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Announcements

Status: Complete

The Announcements tab lets you publish server-wide announcements that are displayed as banners to all users in the chat interface.

Permission Required: Instance Admin or Instance Owner

Overview

Announcements are a way to communicate important information to every user on the instance -- maintenance windows, policy changes, new features, or any other server-wide notices. Announcements appear as dismissible banners in the chat view. Each user can dismiss announcements individually, but the announcement remains visible to users who have not yet dismissed it.

Creating an Announcement

  1. Navigate to the Announcements tab in the admin panel.
  2. Fill in the creation form at the top of the page:
Field Requirements
Title Required. 1 to 200 characters.
Body Required. 1 to 5,000 characters.
  1. Click Publish Announcement.

The announcement is immediately:

  • Saved to the database.
  • Broadcast via WebSocket to all currently connected users, appearing as a real-time banner.
  • Added to the top of the announcements list in the admin panel.

Viewing Announcements

The Announcements tab displays all announcements in reverse chronological order (newest first), limited to the most recent 100. Each announcement card shows:

  • Title -- The announcement heading
  • Body -- The full announcement text
  • Date -- When the announcement was published

How Users See Announcements

When a user loads the chat interface, the client fetches any announcements they have not yet dismissed. These appear as banners at the top of the chat area. Users can dismiss individual announcements, which records a dismissal in the database so the announcement does not reappear for that user.

New announcements published while users are connected are delivered instantly via WebSocket.

Announcement Lifecycle

Admin publishes --> Banner shown to all users
                --> User dismisses --> Banner hidden for that user
                --> New user logs in --> Banner shown (unless previously dismissed)

There is currently no built-in mechanism to edit or delete announcements after publication. Announcements persist in the database indefinitely. If you need to retract an announcement, you can do so directly in the database:

-- Delete an announcement by ID
DELETE FROM announcements WHERE id = 'announcement-uuid-here';

-- Delete associated dismissals
DELETE FROM announcement_dismissals WHERE announcement_id = 'announcement-uuid-here';

Best Practices

  • Keep titles concise. The title is the most prominent element in the banner.
  • Use the body for details. Include links, timelines, or instructions in the body.
  • Avoid frequent announcements. Users may begin dismissing banners without reading them if announcements are too frequent.
  • Coordinate with scheduled maintenance. Publish announcements in advance of planned downtime.

API Reference

Endpoint Method Description
/admin/announcements POST Create an announcement (body: { title, body })
/admin/announcements GET List all announcements (admin view, up to 100)

The following user-facing endpoints handle announcement display and dismissal:

Endpoint Method Description
/announcements GET List undismissed announcements for the authenticated user
/announcements/{id}/dismiss POST Dismiss an announcement for the authenticated user

Next Step

Continue to Community Oversight to learn about admin visibility into communities.