This topic explains how to create and manage forums for your community.

Create your first forum

Access forum management

1. Log in to your account.
2. Click "Categories" in the sidebar under "Manage". If you don't see a "Manage" section, you may not have the required permissions. Either log in with the correct email address or contact your Community Manager for access.
3. Look for the "Create a category" button.

Set up your forum

1. Fill in the forum details:
   • Forum name
   • Image
   • Description
   • Select if you want it featured on the Menu (sidebar)
   • Select if you want it featured on the Homepage (pinned to the top)
   • Add Team Members if needed
2. Click "Save" to create your forum.

Organize your forums

Create a forum structure

You can create nested categories to organize your forums effectively:

1. Navigate to the "Categories" page.
2. Click the three dots at the end of a Category.
3. Select "Add sub category".
4. Fill in the relevant details.

About forum organization

Consider these approaches when organizing your forums:

• Keep related forums together
• Use clear, descriptive names
• Plan for your community's needs
• Create logical parent-child relationships
• Organize by topic

Manage permissions

About user roles

Different roles have different permission levels:

• Administrators: Someone manually added as an admin to the discussion
• Moderators: Someone manually added, or a Chapter Team member (auto-added)
• Volunteers: Someone manually added, or a Chapter Team member that only has “check-in” status.
• Regular users: Logged-in user
• Guests: Anonymous user

If you add a Team member to a Chapter, they will automatically receive permissions:

• Chapter Leader = Moderator 
  * The chapter team role requires the permissions forum.forum_role_managerial_moderator
• Chapter Volunteer = Volunteer 
  * The chapter team role requires the permissions forum.forum_role_volunteer_moderator
• Chapter check-in staff = Standard member access, no special permissions 
  * The chapter team role requires the permissions forum.forum_role_volunteer

Add team members

1. Navigate to "Categories" under "Manage".
2. Click "Edit" for the Category you wish to modify.
3. Assign forum roles to team members

Manage content

Configure forum settings

Contact your Customer Success Manager to discuss your preferred settings.

Create and edit tags

1. Navigate to "Manage" → "Tags" in the discussions sidebar.
2. Click "Create" to add new tags.
3. Click the "pencil" icon on a tag to edit it.

When you create a Tag in Discussions, it automatically creates a tag in the Admin Dashboard for events and vice versa. This allows for connected events and discussion discovery.

Feature categories

When editing a category, you can feature it:

• On the homepage (under /discussions)
• On the sidebar (menu)

Pin discussions

You can pin important discussions to make them more visible:

1. Click More (three dots) under a discussion.
2. Select "Pin to homepage" to place the discussion on the discussion feed.
3. Select "Pin to category" to place the discussion at the top of its category.
    

Customizing the View all Link in the Sidebar

Admins can customize where the View All on a category will send you.

 

1. In the admin dashboard, navigate to Settings< General< Discussions
2. Locate the setting: view all UUID forum
3. Input the UUID of the forum you’d like the “View all” link to redirect to (ex: 8011d7c6-7dde-4bfe-befc-45e95c70d6c8)

4. Click Save.

View analytics and reports

1. Click on your profile image.
2. Select "Dashboard".
3. Navigate to the "Discussions" tab in the Analytics dashboard.
4. Review the available metrics.
    

For more detailed information, explore the "Reports" tab.