Forums are one of the pillars of the internet. And even though people spend most of their time on “normal” websites, forums are one of the most engaging types of platforms you can create. In fact, many modern social networking sites are basically forums with added features. The problem is that creating a forum in WordPress can be quite a lot of work, since the platform itself was not developed with forums in mind.
Fortunately, we are here to help you. In this article, we’ll take a look at the three steps required to set up a WordPress forum, including:
- Install and configure the Asgaros Forum plugin.
- Create the WordPress forum structure.
- Test the functionality of the forum.
To make your forum work, we will need to add a whole new set of features to WordPress. Which can be quite a bit of work, so let’s get started!
Why create a WordPress forum?
Regardless of what your hobbies are, there are probably plenty of forums on the internet set up explicitly to discuss them. Simply put, forums are websites where you can post new topics or ‘threads’ and hope that people will respond to you. They are the perfect place to have detailed discussions on just about any topic you can think of. For example, there are entire forums dedicated to web hosting, cooking, and even more specific hobbies like knitting.
You will often find that most of the content comes from user discussions. Unlike sites like the one where, although each article has a comment section, the main attraction is the content.
If you’re a user of forums, you’ve probably noticed that they have a lot of features in common with . Take Facebook for example: in addition to uploading photos and keeping up with your friends, one of the main attractions is the ability to share content and discuss it with others, such as in a forum.
In fact, if you take a look at the five most popular websites on the internet, you’ll notice that two of them have forum (or forum-like) features. We’ve already mentioned Facebook, but Reddit is also basically a forum with lots of extra features.
In general, having a forum poses a different set of challenges than a website, although it also has its benefits. For example, with a forum you don’t have as much pressure to post original content. They are also better when it comes to encouraging discussion and engagement, which makes many users want to come back.
However, forums are not a viable option for most web projects. For example, if you want to create a portfolio, obviously a forum will not fit and you will get better results by creating a standard website.
However, if your website has a strong social component, or if you offer online services, implementing a forum might be a good idea. You can even have one alongside your regular website and use it to encourage discussion about your content and services.
Creating an online forum generally requires specialized software. With WordPress, you can add forum features to your website using plugins, and there are many options. In the next section, we’ll take a look at a couple of popular plugins, and then show you one of our favourites!
3 popular plugins to create a WordPress forum
We will first look at some of the most popular solutions when it comes to WordPress forum plugins. These are often the preferred options for many WordPress users, so it’s worth discussing them before we talk about one of our favorites.
1.bbPress
When talking about WordPress forum plugins, it is possibly the most popular option. In fact, it’s the software behind WordPress.org’s own support forums, so it comes with stellar support.
As such, bbPress is highly customizable. You can extend its functionality with other plugins and even set up dedicated themes for your WordPress forum. Overall, it’s a great option if you’re looking for a forum plugin with a lot of advanced features, although style-wise it looks a bit dated.
2. wpForum
Next on the list, it offers an experience that sits somewhere between bbPress and the next plugin (Asgaros Forums) in terms of features. It’s a bit more complex to set up than the latter and has a lot of advanced features. The plugin even offers its own set of extensions, although not as many as bbPress.
And in terms of style, wpForo gets high marks. It looks as elegant as Asgaros Forum, although it has more visual components. If you want to use a forum plugin that offers advanced features and looks great at the same time, this is a great option.
3. Asgaros Forum
Let’s now look at the solution that we will be using for the rest of this article. is one of many free WordPress forum plugins. However, it stands out for its ease of use. In practice, it will only take a few minutes to set up the plugin and have a fully functional WordPress forum ready.
If you want to have more control over the user experience on the forum, the plugin also offers a lot of settings that you can adjust. Once the plugin is active, you will be able to set up a dedicated WordPress forum page on your site. You can then use it much like any other forum and create threads, comment on existing ones, set up 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 set up a full discussion board. Moreover, the plugin also includes basic moderator features. This means you can remove content if necessary, and even suspend users for repeated violations. If your WordPress forum grows, you can also designate other users as moderators to help you keep things under control.
Finally, Asgaros Forum allows you to customize the style of the forum using themes, and supports multiple languages by default.
Main features:
- It allows you to set up a fully functional WordPress forum in minutes.
- Allows users to comment as guests.
- It allows you to moderate WordPress forum content and appoint other users to help you.
- Provide reports on specific posts and suspend users if necessary.
Although it is easy to use and configure, Asgaros Forum is also not far behind in terms of functionality. It offers pretty much all the features you’d expect from any modern forum in 2019. Unless you’re looking for some pretty specific feature, Asgaros Forum is our recommended one.
How to Create a WordPress Forum (In 3 Steps)
In this section, we will show you how to create a WordPress forum using the Asgaros Forum plugin. While the other plugins we’ve featured will have similar steps, (obviously) the process may vary. This means you may need to refer to the documentation for specific instructions.
Step 1: Install and configure the Asgaros Forum plugin
Of course, first you’ll have to . Go to the WordPress dashboard to the tab Plugins > Add New and look for the Asgaros Forum plugin:
Click the button Install Now next to the plugin name, then click the blue button Activate. At this point, a new tab will appear. Forum in your WordPress dashboard.
Here you will find an option Settings. You need to configure which page to include your WordPress forum on. You can do this using the dropdown menu that lists all of your pages. While you’re here, you can also set the number of replies and discussions you want to show on each page:
In general, the default values are a good choice. However, you can safely increase the number of responses per page if you wish. Next, the Asgaros Forum plugin 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 setting on.
Further on, there is an option to enable the use of shortcodes in the editor, which we recommend disabling as it can lead to security issues:
You can then configure the plugin to highlight the moderator and author names within each topic. This is usually a good idea, so users know who to contact in case of problems, so let’s keep both settings on. While we’re at it, let’s also turn on post counters, as they encourage users to be more active:
Continue scrolling down and you will find some options to display the login, logout and register buttons for your forum. We recommend enabling these options so that users can easily find the buttons:
The next section includes settings that take care of the basic functionality of your forum. Here you can enable user mentions, reactions, and a screen that shows who is online. You can also turn on guest posts, although we recommend not doing so as it makes it easier for people to spam your forums:
Next, you’ll find the option to enable subscriptions for your users. This means that they will receive notifications when there is new content in the posts they are subscribed to:
We only have two sections left to cover now. The first includes settings related to the profile. In most cases, it’s a good idea to allow users to create profiles, as it’s a feature people expect to see. You can also configure whether non-logged-in users can see those profiles, which is up to you:
Finally, if you scroll to the bottom of the page Settings, you will find the option to enable reports and receive notifications when users submit them. This should make forum moderation easier, so we recommend turning both on:
If you like to keep your mailbox clear, we recommend creating an email just to deal with issues related to the forum. Otherwise, as you have more users it will be more difficult to locate forum notifications in your inbox.
And that’s it for your WordPress forum setup. Now save your changes and move on to step number two!
Step 2: Build the WordPress Forum Structure
Now that you’ve set up how your WordPress forum will work, we can start working on the basic structure. To do this, go to the tab Forum > Structure within WordPress. There you will see that the plugin has already configured a basic forum:
At this time, the forum is empty. If you view it from the front-end, it should look like this:
At this stage, you can already post new topics in the forum and people can reply. However, a…
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