Learn how to create forums, organize them into categories, assign roles to your team, manage content, and review forum activity for your community.
This article explains how to create and manage forums for your community.
Access forum management
To manage forums, open the forum management area:
- Sign in to your account.
- In the sidebar, under Manage, select Categories.
- Select Create a category to start a new forum.
If you do not see a Manage section, you may not have the required access. Sign in with the correct email address, or contact your Community Manager for access.
Create a forum
To create a forum, add its details on the category page:
- On the Categories page, select Create a category.
- Enter the forum details:
- Forum name
- Image
- Description
- Choose where the forum appears:
- Menu (sidebar) — features the forum in the sidebar.
- Homepage — pins the forum to the top of the homepage.
- Add team members, if needed.
- Select Save.
Organize forums into categories
You can nest categories to keep related discussions together.
Create a sub-category
To add a sub-category under an existing category:
- Go to the Categories page.
- Select the three dots at the end of a category.
- Select Add sub category.
- Enter the details, then save.
Tips for organizing forums
Consider these approaches when planning your forum structure:
- Keep related forums together.
- Use clear, descriptive names.
- Plan for your community's needs.
- Create logical parent-and-child relationships.
- Group forums by topic.
About forum roles
Forum roles control what a person can do in a forum. The available roles are:
- Administrator — a person added directly to a forum as an admin.
- Moderator — a person added directly, or a Chapter Team member added automatically.
- Volunteer — a person added directly, or a Chapter Team member with check-in status.
- Regular user — a signed-in community member.
- Guest — an anonymous visitor. Guests can browse public forums and discussions where the visibility settings allow it. Restricted or gated content shows a login prompt instead of the full content.
When you add a person to a Chapter Team, they receive a forum role automatically:
- Chapter Leader — becomes a forum moderator.
- Chapter Volunteer — becomes a forum volunteer.
- Chapter check-in staff — has standard member access, with no special forum permissions.
Add team members to a forum
To give a team member a role in a forum:
- Under Manage, select Categories.
- Select Edit for the category you want to change.
- Assign forum roles to your team members, then save.
Assign pin replies and best answer to a role
Grant a Forum role the ability to pin replies to the top and mark correct answers on Question posts, without giving that role full post-approval moderation.
Assign the permissions to a role
To assign the permissions to a Forum role:
- Go to the Forum roles settings in your admin dashboard<Members<Forum roles
- Open the role you want to edit.
- In the permissions list, select Can pin replies to the top, Can mark a correct answer, or both.
- Save the role.
Members with that role can now use the matching actions on eligible posts.
How the permissions appear to members
Members with these permissions see the following actions:
Can mark a correct answer—on a Question or Q&A post, the member opens the reply action menu and marks a reply as the correct answer.
Can pin replies to the top—on a thread, the member pins a reply or comment so it appears at the top.
Manage tags
Tags help members find related discussions and events.
To create or edit tags:
- In the discussions sidebar, go to Manage → Tags.
- Select Create to add a new tag.
- Select the pencil icon on a tag to edit it.
When you create a tag in Forums, a matching tag is created for events, and the reverse is also true. This connects related events and discussions so members can discover them both.
Feature and pin content
Feature a category
When you edit a category, you can feature it:
- On the homepage, under /discussions.
- On the sidebar (menu).
Pin a discussion
You can pin important discussions to make them easier to find:
- Select More (the three dots) under a discussion.
- Choose how to pin it:
- Pin to homepage — places the discussion on the discussion feed.
- Pin to category — places the discussion at the top of its category.
Customize the “View all” link
You can choose which forum the View all link on a category opens.
- In the admin dashboard, go to Settings → General → Discussions.
- Find the setting View all UUID forum. (A UUID is the forum's unique ID.)
- Enter the unique ID of the forum you want the View all link to open. For example: 8011d7c6-7dde-4bfe-befc-45e95c70d6c8
- Select Save.
Enable login prompts for logged-out visitors
You can set your community to show login prompts to logged-out visitors, instead of sending them to an error page or a generic page. When this is on, visitors who try to open restricted forum content see a clear prompt to sign in, and they return to that content after they sign in.
The following login prompt types are available:
- Forum gate — a blurred preview of a forum page with a “Login to browse our forum” prompt.
- Post gate — a blurred preview of a topic or post page with a “Login to view the post” prompt.
- Login nudge — a dismissible banner on public topic pages that invites visitors to sign in for more community features.
- Sidebar prompt — a “Login to view all” link in the sidebar category list for anonymous visitors.
This feature is opt-in for each community. Public forums set up for open browsing are not affected. Signed-in members who already have access to restricted content continue to see the full forum.
Feature categories
When editing a category, you can feature it:
- On the homepage (under /discussions)
- On the sidebar (menu)
Configure forum settings
To discuss other forum settings for your community, contact your Customer Success Manager.
View forum analytics
To review forum activity:
- Select your profile image.
- Select Dashboard.
- Open the Discussions tab in the Analytics dashboard.
- Review the available metrics.
For more detail, open the Reports tab.