---
title: Creating predefined forums
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k8/community-features/forums/creating-forum-groups.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k8/community-features/forums/publishing-a-predefined-forum-on-the-website.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/k8/community-features/forums/adding-an-ad-hoc-forum-to-a-page.md
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

Predefined forums need to be created within a [forum group](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/community-features/forums/creating-forum-groups.md) before you can publish them on the website.

## Creating new forums

Open the **Forums** application and click **Edit** () next to a forum group. On the **Forums** tab, click **New forum**. Enter the following details:

- **Forum display name** - the name of the forum that will be displayed on your website.
- **Description** - the description displayed on your website.
- **Forum base URL** - URL displayed when the user accesses the forum; e.g. _\~/MyForums.aspx_.
- **Forum unsubscription URL** - URL of the page where users can unsubscribe from the given forum.
- **Require e-mail address** - indicates if e-mail address should be required from the post author.
- **Display e-mail addresses** - indicates if e-mail address of the post author should be displayed to other site visitors.
- **Enable WYSIWYG editor** - indicates if the visitors can use the WYSIWYG editor for entering text.
- **Use security code (CAPTCHA)** - indicates if the user needs to retype the security code displayed as an image. This feature can help avoid spam in the forums.
- **Forum is open** - indicates if the forum is visible and can be accessed.
- **Forum is locked** - if checked, users will not be able to add new posts to the forum, but it will remain accessible for viewing.
- **Forum is moderated** - indicates if the posts need to be approved by a forum moderator.

The **Inherit from forum group** check boxes or radio button options displayed next to the properties are used to automatically load values from the settings of the parent forum group. To configure unique properties for a forum, clear the appropriate check box and enter the desired value.

Click **Save** to add the forum.

## Configuring forums

Now that the forum is created, it may be configured in more detail. Switch to its **General** tab, where you can edit the options that were entered when the forum was created, as well as the following additional properties:

- **Forum type** - determines the overall type of the forum. The following three types may be selected:
  - **User can choose** - when creating a new thread, users can choose from the following two types.
  - **Discussion forum** - news threads use a standard discussion format where users reply to previous posts.
  - **Question-Answer forum** - in forums of this type, the initial post of a thread is usually a question and the replies are attempts to answer it. The forum includes a voting feature that allows users to mark individual replies as helpful answers. Once a post receives the amount of votes specified in the Minimum votes to mark post as answer property, it will be designated as a valid answer and displayed accordingly.
- **Minimum votes to mark post as answer** - determines the minimum amount of votes that a post must receive before it is marked as an answer in Question-Answer type forums.
- **Maximum image side size** - sets the maximum side size in pixels of images inserted into forum posts. If a larger picture is included in a forum post, it will be resized so that its larger side is equal to the entered value.
- **Attachment max. file size (kB)** - sets the maximum file size of forum post attachments in kB.
- **User can edit own posts** - indicates whether users are allowed to edit their own existing posts.
- **User can delete own posts** - indicates whether users are allowed to delete their own existing posts.

The properties in the **Editor settings** section determine which [BB code](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/community-features/forums/using-bbcode-in-forum-posts.md) macros may be used by forum users to format the text of forum posts.

For information about the remaining tabs, please refer to the following pages:

- [Managing forum posts](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/community-features/forums/managing-forum-posts.md)
- [Managing forum subscriptions](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/community-features/forums/managing-forum-subscriptions.md)
- [Forum moderation](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/community-features/forums/moderating-forums.md)
- [Security](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/community-features/forums/managing-forum-security.md)

Once you configure the forum, you can [place the forum on a website](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/community-features/forums/publishing-a-predefined-forum-on-the-website.md).