Forum Posts & Engagement
Members must be logged in to see the Forum and must have a complete profile to make posts or comments and engage in the conversation.
Any members that are marked 'Limited Approval' will not be able to see or engage with Forum.
Posts
Posts are listed by most popular or ‘Hot’ and by most recent or ‘New’ from the Forum homepage.
‘Hot’ posts have received the most comments, claps and upvotes and the list will change in real-time as users react to posts. ‘New’ posts lists are automatically updated as new posts are made by community members.
Create a post
Members must be fully onboarded and have completed their profiles to create Forum posts. They can create posts from the home page by selecting the green ‘Create a post’ button. This will open a rich text pop-up box for them to write a post, tag it with topics and post to the Forum.
The Title can be up to 300 characters and will be what’s prominently displayed in the list of posts on the Forum homepage, along with the poster’s profile picture.
The body of the post can be text or include graphics, pictures, or videos. The image included in a post will also be displayed in the list of posts on the Forum homepage.
The poster can also select topics to tag the post and relate it to other content pieces and events in the community. The topics that are listed for the user to select from are pulled from the loaded ‘Tags’ in the community. New topics must be added by admins in the dashboard in the ‘Tag’ menu item to appear in the topics selector in the Forum. A poster can select up to three topics to tag onto their post.
Every post must be assigned to a forum Board by the author. Boards organize and group posts by topic, etc. The boards listed for a member to select at the base are any Board they have access to (space restricted or not). Learn more about forum boards here.
Members cannot create new boards on the front end when creating a post, but admins can add Boards in the dashboard. Currently, posts can only be moved to a new board by a forum moderator.
Currently, all posts immediately appear in the Forum when the user selects ‘Post’; on the front end for other members to read, and in the dashboard for admins to see and moderate, if needed.
Posts can be deleted by the poster or by Forum Moderators on the front end, or in the dashboard.
Edit a post
If a post or comment has not received any reactions or comments, the post's contents can be edited by the original poster. Or admins can enable posters to edit their work and comments even after it has received comments and reactions in the dashboard.
Enable editing
Sign in to the dashboard and navigate to Forum Settings. Toggle 'on' the setting to 'Allow users to edit their posts after receiving comments and votes.'
To edit a post, simply select the three-dot menu in the upper right of the post and select Edit. Make any updates necessary, and 'Save' the post. If timestamps are visible, the system will list a new 'Edited at' timestamp.
Lock a post
If you want to block members from commenting on a post, you can lock it from the front end as a Forum moderator. This can be done immediately when the post is created, or after it has received some comments.
To lock a post, Forum moderators can simply select the three-dot menu in the upper right of the post and select 'Lock the post'. This will block any members (Forum moderators and admins included) from commenting on the post. Reactions like up voting and comment claps are still accepted.
This can be reversed at any time by Forum moderators, by selecting the three-dot menu in the upper right and selecting 'Unlock the post'.
Engage with a post
Comments
Members can engage with posts by commenting on them, or by replying to comments made by other members within the comment threads. Comments can include links, emojis, and images, too! If they want to show support for a comment or comment reply, they can select the clap icon.
Comments can be edited and deleted by the commenter or by deleted by Forum Moderators on the front end, or in the dashboard.
The original poster will receive a notification in-platform and via email when new comments are made on their post, or when a member replies to their comment.
Reactions
Another way to engage in posts is by showing approval or disapproval using the voting arrows, claps or likes. These help the platform’s algorithm sort the ‘Hot’ or most popular votes.
'Hot' posts have received the most comments, claps, likes and upvotes and the list will change in real-time as users react to posts.
Reporting
If a post or comment violates the community rules, members can report it to moderators. The reporter must include reasoning and action can be taken on the front end or in the dashboard by Forum Moderators and admins after they've reviewed the reason for reporting.
Learn more about Forum Moderation here.
Find a post
The community-wide, federated search includes Forum titles and body text, but does not include comments’ text in its results.
Members can also find posts on similar topics if they are tagged with topics, and posts with similar titles, content and tags will be suggested to them at the base of each post.