A Forum Group is a top level grouping of related forums. A forum group contains 1 or more forums. A Forum is a grouping of related threads of discussion. A Forum contains 0 or more threads and 0 or more sub-forums. A Thread is a grouping of related posts. A Thread contains 1 or more Posts. The first post becomes the Thread and replies to the original post increment details on the Thread, such as the reply count or last post.
| Thread Icon Legend |
 | Topic with posts you have not read. |
 | Topic with posts you have read. |
 | Popular topic with posts you have not read. A topic becomes popular after a certain number of views and posts (administrator defined). |
 | Popular topic with posts you have read. A topic becomes popular after a certain number of views and posts (administrator defined). |
 | Announcement you have not read |
 | Announcement you have read |
 | A pinned topic with posts you have not read. Pinned topics are displayed before other topics until they become unpinned. |
 | A pinned topic with posts you have read. Pinned topics are displayed before other topics until they become unpinned. |
 | A pinned popular topic with posts you have not read. A pinned topic with enough views or replies to become popular. |
 | A pinned popular topic with posts you have read. A pinned topic with enough views or replies to become popular. |
 | A locked topic with posts you have not read. Locked topics do not allow replies. |
 | A locked topic with posts you have read. Locked topics do not allow replies. |
A forum may not display any threads if there are no threads in the forum or if filters on the forms have been applied and no threads match the filter. An example of a filter is filtering to display threads newer than a certain date, such as threads new in the past 2 weeks. A forum may or may not be moderated depending upon how the forum has been configured. After posting a message in a moderated forum you may receive a message stating that the post is awaiting moderation. Once the moderator(s) approve your post you post will become visible. The moderators may choose to move, edit, or delete your post to ensure that the post is topical to the current forum. The icons next to threads when viewing a forum indicate different status. You can move your mouse cursor over these icons to see what the different status / types of threads are. An announcement is a special post type that is always displayed at the top of a forum for a configured amount of time. The purpose of an announcement is to increase the visibility of certain topics. A sticky topic is a special post that causes a post to sort to the top of a forum for a specified amount of time. A sticky topic is similar to an announcement, whereas an announcement is displayed separate from other threads and usually does not allow replies. A locked thread is a special post that does not allow replies. Once a user locks a post or an administrator/moderator locks a thread no more posts are allowed. Yes, you can sort threads when viewing a forum by Author, Replies, Views, and Last Post. The default sort for a forum is to display the newest threads first (Last Post descending). To sort simply click on the options button at the bottom of the screen and select your desired sort order and click 'Apply'. The XML icon is linked to the RSS feed for the forum. RSS is used to allow other applications to subscribe to a forum's posts. This icon indicates the user’s online status. A green icon means the user has been active recently (usually within the last 15 minutes). A red icon means the user has not recently been active. You can hover your mouse over this icon to see details about the user’s past activity. If you are attempting to access a forum that you have visited before, but now receive an ‘unknown forum’ error there are two likely causes. The first cause is that the forum you are attempting to access is private and you are not signed in. The second cause is that the forum has been removed.