Curation Assistant is a tool for managing Newsletter issues. This article describes how Admins and Curators score, review, and edit Newsletter issues in Curation Assistant. 

We'll cover:

1. Accessing Curation Assistant
2. Understanding the Scoring page
3. Understanding the Review page
4. Understanding scoring and review periods
5. Scoring candidate posts
6. Inserting posts
7. Re-ordering posts
8. Editing posts
9. Editing the subject line and other details
10. Previewing an issue
11. Modifying an issue's schedule
12. Canceling an issue
13. Approving an issue

Accessing Curation Assistant

You must be assigned to an Admin or Curator role by the Threadloom account owner in order to access Curation Assistant (see assigning Admins and Curators). If you're assigned one of these roles, you'll receive an email notification when a Newsletter issue has been generated and is ready to review.

Clicking on the link in the email will take you to Curation Assistant. The first time you access Curation Assistant you'll be prompted to create a login. Every newsletter issue thereafter will generate notifications from which you can access Curation Assistant to score and review the issue.

Threadloom account owners can also access Curation Assistant from the Newsletter settings page in the Threadloom portal (Your Forum > Newsletter > Settings). Account owners must also be assigned an Admin or Curator role. We recommend that account owners make themselves Admins.

Scoring page overview

1. Show All: Display all candidate posts on the same page.
2. Review: Open the Review page.
3. Next: View the next candidate post.
4. edit: Edit the thread title.
5. View post: Open the candidate post in the forum.
   edit: Edit the post snippet.
6. Scoring: Assign a score to include or exclude the candidate post from the issue.
7. Mark as spam: Mark the candidate post as spam and remove it from the issue.

Review page overview

1. Back to Scoring: Go back to the Scoring page.
2. Preview issue: View a real-time preview of the newsletter issue.
3. Schedule / edit schedule: View and edit this issue's schedule.
4. Cancel the issue: Don't send this issue (this can't be undone).
5. Issue settings / edit: View and edit the subject line, preview text, and intro & outro paragraphs.
6. Add a post for scoring directly: Enter a post ID to insert any post from your forum.
7. edit: Edit position of the candidate post in the issue.
8. Scoring: View Curator's scores for the candidate post.

Understanding scoring and review periods

All Newsletter schedules have a scoring period followed by a review period. 

Scoring period: During the scoring period candidate posts can be scored and the subject line, intro, posts, and other elements of the issue can be edited.

Review period: After the scoring period closes the issue enters the review period and the issue is locked down. An issue can only be approved, canceled, or rescheduled during this period.

In order to edit an issue after the scoring period has closed, the scoring period must be re-opened by editing the schedule.

Scoring candidate posts

Threadloom generates a list of candidate posts for every Newsletter issue. Admins and Curators have the option to score these candidates to determine what make it into the final newsletter. 

Candidate posts are scored from 1 to 4. 

• Scores of 1 and 2 ensure that the post is included in the issue (up to 10 posts).
• Scores of 3 and 4 remove the post from the issue. 

Scorers may also mark content as spam, which automatically excludes the post from the issue.

If no candidates are scored, Threadloom will automatically create a newsletter from the first 10 candidates.

Inserting posts

If you want to feature a post that Threadloom didn't select as a candidate, you can insert it.

To insert a post:

1. The scoring period must be open.
2. From the Scoring page or the Review page, click Add a post for scoring directly (you must be in 'Show all' mode for this to appear on the Scoring page)
   
   
   
   
3. Insert the post ID in the text box (you can get the post ID from the URL for the post - be sure to get the post ID and not the thread ID).
   
   
   
   
4. Click Add.

Threadloom tip: We recommend that you enable real-time indexing to ensure that Threadloom indexes new content as quickly as possible. If Threadloom hasn't indexed the post that you're trying to insert, you won't be able to add it.  

Re-ordering posts

Admins can change the order in which posts appear in an issue.

To re-order posts:

1. The scoring period must be open.
2. Open the Review page (if you're on the Scoring page, click the red 'Review' button).
3. Locate the card for the post you want to reposition.
4. Click 'edit' next to the post number.
5. Update the position number and save.

Note: posts outside of the top 10 can't be repositioned. To position a post that's not in the top 10:

1. First score it with a score of 1 or 2
2. Make sure there aren't more than 10 total posts with scores of 1 or 2. If there are, assign a score of 3 to the posts you don't want included.

Editing posts

Admins and Curators can edit post titles and snippets. You can use this feature to make corrections or add new content. Threadloom will render HTML in the post snippet section.

To edit posts:

1. The scoring period must be open.
2. Open the Scoring or Review page.
3. Locate the card for the candidate post you want to edit.
4. Click edit beneath the post title or snippet.
5. Make your changes and click change. 

Note: Changes made in Curation Assistant only affect Newsletter content and have no effect on the original forum post.

Editing your subject line and other details

Curation Assistant provides several options for controlling the subject line, preview text, and intro & outro paragraphs of your newsletter issue.  

To edit these settings:

1. The scoring period must be open.
2. Open the Review page (if you're on the Scoring page, click the red 'Review' button).
3. Go to the Issue settings section.
4. Click edit below the setting you want to modify.
5. Make your changes.
6. Click change.

Subject line and preview text

By default, Threadloom automatically generates each issue's subject line and preview text based on the first post in the issue. Alternatively, you can set:

1. Pinned (default) values: these values will persist to future issues as well as the current issue.
2. Issue-specific values: these values will only be applied to the current issue.

Intro and outro paragraphs

Intro and outro paragraphs appear at the top and bottom of your newsletter. Threadloom doesn't generate default intro and outro values, but you can set pinned and issue-specific values. 

Threadloom will render HTML in intro and outro paragraphs. You can use the instant preview to make sure everything looks good. 

Previewing your issue

There are two ways to preview your issue before it sends.

Instant preview 

The instant preview is helpful when you're scoring or making edits to the content of your issue.  You can view this preview any time after scoring opens.

To view the instant preview:

1. Open the Review page (if you're on the Scoring page, click the red 'Review' button).
2. Click the red Preview issue button.

Final preview

After scoring closes, Threadloom produces a final version of your newsletter that will be sent to users. Admins receive an email notification with a link to Curation Assistant when this preview is ready to view.

To preview the final version of your newsletter before it sends:

1. Open the Review page (if you're on the Scoring page, click the red 'Review' button).
2. Go to the Approve issue section.
3. Click the Preview here link.

Modifying your schedule

Admins can modify an issue's schedule from the Review page to change the scoring period, review period, and send time. Instructions for changing an issue's schedule can be found here.

Note: In order to edit an issue after the scoring period has closed, the scoring period must be re-opened by editing the schedule.

Canceling your issue

Only Admins can cancel an issue. To cancel an issue:

Go to the Review page and click the Cancel the issue button. Once you cancel an issue you will not be able to un-cancel it. 

Approving your issue

If you've configured newsletter to require approval, you must directly approve each issue before it will send.

• Approval is available when the review period opens.
• Admins receive an email notification with a link to Curation Assistant when the review period opens.

To approve your newsletter issue:

1. Open the Review page (if you're on the Scoring page, click the red 'Review' button).
2. Go to the Approve issue section.
3. Click Approve issue to approve your issue and send it at the scheduled time.
   • Alternatively, click Approve and send issue to approve an issue and send it as soon as possible. Choose this option if the scheduled send time has passed.