Discord forum channel: how to set it up for help, feedback and clips

In a normal text channel every conversation runs into the next. Someone asks for help, two others post clips, a third reports a bug, and ten minutes later nobody can find the original question. A Discord forum channel solves exactly that: every topic becomes its own post with a title, and the replies stay bundled underneath it.

In this guide you'll learn when a forum is worth it, how to set up tags, sort order and guidelines, and which forums work well on most servers. We'll also show you how Lizbot starts threads automatically in normal text channels and how to moderate forums and threads properly.

When a forum beats a text channel

A forum isn't a replacement for every channel. It fits when content should be easy to find again one item at a time. For casual chat a text channel is usually better, because conversations get going faster there.

Rule of thumb: if you keep writing "Please open a thread for your question" in a text channel, a forum is the better choice. How regular threads work and when they are enough is explained in Creating and managing Discord threads.

Important: forum channels require the Community feature to be enabled on your server. You switch it on in Server Settings under Enable Community. Among other things, Discord asks for a verification level, a rules channel and a channel for community updates. The guide enabling a Community server walks you through it step by step.

1. Create the forum channel

In the channel list, click the plus next to a category, or right-click the category and choose Create Channel. Pick Forum as the channel type, give it a name such as help and decide whether the channel should be private.

Then open the channel settings via the gear icon. That's where you'll find everything that sets a forum apart from a text channel: guidelines, tags, default reaction, sort order, layout and the time after which inactive posts are hidden.

Don't want to start from scratch? Depending on the template, Lizbot's server templates create suitable forums, for example for questions, feedback, bug reports, LFG, VOD review or character sheets, usually with a short description that Discord shows as the forum's guidelines. If the Community feature is still off, the template creates a normal text channel in that spot instead. More about the templates on Features: Templates.

2. Write the guidelines

Every member sees a forum's Post Guidelines before creating a new post. Use them like a short form in text. An example for a help forum:

• Title: briefly describe what it's about, not just "Help!!!"
• What did you try, and what happened?
• Attach a screenshot or the error message
• Once solved: add the "Solved" tag

Keep the guidelines short. Five clear points get read, twenty don't.

3. Set up tags and required tags

Tags are the real strength of a forum. Members can filter posts by them, and your team sees at a glance what's still open. Each forum can have up to 20 tags, each with a name and optionally an emoji. A single post can carry several tags.

There are two settings you should know:

• Moderator-only tags: ideal for status tags such as "Solved", "Accepted" or "Under review". That way nobody can mark their own post as done when your team should decide that.
• Required tags: no post can be published without a matching tag. This makes sense as soon as you really use tags for sorting, for example by game or platform.

Plan your tags in two groups: topic tags that members pick themselves (such as "Windows", "Mobile", "Console") and status tags that only the team sets. Less is more: five to eight topic tags are enough for most forums.

4. Choose sort order, layout and hiding

In the channel settings you also decide how the forum looks for everyone:

• Sort order: by recent activity or by creation time. For help forums recent activity works well, because posts with new replies move to the top. For clips or announcements creation time fits better.
• Layout: list or gallery. The gallery shows large preview images and suits clips, screenshots, fan art or setups. For questions and bugs the list is easier to scan.
• Default reaction: an emoji that's available under every post with one click. In a feedback forum it works like a quick thumbs up.
• Hide after inactivity: posts without a new message disappear from the main list after one hour, one day, three days or one week. They aren't deleted and can still be reached via search and the older posts.
• Slowmode: there's one for creating posts and a separate one for messages inside posts. A slowmode for new posts slows down spam without disrupting conversations. Which values work well is covered in the guide using slowmode effectively.

Typical forums: help, feedback, bugs, clips

For a bug forum, a fixed structure in the guidelines pays off: version, steps to reproduce, expected and actual behaviour. That's exactly how the bug forum in the Lizbot templates is described.

For feedback there are two ways. A forum is good when ideas get discussed in depth. If instead you want clear votes with a counter and a decision by the team, Lizbot suggestions with voting are often more practical (see below). You can combine both: suggestions for voting, a forum for longer concepts.

For private help, for example with payments, accounts or reports about other members, a forum is the wrong place, because posts are visible to everyone who can see the channel. Use tickets for that. How it works is explained in the guide Ticket system.

