A feed forum is for quick posts. Two forum types are built for conversations that should lead somewhere: Discussion for threads that collect answers, and Q&A for questions that end with one accepted answer. Polls work in both, and in ordinary posts too.
The type is a setting on the forum, so decide it before members start writing.
Discussion threads
A discussion starts in the Discussion tab of the composer. It has a Title and a long-form editor with headings, lists, code blocks and info boxes, because a good thread opener is usually longer than a feed post.
Open a thread and everything else happens below it:
- Write an answer opens the same editor for a reply. Answers are full posts of their own, with reactions and comments.
- The answers can be sorted by Relevant Posts, Newest Posts and Top Posts, just like the feed. Load more answers fetches the next batch.
- Upvote and Downvote rate the thread itself. A second click on the same arrow takes the vote back.
While a post is open, the sidebar shows More relevant topics: up to five other threads from the same forum, highest voted first. Votes therefore do more than keep score. They decide which threads new readers find next.
Discussion threads are the only posts that can be changed after publishing. The author and your team find Edit post in the post menu.
Close comments in the post menu also closes a thread for new answers. In an archived forum, nobody can answer any more at all.
Q&A forums
A question starts in the Q&A tab of the composer, which appears as soon as a Q&A forum exists. It uses the short composer, so a question stays a question and does not turn into an essay.
Members reply in the comments. The member who asked, or an admin, marks the comment that solved it with Accept as answer. Everybody else then sees it marked as Accepted answer. A question has one accepted answer at a time: accepting another comment moves the mark, and clicking the accepted one again removes it.
The point is the next person with the same problem. They should find the answer without reading the whole conversation, so accept early, and change it if a better answer arrives.
On someone else's question, only admins can accept an answer. Other team roles cannot.
An answer from your team
Separate from accepted answers, your team can attach a short answer of its own to any post, in any forum type. Choose Add answer in the post menu, write the text and save. It appears as a highlighted box under the post, with the author's picture, and Edit answer changes it later.
Use it when the official word matters: a correction under a rumour, the final decision under a feature request, the right link under a support question.
Polls
Poll sits in the composer next to the media buttons. A poll has a Poll question and between two and twenty answers, each of which can carry an image. Poll settings decides how voting works:
| Setting | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Allow multiple answers | Voters can pick more than one option. |
| Votes cannot be changed | A vote is final once cast. Without it, members can switch or take back their vote while the poll is open. |
| Votes visible to everyone | Members see who voted for which answer. Otherwise only the poll's author and moderators see it. |
| Limit poll duration | The poll ends at a date and time you set, in your business time zone. The end has to be in the future. |
Members see the results once they have voted, or when the poll has ended. Until then they only see the options, so early votes do not steer later ones. The poll's author, admins and moderators see the results from the start.
The poll's author, admins and moderators also get a menu on the poll:
- View voters lists who voted for what, with a search.
- Close poll ends voting at once.
- Reopen poll opens it again. If the planned end has already passed, the poll is reopened without an end date.
Polls are the cheapest engagement you will ever get: voting costs one click, and a member who voted is far more likely to comment.
Choosing between them
- A question with one right answer belongs in Q&A.
- A topic with many good answers belongs in a Discussion.
- A decision between a few options needs a Poll, wherever it is posted.