# Forums

Every project can have its own discussion forums. When a new project is created, 3 forums are automatically created:

Open Discussion

  A place where to discuss about everything.

Help

  A forum where to ask for help.

Developers

  A place where developers discuss about developments.

## Creating a new forum

New forums can be created using the Admin section of the forum. When a new forum is created, you must insert a name of the forum, the description of the forum, select if the forum is public or private and if anonymous posts are allowed on the forum.

Private forums are visible only to project members. If Anonymous posts are enabled, everybody can post messages to the forum, even users that are not logged in.

You can also insert an email address where all posts will be sent.

## Using the forum

When you click on the name of the forum, you go to the detail of the forum.

### Selecting visualization mode

You can select the following types of visualization for the forum lists:

Nested

  Shows the messages ordered by thread. All data of the message, including the posted message itself will be visualized.

Flat

  Similar to Nested, the messages will be showed in chronological order.

Threaded

  Shows only title, author and date of each message. Shows the messages in threaded order. Clicking on the title of the message the entire message will be displayed.

Ultimate

  Shows only the topic started messages. Topic starters are the messages that starts a new thread.

You can select the number of messages for every page: 25, 50, 75 or 100.

### Writing a message

You can use the plain text editor or the enhanced editor to compose your messages. The enhanced editor is available if the WYSIWYG HTML editor plugin was enabled by project administrators.

You can start a new thread by clicking on Start New Thread link.

You can write a message in an existing thread by clicking on the Reply link of an existing message.

In both cases, the enhanced editor is available to compose the message. Use the tool bar to format your message.

You can modify an existing message by clicking on the Edit icon.

### Adding a file to a message

You can add a file to an existing message by clicking on the Add icon. Only one file can be attached to a given message. If you add another file, the first one will be deleted.

The file must not be an executable file (.exe) and must not exceed a certain size.

## Available options

The forums have 2 very powerful options:

Save place

  This function registers the number of messages already inserted in the forum and will highlight new messages the next time you return to the forum.

Monitor forum

  You can select to monitor the forum by clicking on the Monitor Forum button.

  If this option is enabled, every post to the forum will be sent to you by email. This allows you to be informed about new messages without being logged on to FusionForge. The name of the monitored forum will appear in the users homepage in the section Monitored Forums.

## Forum admin

Clicking on the Forum Admin link presents you with links to Add Forum and Manage Pending Messages.

Under these links, you have a list of the forums, with for each forum a link Monitoring Users. Clicking on this link will give the list of users that monitor this forum.

### Add Forum

This allows you to add a new discussion forum. You can select if it is public or private (only members of the project can see it).

### Manage Pending Messages

This allows you to accept or reject messages posted to a moderated forum.

### Delete Message

To delete a message (and any followups) from a forum, just display the message and click on the Saint Andrew cross. A confirmation is required.

### Adjust Forum Features

To adjust forum features, click on the forum name in the forum list. This allows you to alter the properties of the forum such as the name and description, whether or not anonymous posts are allowed, if it's public and you can enter an address to which all messages are posted.

### Configure Forum Moderation Level

To configure forum moderation level, click on the forum name in the forum list. This allows you to select the moderation level between the following values:

- No Moderation.

- Moderated Level 1: To moderate anonymous posts (if allowed in public forum) and posts from non-member users.

- Moderated Level 2: To moderate all posts (except admin posts).

## Searching

When using a forum, a voice Forum will appear in the search combo box. Selecting Forum and inserting a text in the search box allows you to search through the text data of the forum.