The forum tool allows discussions to take place within the community over an extended period of time, where participants can't be online at the same time.  Participants can read and reflect on postings and seek out further information before making a response.

Postings are viewed in threads arranged under forum topics. Each discussion may have a number of threads made up of an initial posting (which starts the thread) and replies to that posting (which build up the thread). Users can edit their own comments. Moderators can edit all comments.

A forum is set up in the following manner:

1. If not already installed or active, the forum is installed or made active in the Manage Tools section
2. If starting a new forum, select Create a new Forum, if editing or deleting an existing forum, select Edit/Delete a Forum
3. Select the community you wish the forum to appear in from the list (if there are sub-community sites)
4. Create a new Forum name in the box provided (be descriptive so people know what the forum is about)
5. Enter a Forum password - optional if you wish to have a locked forum (don't forget to let everyone in the forum group know the password!)
6. Click the Y button in the Make forum Active section (if not already selected)
7. And choose a Forum Moderator from the drop down list of system users/managers
8. You can add topics to the forum by selecting Add a new Topic
9. When adding your opinion to different topics, select Add a new Thread, select the forum and topic, then add your opinion to the Thread name box and select Update details