Overview
The Discussion Forum extension allows you to create a simplified forum, blog (web log), or comment system on your website. The Discussion Forum is designed for one main topic on one page only. If you have multiple topics then you can create multiple discussion pages.
Even though this extension is designed is be very simple to use, it does have some powerful features. Templates allow you to change the look and feel and many features can be enabled or disabled. Some of the features include:
- Moderating all posts before they go live on the website
- Users can subscribe to get an e-mail for each new post
- Users can comment on entries
- Entry and comment forms can be hidden and shown only when a person wants to enter information
- One or multiple people can post entries
This extension promotes community. We have found that people are often more apt to post if posting is easy and closely tied to the website content they are discussing. With traditional forums that include many forums and topics, users may be less likely to participate. This extension attempts to encourage and simplify participation in online community. This extension supports the following configurations:
Discussion page – any user can post entries, and any user can comment on those entries.
Blog page – a specified user or group of users can post entries, and any user can comment or comments can be disabled
Comment section – any user can post an entry and no one can comment on those entries
Preview discussion page – shows a specified number of the most recent entries from a given discussion page. This is ideal as a "teaser" to encourage people to go to the full discussion page.