# Task manager within Discourse?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [August 24, 2017, 12:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691 "2017-08-24T12:40:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ham](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ham)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 12:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/1 "2017-08-24T12:40:41Z")
Not sure where this would go. Is there any sort of task manager type of plugin for staff to keep up on what needs to be done and has been done on the site? How do others communicate with their staff on this?
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### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 1:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/2 "2017-08-24T13:02:12Z")
Maybe these could help?
> [@Discourse Assign](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-assign/58044):
>
> discourse2Summary Discourse Assign provides the ability to assign topics and individual posts (both private and public) to a user or group.open_bookInstall Guide This plugin is bundled with Discourse core. There is no need to install the plugin separately.person_raising_hand Required user level: Administrator (for configuration), members of allowed groups (for using assignments) discourse2 Hosted by us? This plugin is available on our Business and Enterprise p…
> [@Creating a whisper post](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-create-a-whisper-post/44247):
>
> bookmark This guide explains how to create a whisper post in Discourse, including how to enable the feature and use it effectively. person_raising_hand Required user level: Users in whisper-allowed groups Whispers are a feature in Discourse that allow for private discussion within a topic or personal message. This guide will walk you through enabling and using whispers. Enabling whispers Before whispers can be used, an administrator needs to enable them: Go to your site settings Find…
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### Author:  [@Ham](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ham)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 1:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/3 "2017-08-24T13:16:24Z")
Reading the assigned I dont think this will work for what I need. We have alot of off site stuff that is the main responsibilities and my staff are not good with computers in general.
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### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 1:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/4 "2017-08-24T13:38:40Z")
What do you want to achieve, exactly? What kind of thing do you want to see in the user interface?
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### Author:  [@Ham](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ham)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 1:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/5 "2017-08-24T13:44:13Z")
Like other task managers maybe where you can make a post with a checklist of things that can be added.
Task -People to Contact
- person 1- notes
- person 2 - notes
- person 3 -notes
in a checked off form where a person can staff thats invited to it can check off each as done and have in a central place. Nothings solved, either completed or incomplete.
These arent problems but tasks we need to do. Especially with advertisers, inquiries etc, invites.
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### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 1:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/6 "2017-08-24T13:46:43Z")
Well if it’s a checklist you want, give the checklist plugin a try 🙂
> [@Discourse Checklist](https://meta.discourse.org/t/checklist-plugin-interactive-checkboxes-made-simple/36362):
>
> discourse2Summary Discourse Checklist allows checkboxes to be added to posts with simple Markdownopen_bookInstall Guide This plugin is bundled with Discourse core. There is no need to install the plugin separately. Enabling Checklist The Checklist plugin is enabled by default but can be disabled/enabled from its settings, accessed from your admin/plugins page: [Checklist settings] Features Once enabled, you can add checklists to your posts by typing them in like thi…
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 1:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/7 "2017-08-24T13:49:09Z")
If you’re willing for each task to have its own post, then the assign plugin will do it. I’m not sure what about that is not good for off site tasks.
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### Author:  [@dax](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dax)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 1:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/8 "2017-08-24T13:53:40Z")
> [@Ham](#):
>
> How do others communicate with their staff on this?
Discourse Assign and whisper post are technically the right way, but if they are “too technical” for your staff you can:
- create a To-Do category (visible only for your staff) and create topics for each job to do. When a job is complete you can close the discussion.
- create a To-Do category (visible only for your staff) and create a single topic with the list of jobs to do. In this case it is useful to use the [checklist plugin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/checklist-plugin-interactive-checkboxes-made-simple/36362)
- you can simply use the flag (“something else”) button, to send a notification with a personal message to your staff members
- send a PM to the staff group
There are many possibilities to choose from, depending on how much and how you want to train your staff (no one is born knowing everything).
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### Author:  [@Ham](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ham)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 2:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/9 "2017-08-24T14:02:38Z")
Yeah Im thinking the checklist may be the best option but I would have make a general post and have them edit from there. The guys dont understand markdown or how to format, etc. Were not a community for technical people. They’ve all been used to vbulletin and things where the plugin handles that very easily. The training curve has been hard with times and even getting members to learn the format.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 3:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/10 "2017-08-24T15:05:12Z")
I think that the plugin makes it pretty easy even for a non-technical person to assign stuff, either by @mentioning or explicitly assigning (much easier than figuring out the Markdown for a checklist). In fact, this discussion has me considering using the plugin as my own task manager.
My background is in teaching teachers to use computers, and one group I’ve seen use it is fairly non-technical. I think it’s worth a closer look.
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### Author:  [@Ham](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ham)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 3:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/11 "2017-08-24T15:07:58Z")
lol give a class to my guys 😆
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/12 "2017-08-24T15:14:14Z")
It’s what I used to do! I taught education undergrads to use Pine, before they had any real idea what email was.
I was teaching teachers to use computers when most of them believed that if you couldn’t feel the pencil on the paper, you weren’t writing.
Interestingly, the undergrads that I taught just a couple years ago, thought that they were doing some major coding when I taught them Markdown in Discourse. I couldn’t believe how proud they were.
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### Author:  [@Ham](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ham)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/13 "2017-08-24T15:16:37Z")
> [@pfaffman](#):
>
> the undergrads that I taught just a couple years ago, thought that they were doing some major coding when I taught them Markdown in Discourse. I couldn’t believe how proud they were.
Lmao love this. My guys are all blue collar workers in the day. Great guys but sometimes it’s difficult to get them to download an app and open and account…
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2017, 9:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/14 "2017-08-24T21:11:25Z")
> [@pfaffman](#):
>
> thought that they were doing some major coding when I taught them Markdown in Discourse. I couldn’t believe how proud they were.
🤣 hopefully [http://commonmark.org/help/tutorial/](http://commonmark.org/help/tutorial/) can automate that..
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2018, 9:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/task-manager-within-discourse/68691/15 "2018-04-24T21:42:24Z")
Maybe you’d like to explore how I am trying to turn discourse into a ticket system. It’s not perfect but seems to go a long way towards helping keep track of messages and topics that need handling by staff.
> [@Using discourse as ticket system, so no balls are dropped woman\_juggling](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-discourse-as-ticket-system-so-no-balls-are-dropped-woman-juggling/82698):
>
> I know there are other topics here floating around about using discourse as a ticket system, but I thought I’d start a fresh one to give a fairly complete picture of how we think discourse can be used with the current functionality, known issues, and what fixes/new functionality might help. This might also be faq material. Would be psyched to discuss with others trying to do the same thing and any workarounds you’ve found that I am missing so far. Also quite pleased to discover a whole genre of…