How to Create a Forum in WordPress

would you like to know how Create a Forum in WordPressForums are one of the pillars of the Internet. While people spend most of their time on “regular” websites, forums are some of the most engaging types of platforms you can create.

In fact, many modern social networks are forums with additional features. The problem is that creating a forum in WordPress can be a lot of work, as the platform itself was not designed for this purpose.

Luckily, we're here to help. In this guide, we'll walk through the three steps required to set up a forum for WordPress, including:

• Configuration and installation of the Asgaros Forum plugin.
• Creating your own forum structure for WordPress.
• Checking your forum's performance.

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To get your forum up and running, you'll need to add a whole new set of features to WordPress. This requires quite a bit of work. So, let's get started:

3 Popular Plugins for Creating a WordPress Forum

First, let’s look at some of the most popular solutions that are available for WordPress forum plugins.

1. bbPress

When it comes to plugins for creating a forum in WordPress, bbPress is possibly the most widely used option for this purpose. In fact, it is a software that runs WordPress.org's own support forums, which is why it is in high demand.

Therefore, bbPress is highly customizableYou can extend its functionality with other plugins and even install custom themes for your WordPress forum. Overall, this is a great choice if you're looking for a forum plugin with plenty of advanced features, although when it comes to style, it does look a bit dated.

You can download it here

How to create a forum in WordPress with bbPress

To create a forum in WordPress with bbPress you must do the following:

• Step 1:: go to Forums > New forum in the administration panel.

• Step 2:: Here you need to specify the name of the forum and a short description, and then click the button Publish.

How to display the forum on the site

Your forum has been created and now it remains to display it on the site by creating a separate page for it. You need to do the following:

• Step 1:: In the admin panel, go to Pages > Add New. Here you indicate, for example, «Forum» as the name, and in the description you insert a special shortcode.

• Step 2:: After editing, you need to click the button PublishThat's it, the forum is ready and displayed on the page of the ForumIf you want to add a new forum on any topic, then you just need to create a new one in the same way as in Forums > New forum.

NOTE: : We have placed the simplest version for creating a forum in WordPress. If you need additional functionality, for example, a forum on multiple pages with separate topics, forum search, forum statistics, etc., you should first familiarize yourself with other shortcodes on the plugin's official documentation page.

2.wpForum

wpForo is another WordPress forum plugin that offers a similar experience to bbPress in terms of features. It is a bit more difficult to set up the latter, but has plenty of advanced features. The plugin even offers its own set of add-ons, though not as many as bbPress.

When it comes to style, wpForo gets high marks. It looks as elegant as the Asgaros Forum, although visually everything is a bit larger. If you want to use a forum plugin that offers advanced features and looks elegant, this is a great choice.

You can download it here

These are the solution features that wpForo offers to create a forum in WordPress:

• Responsive forum on all devices.
• BuddyPress and Ultimate Members support.
• 4 forum layouts.
• 6 color schemes.
• Real-time user notification system.
• Built-in functions of SEO, site map, search and storage cached.
• Antispam and Akismet integration.
• Advanced user profile system.
• Participants' rating and badges.
• Subscribe to a forum/topic.
• Drag and drop forum management system.
• Thematic tags and tags widget.
• Extended access rights system.
• Phrase forum system for quick translation.
• WordPress translation files .mo and .po.
• Tools and options for GDPR compliance.
• Buttons to share on social networks.

3. Asgaro's forum

The third plugin to create a forum in WordPress is Asgaros Forum. It is one of the many free forum plugins on WordPress that has an elegant design and is quite functional. In addition to this, it stands out for its ease of use. In practice, It only takes a few minutes to set up the plugin and get it up and running. a fully functional WordPress forum.

If you want more control over the forum, the plugin also offers many settings that you can modify. Once the plugin is active, You can set up a dedicated forum page for WordPress on your site.

You can download it here

Asgaros Features

• You can use it like any other online forum, create threads, comment on existing ones, customize subforums and more.
• You can also add individual forum sections to almost any page using shortcodes, which can be useful if you don't want to create a full discussion board.
• Additionally, the plugin also includes basic moderator functionality. This means you can remove content as needed and even prevent users from committing further violations.
• If your WordPress forum grows, you can also assign other users as moderators so they can help you keep things under control.
• Finally, Asgaro's forum allows you to customize the style of your forum using themes and supports several default languages.

Key features of Asgaros Forum:

• Set up a complete WordPress forum in minutes.
• Allows users to comment as guests.
• Moderate the content of your WordPress forum and assign other users to help you.
• Provides reports on specific posts and bans users if necessary.

Despite the ease of use and customization, Asgaros Forum does not need to increase its functionality in any way. It offers pretty much all the features you'd expect from any modern forum. It's easy to set up, fast, and well integrated into the engine, giving you the following:

• Simple content management.
• Profiles and list of participants.
• Notifications and RSS feeds.
• Powerful editor.
• SEO friendly.
• Search.
• Surveys
• widgets.
• Statistics.
• Advertising management.
• Guest posts.

Flexible user group system.

• Responsive and adaptable theme.
• Multilingualism.
• Multisite support.
• myCRED integration.

How to set up a forum for WordPress (in 3 steps)

In this section of the tutorial, we'll show you what the setup looks like when creating a forum in WordPress using the Asgaros Forum plugin. While the other plugins we've featured will have similar steps, they (obviously) may differ. This means you may need to consult the documentation for specific instructions.

