What are Forum Channels?

Forum Channels provide a space for organized discussions. With forums, you can discuss specific topics and not worry about talking over each other. Since discussions are contained in posts, it’s easier to jump in on an existing one (or start a new one) without worrying about your message getting buried!

How Do I Create a Forum Channel?

1. In the channel list, hover over the channel category where you want your Forum Channel and then press the plus sign () to create a channel.

2. Select Forum as the channel type, and enter a channel name.

3. Then press Create Channel when you're done!

Permissions

First up is channel permissions. These permissions determine which members have access to Forum channels.

Press Set recommended permissions. From here, you can limit access to the Forum Channel to specific roles. Or you can also enable @everyone to allow all users to gain access.

Post Guidelines

Next, you can create guidelines for your Forum Channel.

Pressing Create post guidelines will take you to the Guidelines settings page. From here, you can change the channel name, add guidelines, and designate tags to help your members.

Tags

Tags can help label specific posts and can also be a requirement before a member of your server makes a post.

I Forgot to add Tags in my Post!

If you forgot to add tags to your post, you can add them by right-clicking on your post and navigating to Edit Tags. Here you can select all tags that are applicable.

Hide After Inactivity

Once a post has been inactive for a certain period of time, it’ll automatically be moved to the Older Posts section. You can choose one of the following:

• 1 hour
• 24 hours
• 3 days (this setting is selected by default)
• 1 week

Now you can make your first post in the forum channel!

Setting a Default Layout

You can choose between List View and Gallery View as the default layout for your forum channel. What you choose will be dependent on what your forum channel is all about.

List View

This option works better for text-based discussions and allows users to easily jump in.

Gallery View

This tends to work better for media-focused forum channels and allows members of your servers to see exactly what media is in the post.

How to Search for a Forum Post

Looking for a specific discussion in a forum channel? You can search for the post using the forum channel’s dedicated search bar!

1. Go to your server’s channel list and find the forum channel with the post that you want to search for.

2. In the search bar at the top of the page, input the key word or phase of the post title you’re looking for. The search bar will show results that match with your searched word.

Filtering Posts with Tags

In a forum channel’s posts, specific tags can be associated with certain posts to help organize your forum channel and the numerous different posts under one discussion topic.

You can filter posts in a forum channel by selecting tags. You can also tap on All and select tags through there. Forum channel posts can have numerous tags, so you can filter posts further by selecting multiple tags.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Who has access to Forum Channels right now?

A: Forum Channels are currently available to 100% of Community servers.

Q: When will Forum Channels be available for non-Community servers?

A: Forum Channels are currently only available to Community-enabled servers. If you’re ready to convert your server into a Community server, please check out this Help Center article for a detailed guide on how to make the switch.

Q: What’s the difference between Forums and Text channels?

A: While Text channels are great for in-the-moment discussions, Forum channels provide a place for more drawn-out discussion around specific topics. Discussions are tied to individual posts so they are more organized and easier for members of your community to get up to speed and join a conversation.

Q: What’s the difference between Forums and Threads?

A: The main difference is that Forums are a type of channel, while threads are a type of message. While they are similar in that they both create dedicated spaces for organized discussions, Forum Channels are more persistent, while threads are more temporary.

Q: What kind of tools are available to moderate Forum Channels?

A: To ensure moderation of forum channels is easy and manageable, we’ve implemented 3 types of moderation support:

1. AutoMod: Forum Channels are supported by AutoMod, our built-in moderation tool that helps detect and remove problematic content automatically.
2. Slow Mode: If the volume of posts and message activity is concerning, mods can place limits.
3. API: We’ve updated our API Documentation, so developers can integrate support for forums into their products.

Q: Is there a way to close or lock a post in a forum channel?

A: If a conversation has reached its end or you need to close it for any reason, you can right click the post and click Close Post. This will cause the post to no longer appear in the new posts section of the list and also lock the post so that only moderators can re-open it.

Q: What’s the best way to test forums with my community?

A: While all communities are different, we recommend rolling out forums to your community gradually. This way, your community won’t experience big, jarring changes, and they’ll have time to get used to it. One example of a roll-out could look like this:

• Create a private forum for you and your moderators to test and discuss plans
• Identify existing text channels where forums might be a good fit and replace them
• Create new forum channels with the proper guidelines and tags
• Make an announcement to inform your community about the changes and encourage them to provide feedback
• If your community’s feedback is largely positive, identify larger “core” text channels that could benefit from the organization forums bring

Q: How many posts can be pinned to the top? How long do they stay pinned?

A: Forum channels currently only support having one pinned post. Pinned posts aren’t on a timer, so they will remain pinned until it’s unpinned or another post is pinned (replacing the original pinned post).

Q: How do you add or replace a thumbnail to a post?

A: If you forgot to add a thumbnail to your original post, you can do so by being the first to reply to your original post with a photo. When you do this, the option to add the media to the original post will appear. If you select Add to Post, it will append your media to the original post and act as the thumbnail.

Q: Can I ping people within a forum channel? Will they be notified when a new thread is created with a ping in it?

A: Yes, you can ping people in a forum channel. They'll be able to continue receiving notifications if they're following that specific forum post! That is not the case for the forum channel as a whole. They won't be pinged for every new thread. Mentions in forum posts work in the same way as threads, which you can read more about in the Threads FAQ.