Discussion Groups are the Big Thing in the Latest Bluepulse Release

A new release of Bluepulse is among us. Now, if you’re not familiar with Bluepulse, let’s get you up to date. Quite simply, it’s a web application that can be used at any layer of an enterprise or academic institution, allowing for instant two-way communication between users. For example, a professor can send out questions to their students to see how well they’re understanding the material he’s going over in class. A manager can poll their team members about where they’d like to go for lunch. What sets Bluepulse apart from other messaging systems such as email or instant messengers is that it provides stats and analytics on your posts. It opens feedback by allowing communication outside of any rigid survey process and fill in the white spaces between formal reviews, meaning changes can be proactive instead of reactive.

That sounds great! So, what’s new?

Oh right, this blog is about the latest release of Bluepulse. There’s a ton of changes in this release, but I won’t go through all of them. Here are the main ones:

• Feed item badging: There will be a red notification badge in the notification feed when there’s a new follow-up/message/discussion.
• Notification re-direction: Clicking on a notification will now take you directly to newly posted content.
• Character limit increase: Comments were previously capped at 256 characters. It’s been increased to 4000 characters.
• Discussion groups: A comments section can now be opened when posting content.

Oh cool, discussions! That’s in the title!

A keen observation, but yes, public discussions are the biggest and most exciting part of this release. That’s why I kept it last on the list. Now when you ask a question or share information, the user who is doing so has the option to create a discussion among respondents. This means that people who receive the content will now be able to comment and discuss with each other. This allows for deeper conversations and widens who can respond to something that was posted. Previously, this wasn’t possible. Someone could respond directly to a post but only to the original poster, so the line of communication was narrow.

So why did you add this feature now?

Whoa! Whoa! I didn’t add this feature, but our Bluepulse team did. Like any product, it gets refined over time. We listened to feedback from those using the product (customers, employees, etc.), and there was a demand for more focused discussion. This feature allows for a more open flow of ideas to permeate on a post and lets recipients continue the conversation independent of the originator of the post. Discussions are limited to posts, so this keeps the conversation contextualized.

I’ve noticed the word “non-confidential” several times now. Is this important?

I’m glad you reminded me! Yes, it’s important to keep in mind that discussions are non-confidential. While Bluepulse can be implemented where identities can be confidential or non-confidential, if the setup is confidential, then the discussion option is not available. It is only available for implementations where identities are public. It’s important to note that discussions are restricted to only those responding to a particular post for context.

This has been informative. Thanks for doing this.

It’s been my pleasure. That’s all for this release of Bluepulse. Stay tuned for further updates.