Installing and configuring the Asgaros Forum plugin

• Step 1:: first you must Install and activate the plugin. Go to your WordPress dashboard and go to the tab Plugins > Add NewWhere to look for the Asgaros forum plugin:

• Step 2:: Click the button Install next to the plugin name, then you need to click on the button Activate. At this point, a new tab will appear Forum in your WordPress dashboard.
• Step 3:: Here you will find the option Configuration and begin with the arrangements.

NOTE: : If you want to customize which page to set up your WordPress forum on. You can do this using a dropdown menu that lists all of your pages. While you're here, you can also customize how many replies and topics you want to display on each page:

Obviously, you can stick with the default settings. However, you can increase the number of responses per page if you want. The plugin Asgaros Forum uses its own built-in editor for new topics and comments, which is enabled by default. We'll show you how this works in a minute, so we recommend leaving this option enabled.

• Step 4:: Below, there is an option to enable the use of shortcodes in the editor, which we recommend disabling as this can cause security issues:

• Step 5:: You can then configure the plugin to highlight the names of moderators and authors on each topic. This is usually a good idea, so that users know who to contact in case of problems, so You must leave both options enabled. While you're at it, also enable post counters, as they encourage users to be more active:

• Step 6:: Keep scrolling and you will find several options to display the login buttons, logout and registration of your forum. We recommend that you enable these settings so that users can easily find the buttons:

• Step 7:: The next section contains settings related to the core functions of your forum. Here you can enable user mentions, reactions, and display of who is online. You can also You can enable sending guest emails, although we recommend that you do not enable it, as it will make it easier for people to spam your forums:

• Step 8:: Below you will find the option to Enable subscriptions for your users. This means that you will receive notifications when new content appears in the publications you are subscribed to:

• Step 9:: Now you have two more sections left. The first includes profile settings. In most cases, you'll want to allow users to create profiles, as this is the expected functionality. You can also customize whether offline users see these profiles, which is up to you:

• Step 10:: Finally, if you scroll to the bottom of the page Configuration, you will find the option to enable reports and receive notifications when users submit them. This should make it easier for you to moderate the forums, so we recommend that you enable both:

NOTE: : If you don't want to clean up spam in your Inbox, we recommend that you set your email for forum-related issues only. Otherwise, the more users you have, the harder it will be to find forum notifications in your Inbox.

That's it for your new WordPress forum settings. Save your changes and head to the second step below:

Create the structure of your WordPress forum

Now that you have set up your WordPress forum, you can start working on the basic structure. To do this, follow these steps:

• Step 1:: go to Forum > Structure in WordPress. Inside, you'll see that the plugin has already created a basic forum for you:

• Step 2:: The forum will be empty at this time. If you view it from the front-end, should look like this:

• Step 3:: At this stage, you can already post new topics on the forum and people can reply to them. However, any serious forum you come across will have some unique sections to keep things in order.
  • For example: You can create a welcome forum where people can introduce themselves, which is what we're going to do now. Click the button Add forum to start:

• Step 4::To add a new forum page, you must select a title, a description, and select a parent category if you want to turn it into a subforum:

• Step 5:: You can also customize the order in which the plugin displays your forums using numbers:

• Step 6:: Now it's your turn to edit the already created forum so that you can use it. To do this, click on the button Edit forumto the right of your name. Go ahead and change your name and set a description for it. While you're here, you can also assign it a new number in the field Order
• Step 7: You now have two working forums and know how to create new ones if you want. Go ahead and create any other forums you want. If you want to create a subforum, click on the option Add subforum to the right:

NOTE: : When your forum structure is ready, you can move on to the last step, where you will check if everything works correctly.

Test your forum's functionality

The first thing you want to do when creating a forum in WordPress is to create a new topic to check if everything is working properly. To do this follow these steps:

• Step 1:: Click the button new topic on the right side of a specific forum.

NOTE: : As we mentioned above, the Asgaros Forum plugin uses a simplified version of the WordPress editor. Here you can set the title and enter the text for your new theme:

• Step 2:: Since this is a test topic, you can write whatever you want. Select the option Subscribe to this topic so you can check if the plugin emails are being received correctly. When your theme is ready, this is how it should look:

• Step 3:: Please note that there are several options for interacting with your theme. As an administrator, you can post, delete, and close topics that regular users cannot. You can also reply to any topic in your WordPress forum by clicking the button in the bottom right corner, which will launch the editor again.

If you can post new threads and posts, you know the forum is working properly.

What is a forum for?

After learning how to create a forum in WordPress, you should know what this utility is for. Well, the forum is a good tool for discussion. When a particular topic is discussed, site users communicate with each other, ask questions and receive answers, comment on others' comments, etc.

Thanks to the forum, the web resource attracts new visitors and keeps old visitors on your pages. It is also possible to create a forum in WordPress without any problems. There are some excellent free third-party solutions for this which are the plugins already mentioned at the beginning of the tutorial.

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Conclusion

When people think of WordPress, forums aren't usually the first thing that comes to mind. However, with the right plugin, anyone can create a forum in WordPress. You have plenty of options to choose from, but if you're looking for something simple, Asgaros Forum should be the first option you should try. With this plugin, you can set up a working forum in a few minutes, including all the expected features. We hope we have helped you.