Start a new forum when you want to solicit answers to a specific question or to discuss particular topic.
A forum that you create in the Forums application is public by default. Any user in your organization with access to the Forums application can view and contribute to public forums. To create a forum with restricted access, you must create the forum inside a community with restricted access. For more information, see the Adding forums to a community topic.
Forums can be stand-alone or they can be associated with a community. To create a stand-alone forum, you must add it from the Forums application. Community forums must be added by community owners from the Communities application. After they are created, stand-alone forums cannot be converted into community forums, nor can community forums be converted into stand-alone forums.
Before you create a forum, browse the existing forums in your organization. You might find that there is already a forum about the topic that interests you.
When you create a forum, you automatically become the owner of that forum. If content moderation is enabled in your deployment, you also become the forum moderator.
To create a stand-alone forum, complete the following steps.