at the top of the Sparks list

    2. This will replace all the content within the previous Sparks with a brand new set of Sparks

  5. Delete Sparks

    1. If you want to use less Sparks, you can delete individual Sparks from the list by clicking the 'Delete' icon next to the Spark

NOTE: Each Spark will launch on the designated schedule in the next step. Once all the Sparks in the list have launched, the list will repeat from the top, so you never run out of Sparks. You can edit or add Sparks at any time.

Sparks schedule & launch

Set your Spark schedule, schedule how often you want to prompt the members of your Space to post in the Space.

  1. Choose whether you want to prompt members with a new Spark every week, every two weeks, or once a month

  2. Choose the day of the week you want the Spark to occur

    1. The Spark will trigger on that day of the week every week/two weeks/month

  3. Choose when you want your first Spark to launch

    1. Sparks will launch at 8:00AM in your Assembly's designated time zone, this time zone cannot be adjusted

  4. Click 'Schedule & create'

NOTE: Once your Space is created, it will be visible to all members you add, even if the Spark has not launched yet. If the Space is public, anyone in your organization can see the Space and join at any time.

Managing and editing spaces

You can see and manage all spaces you own or are a collaborator of in the Manage spaces page. From here you can edit, archive/unarchive spaces.

NOTE: Currently, admins are not able to see a list of all Spaces that have been created in the organization. If a private space was created by a non-admin (who was given permission to create and manage spaces), it will not be visible on the 'Manage' page. This page, at the moment, will only display spaces you own or are a collaborator of. We are working on an update to give admins an overview of all spaces that have been created, it is just not part of the current BETA version yet.
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Admins, like everyone, can see all public spaces in the Spaces menu, but currently they can only see private spaces they a member of.

Adding members

  • If a Space is public, the Space will appear for all employees in the Spaces menu

    • They can view the Space and click 'Join' directly from the Space itself

  • If a Space is private, the only way to join is to be added by an existing member

  • Any member of a Space (public or private) can add other members to the Space

To add a member to a Space:

  1. Go to the Space you are trying to add a member(s) to

  2. Click the 'Add' icon from the Space header; OR

  3. Click the members list to open up the members list modal

    1. Click 'Add member'

  4. If you are adding a group ('Everyone' - if you have that permission, or departments), this will add everyone within these groups to the Space

    1. HOWEVER, this will not automatically add new people when they join this group.

    2. For example, if you add 'Engineering' department, this will do a one-time add of everyone in the engineering department.

      1. If someone joins the engineering department after, you will still need to manually add them to the Space

Changing owner/adding collaborators

Collaborators and owners have the same permissions in a Space. They can edit/archive a Space and manage members. Only owners/collaborators can designate other owners and collaborators.

To change the Space owner or make someone a collaborator:

  1. Go to your home page

  2. Click 'Spaces' from your left navigation menu

  3. Select the Space you would like to change the owner or collaborators of

  4. Go to the members list

  5. Next to the member you wish to make an owner or collaborator, select that option from the dropdown menu

  6. If you wish to change someone's permission to be a regular member, you can select this from here as well

    1. They will still have access to the Space but they cannot edit or archive it

Removing members/leaving a Space

Anyone can leave a Space, both public and private Spaces. Only owners and collaborators can remove someone from a Space.

  • If someone leaves a private Space, they can be added back by any member of the Space at any time

  • If someone leaves a public Space, they can only re-join if they choose to; you cannot add someone to a public Space who chose to leave it

To leave a Space:

  1. Go to your home page

  2. Click 'Spaces' from your left navigation menu

  3. Select the Space you would like to leave

  4. From the 3-dot menu in the Space header, choose 'Leave Space'

    1. Similarly, you can view the members list and click 'Leave Space' from there

  5. If you leave a public Space, you can rejoin at any time

    1. You cannot be re-added by anyone unless you choose to rejoin on your own

  6. If you leave a private Space, you must be re-added by a member, and you will lose all access to that Space

To remove a member from a Space:

  1. Go to your home page

  2. Click 'Spaces' from your left navigation menu

  3. Select the Space you would like to remove a member from

  4. Go to the members list

  5. Next to the person you want to remove

    1. If it is a private Space, click 'Remove from Space'

    2. If it is a public Space, if you simply 'Remove' the member, they can always rejoin on their own. So the action here is to 'Block' them

