Forum: create threaded discussions

The forum module lets you create threaded discussion boards, called forums, on your site. This is similar to a message board system such as phpBB. Forums are very useful because they allow community members to discuss topics with one another, and the discussions are archived for future reference.

Topics, or threaded discussions, are posted to a forum. Each topic is comprised of an initial post and replies, or comments. Forum topics can have their own URLs.

Multiple forums are often set up for different areas of discussion. Forums can also be placed inside other forums for a discussion area that is a subset of the parent forum, in which case they are often called child boards or child forums.

Containers can also be created to hold a group of forums. However, unlike in parent forums, topics cannot be posted to containers. Both containers and forums can be placed inside other containers and forums. By planning the structure of your containers and forums well, you make it easier for users to find a discussion area of interest to them.

The Forums module requires Taxonomy and Comments modules to be enabled.

You can

• Administer forums at administer >> forums.
• Set workflow and other global forum settings on the forum configuration page: administer >> settings >> content types >> forum .
• control who can create, edit, and administer forum posts with administer >> access control, or use a contributed module such as forum access or taxonomy access control.
• Move forum topics to a different forum board using the edit tab; a copy can be left in the existing forum by selecting leave a shadow copy.
• Enable the required comment and taxonomy modules at administer >> modules.
• Read about the comment module at administer >> help >> comment.
• Read about the taxonomy module at administer >> help >> taxonomy.
• The forum module, like Drupal itself, can be extended with different modules depending on the needs of your site. What features you choose to implement are in your control. Some suggested modules are advanced forum, quote, subscription, bbcode, and comment mover modules. Add private message with privatemsg module and extend user profile information with the profile module.