On September 14, 2022, the Discord forums feature was released. This brand-new feature allows servers to have more organized conversations on a specific topic. Forums allow users to have structured discussions on specific topics, and they can also help to create a sense of community by providing a place for people with similar interests to gather and discuss the topics that matter most to the community.
Additionally, a Discord forum helps users easily find conversations and keep the community organized. So, if you’re a Discord server owner and want to uplift your community, you should definitely try this feature.
In today’s post, we’ll explore what is a Discord forum and how you can create Discord forum channels.
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How Do Forums Work on Discord?
A Discord forum is a new type of channel. While Discord originally had four channel types (text, voice, announcement, and stage), now they have released Discord forums.
Inside a Discord forum channel, there are posts, which can contain up to 10 images (less than 8MB each). Users can reply to posts and keep the conversation organized and easily searchable for others who visit the forum.
This way, Discord forums create a way where focused conversations around specific topics can occur. While the regular text channels often were cluttered with many messages commenting on simultaneous conversations, forums help servers stay organized and valuable for their members.
Discord Forums vs Threads
Threads have been around in Discord for a while now. However, while threads group conversations on the same topic inside a channel, forums isolate conversations completely, making them visible and searchable to all who visit the forum. This avoids conversations getting buried by tons of new messages.
On Discord, threads inside a channel are archived after 24 hours. On the other hand, forum posts can be a lot more durable. You have the option to make a forum’s posts archived after a maximum of one week of inactivity. This way, members will be able to use the search bar in the forum to search for older topics that have been already discussed.
Moreover, while threads are created inside a channel, (in simultaneity with other messages that may be featuring diverse topics) forums don’t. A Discord forum clearly creates a dedicated space for a specific topic. When you enter a post, you will only see messages relevant to that post.
So: while threads are a type of message, forums are a channel. Indeed, forums are more persistent when compared with the temporary nature of threads.
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How to Create a New Forum Step by Step
Requirements
To create a Discord forum, you only need to meet one requirement: you need a Community server. Community servers are able to access not only text and voice channels, but all channels, including announcements, stage, and of course forums.
To enable the Community option, follow this step-by-step process:
1. Click on your server’s name and then on Server Settings.
2. On the left-side panel, under “Community”, click on Enable Community, and then on the Get Started button.
3. Now Discord will show you three steps you need to take in order to enable the Community option in your server. The first one includes checking the checkboxes next to “Verified email required” and “Scan media content from all members”.
4. Then, choose a channel for rules and another for community updates. If you don’t have these channels on your server already, you can select the option “Create one for me” and Discord will do the rest.
5. Lastly, check the checkbox next to “I agree and understand” and click on Finish Setup.
Create a Discord forum channel
1. To begin the process of creating a Discord forum channel, the first step includes clicking on your server’s name at the top left corner and then on Create Channel.
2. Then, select Forum. Choose a name for your new forum channel and then click on Create Channel. If you’d like, you can also make this channel private and visible only to selected members.
3. Now let’s set up your Discord forum channel. The first step is to set recommended permissions. To do this, click on the first step of the setup list Discord shows you. It’s recommended that you select @everyone for all members of the server to be able to post in the forum. However, you can also choose only moderators or selected members to be able to participate in the forum.
4. Next, you can proceed to write posting guidelines for your Discord forum, which is the following step in Discord’s setup list. These rules will appear on the left side of the screen when members enter the forum.
5. The following step involves creating tags for members to categorize their posts in the forum channel. To do this, click on Create Tags. Then, select a name for your tag, and an emoji if you’d like. Repeat the process to create up to 20 tags. You can also check the option to Require people to select tags when posting to make sure members don’t post without any tags.
6. The subsequent step is to choose a default reaction. To do this, simply click on Set a default reaction for posts in the setup list and then on Select emoji to select the one that better represents your server.
7. Lastly, create your first post! A Discord forum channel allows you to create posts with a title, a description, tags, and up to 10 images.
Now that your server has its own forum channel for organized and on-topic discussions, why not reward your efforts by exploring how to monetize a Discord server?