      1. Once blocked, they cannot rejoin without a member re-adding them

Editing a Space

  1. Go to your home page

  2. Click 'Spaces' from your left navigation menu

  3. Click 'Manage'

  4. Next to the Space you want to edit, click 'Edit'

Changing between private and public

  1. You can change a space to be public if it is private; and you can change a private space to be public

  2. In either scenario, users will be able to see the full history of all posts in the Space after this change is made

Editing Sparks

  1. You can edit the content of any Spark, reorder, delete, or add new Sparks to the list at any time

  2. If you reorder the Sparks, whatever Spark is at the top will be the next Spark to trigger

  3. If you are editing while there is an active Spark, the active Spark will be the Spark that is at the top of the list;

    1. Making any changes to this Spark will affect the current Spark (i.e., if you change the name, reorder Sparks so that a different Spark is at the top of the list, or delete the current Spark), the updated Spark will replace the current Spark

    2. All previous responses to the Spark will remain in the Space

Editing schedule

  1. You can change the frequency of the Sparks

  2. You can change the day of the week of the Sparks

  3. Any changes you make will update the schedule upon clicking 'Save'

Archiving a Space

  1. Go to your home page

  2. Click 'Spaces' from your left navigation menu

  3. Click 'Manage'

  4. Next to the Space you want to edit, click 'Archive'

    1. Once a Space is archived

      1. The Space will no longer appear in the Spaces menu

      2. All posts will be removed from the Space's feed and from the Home feed

  5. To unarchive a Space, following the above steps, next to the Space you want to unarchive, click 'Unarchive'

    1. Similarly, you can open the archived Space, and from the 3-dot menu in the Space's header, you can click 'Unarchive Space'

NOTE: Archived Spaces will appear at the bottom of your Spaces list, behind all active Spaces and Drafts

Deleting a Space

You can only delete a Space once it's been archived. To delete a Space:

  1. Go to your home page

  2. Click 'Spaces' from your left navigation menu

  3. Click 'Manage'

  4. Next to the archived Space you want to delete, click 'Delete'

NOTE: Once you delete a Space, this action cannot be undone. Your Space cannot be recovered and you will no longer be able to access any of the historical posts.

Posting in a Space

With Sparks

  • When your Space is configured to use Sparks, members of the Space can only post when the Spark occurs

  • Once they post a response to the Spark, they cannot post again until the next Spark

Without Sparks (Forums)

  • Anyone who is a member of a Forum Space can post in the Space at any time

To post in a Space

  1. Go to your home page

  2. Click 'Spaces' from your left navigation menu

  3. Select the Space you want to post in

  4. Click 'Create post'

  5. Create your post

  6. Click 'Post'

  7. Once posted, it will appear in the Space's feed for all members, as well as in the home feed.

    1. If the Space is public, non-members can also see the posts if they are viewing the Space before joining

Editing/deleting your post

You can edit or delete your own post at any time, from within the Spaces feed or the home feed. Admins, and Space owners/collaborators can always delete your posts at any time.

To edit your post:

  1. From the Space or from the home feed, click the 3-dotted menu on your own post

  2. Click 'Edit'

  3. Once you have made your changes, click 'Save'

To delete your/a post:

  1. From the Space or from the home feed, click the 3-dotted menu on the post

  2. Click 'Delete'

Notifications

You will receive notifications for the following activity in Spaces:

  1. Whenever there is a new Spark in the Space (if your Space uses Sparks) (notification page, email, mobile)

  2. Whenever someone adds you as a member to a Space (notification page, email, mobile)

  3. Whenever there is unread activity in a Space you are a member of (notification page only)

  4. Whenever someone replies to your post (notification page + email)

  5. Whenever someone mentions you in a post (notification page + email)

    1. If you are mentioned in a post but you are not a member of the Space, you will not be notified (as of now)

  6. Whenever someone mentions you in a reply (notification page + email)

    1. If you are mentioned in a reply but you are not a member of the Space, you will not be notified (as of now)

  7. Whenever someone replies to a thread you are a part of (i.e., you reply to a post, and then someone replies after you) (notification page + email)

    1. You can always unsubscribe from a thread by going to the post and clicking 'Unfollow thread' from the 3-dot menu

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