For clips and showcases, a media channel that displays images and videos as a gallery is another option. And if your showcase should turn into a contest with voting, you'll find rules and a process there.

5. Auto threads as an alternative for text channels

Not every server needs a forum. Maybe you don't want to enable the Community feature, or your showcase channel should stay a normal text channel where images show up large in the feed. In that case Lizbot automatically starts a thread for every message, and comments land there instead of in the channel.

Here's how to set it up:

1. In the dashboard, open Modules and switch on Auto threads.
2. Click Add channel and pick the channel, for example #showcase or #feedback.
3. Under Thread name, set what the threads should be called. The available placeholders are {user} for the display name, {content} for the start of the message and {date} for the date.
4. Under Thread closes after, choose when a thread without new messages gets closed: after one hour, one day, three days or one week.

The default name is {user}: {content}, which turns into something like "Lena: My new setup is finished". Lizbot takes at most the first 60 characters of the message text, and the full name is limited to 100 characters, just like in Discord. For feedback something like Feedback {date}: {content} works, for clips {user} | {content}.

Auto threads are included in the Free plan and work in up to 25 channels. Messages from bots and system messages don't get a thread. For it to work, Lizbot needs the Create Public Threads permission in that channel.

6. Suggestions with /community suggest instead of feedback chaos

Lizbot suggestions are an alternative to a feedback forum when a decision should come at the end. In the dashboard, switch on the Suggestions module under Modules and choose a Suggestions channel, ideally one where only the bot writes.

Members then submit their idea with /community suggest. Lizbot posts it with buttons for and against, and each member gets one vote. With the option Discussion thread for each suggestion, which is on by default, follow-up questions land directly in the thread. The team decides with Accept, Review or Deny, optionally with a reason, and the author can be notified by direct message. You can see all suggestions in the dashboard, filtered by status. Suggestions are included in the Free plan as well.

7. Archive and moderate threads

Forums and threads need slightly different moderation than text channels. Here's what you should know:

• Permissions: anyone with Manage Threads can close, lock, rename and pin posts in forums and edit their tags. Give this permission to your moderation team, not to all members. How to set permissions per channel is explained in the guide setting up channel permissions.
• Close or lock: a closed post gets archived but opens again as soon as someone replies. A locked post can only be reopened by the team. For solved questions, closing plus a status tag is usually enough; for escalated discussions you lock.
• Pin: in a forum you can pin a post to the top, for example with rules or an FAQ. That way new members see it before all other posts.
• Lizbot commands: /channel lock, /channel unlock and /channel slowmode work on normal text channels. In a text channel, /channel lock also blocks creating new threads. For forum channels, use Discord's settings directly.
• AutoMod: spam and scam links show up in posts too. How to set up filters is explained in the guide Set up Discord AutoMod.

Lizbot Logging helps you keep track: deleted and edited messages, bulk deletions as well as new, changed and deleted channels land in log channels of your choice. In the Free plan logs stay in the dashboard for 14 days, in Pro for 90 days and in Studio for 365 days. All the details are on Features: Logging, and how to set up your team is covered in the guide Moderation team.

If you secure your server with a Lizbot backup, forum channels are included. When you restore on a server without the Community feature, a text channel is created instead.

Checklist

• the Community feature is enabled
• every forum has a clear purpose and short guidelines
• topic tags for members, status tags for the team only
• required tags are on if you filter by tags
• sort order and layout match the content (list for questions, gallery for clips)
• a pinned post with rules or an FAQ
• the team has Manage Threads, regular members don't
• auto threads for text channels where comments flood the feed
• Logging is switched on

Common mistakes

• Too many forums: three well-kept forums are better than ten half-empty ones. Group similar topics with tags.
• Too many tags: anyone who has to choose from 20 tags picks any of them. Keep the list short and unambiguous.
• Status tags without restriction: if everyone can set "Solved", the tag loses its value. Make it a tag that only moderators can apply.
• A forum for private matters: accounts, payments and reports belong in tickets, not in a public post.
• Auto threads without the thread permission: if Lizbot lacks the Create Public Threads permission, nothing happens in that channel.
• Auto threads in the chat channel: in general chat every message creates a thread. Only use auto threads where every message is its own topic.