Overview

Use forum topics to pose questions, share ideas, report issues, and encourage discussion. 

Forum topics live on Forum Channels and can be aggregated using a Forum Topics widget.

Considerations and caveats

Channel templates

If you are creating topics on a channel that follow a consistent structure, consider setting up channel templates to pre-populate the body of new topics with the recurring elements to save time. For more information, see Channel Templates.

Locking

If you want to prevent additional comments from being made on a forum topic, you can lock it. For more information, see Locking a forum topic.

Creating

You can start creating a forum topic in a couple of different ways (you require at least write access to a forum channel to be able to add content to it):

• Go to a forum channel and select + Add a topic.
• On the userbar, select Add Content followed by Forum Topic.
• On a Forum Topics widget configured to show an add link, select + Add Topic followed by a channel that you want to post on.
• On an Add Button widget configured to post to a forum channel, select + Add a topic.
• Email content to the forum channel. The channel must be configured to allow emailed content. For more information, see Add Content via email.

Except for the email method, the different options above will bring you to the Forum Topic page, where you can craft your topic. You can find more information about the various fields and settings in the Options section of this article.

After you have finished crafting your topic and configuring its various options, you can select:

• Save as Draft: By saving the topic as a draft, you can return to editing it later or add additional authors. For more information, see Drafts and Ghostwriting content.
• Publish / Send to Moderator: Add the topic to the selected channel. If the channel has moderation enabled, the topic will only get posted after being approved by a moderator. For more information, see Moderation.

Options

Standard

Topic type

Select what type of topic to create:

• Start a Discussion
• Ask a Question
• Propose an Idea 
• Report an Issue

Users can filter the topics of a forum channel on these topics. If you do not see one or more of these topics, it has been disabled on the channel.

Title

Enter a name for the topic. This name will appear above the topic and will also be used to generate a unique URL. This field is required.

Channel

Select which channel you want to publish to. When you start the content creation process from a widget or channel, the Channel field defaults to the channel you selected or were on. In contrast, creating content using the add button on the userbar results in the Channel field being blank. In all cases, you have the option to select a different channel. This field is required. 

To select a channel:

1. Select the Channel drop-down.
2. Search for a Channel by its name or the name of its parent Page or Space. This search will return up to 100 results. You will only see Channels to which you have at least Write access and their parent Page or Space (regardless of Access Level).
3. Select a Channel from the list by clicking on it.

Description

Enter the body of your topic. For more information about the available tools, see WYSIWYG Editor.

Attachments

Drag files from your computer into the attachments field, or select Select files from your computer to browse your computer. Attachments will appear directly below the body of your published topic and will be available for download. For more information, see Attachments.

Labels

Select what labels to apply to your topic. You may be required to select a label depending on how the channel is configured.

To add a label, select the label drop-down and search for the label that you want to add. Once you have found it, select it to apply it to your topic.

For more information, see Labels.

Advanced

Related Content

Search for content to add as related. For more information, see Related Content.

Broadcasting

Select what groups to broadcast the topic to. Which groups you can select, if any, is determined by roles. For more information, see Broadcasting and Roles.

Future publishing

Schedule your topic to be published at a future time. For more information, see Scheduled content.

Pinning

Only available for published topics. Toggle whether the topic appears at top of a forum channel's feed, and for how long it stays there. For more information, see Pinned Content.

Archiving

Select an archiving policy for your topic. For more information, see Archiving.

Read tracking

Select whether your topic has read tracking enabled and customize the text of this button. For more information, see Read Tracking.

Languages & Translations

Current language

Select to change which language version of the topic you are looking at. For more information, see Languages and Translation.

Translate

Select a language to Translate from and a language to Translate to, and then select Translate. The title and description of the initial language will be translated into the selected language. The language you are currently viewing will change to the one that you translated to. 

Translated fields will have a verify checkbox appear under them. Check this box after having read the translated content and verified its accuracy. This can be used as a method of auditing whether the translated text was reviewed.