Glossary of Terms for Discussion Forums

Forum– A forum contains all topics and replies that were created in that particular forum. In our case, a forum is a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) set up so that you can discuss the ins-and-outs of these questions in order to come up with best practices and solutions to any issues you may have during the Fall 2020 semester.

Topic– Topics are created within forums, they are subjects that are being discussed. For our purposes, a “topic” refers to any point, question, or topic related to a specific forum (FAQ). Your response to a FAQ forum is a topic.

Replies– Replies are where the actual discussion takes place.

Topic Type– This indicates whether the topic is sticky or normal.

Sticky– Sticky posts will stick to the top of the forum (FAQ) in which it is posted. Super sticky posts will stick to the top of all forums.

Normal– (Recommended) This is the default. The topic will simply exist where it is posted, but will not always remain at the top of that forum (FAQ)

Topic Status– This indicates the following:

Open– A normal topic with no restrictions

Closed– Other users cannot reply to a closed topic; however, site moderators and admins will still be able to reply.

Spam– A topic marked as spam will show up in spam queue

Trash– Topic is moved to the trash, from which it can be permanently deleted

Pending– A topic is pending approval to be published

Merge– You may have the option to merge topics. See this link for more details.

For more information on WordPress terminology, please click here.