You may want to encourage interactivity on your site by allowing visitors to participate in discussions on your site. This feature is possible by using the forums module. You can view an example of this on this site with the Forum community.
Enable the Forum module
- Begin by enabling the module: Click on Modules -> Forum
Creating Containers and Forums
Once the Forum module is enabled and permissions are set, the Containers and Forums need to be created. Containers are the main categories or groupings used to manage the types of discussions. Forums are the topics related to the containers where the actual discussion takes place. A Forum topic is the initial post to a threaded discussion where the discussion happens. Containers hold Forums; more than one Forum can be listed in a Container. For example, a Recipe container might hold a Vegetarian, Slow Cooker, and/or Baked Goods forums. An Authenticated user could share a Banana Bread recipe under the Baked Goods forum topic.
Creating a container
- From the Administrator’s toolbar, click on Structure -> Forums -> Add container. If you are already in the Forums dialog you can click on + Add container.
- Enter the Container name and a Description. For nested Containers selected the parent Container in the Parent* select list. Otherwise, <root> leaves the Container at the top level.
Creating a Forum (Topic)
- From the Administrator’s toolbar, click on Structure -> Forums -> Add forum. If you are already in the Forums dialog you can click on + Add forum.
- Enter the Forum name and a Description. For nested Forums selected the parent Forum or Container in the Parent* select list. Otherwise, <root> leaves the Forum at the top level.
Configure Forum Settings
Click on the Settings tab on the Forums dialog to configure your Forum by hot topic threshold, number of topics per page and the order in which the topics are listed.
Assign Permissions
In order for people to ask questions, or post and participate in the forum, the comment permissions must be set. Permissions for the Forum do not automatically allow visitors to comment or add posts. In order to allow this, you will need to adjust the permissions accordingly. It is highly recommended that you DO NOT allow anonymous users to comment on your forum topics. Be conservative when you set your permissions for your forum as it decreases the potential unwanted/malicious comments added to your site.
- Select People and click on the Permissions tab. Scroll down until you find forum module and the comment module in the list.
Recommended permissions are demonstrated below:
