Forum

Create a forum

To create or edit a forum, go to Website ‣ Configuration ‣ Forum: Forums. Click New or select an existing forum and configure the following elements.

Forum Name: add the name of the forum.

Mode: select Questions to enable marking an answer as best, meaning questions then appear as solved, or Discussions if the feature is not needed.

Default Sort: choose how questions are sorted by default.

Newest: by latest question posting date
Last Updated: by latest posting activity date (answers and comments included)
Most Voted: by highest vote tally
Relevance: by post relevancy (determined by a formula)
Answered: by likelihood to be answered (determined by a formula)

Privacy: select Public to let anyone view the forum, Signed In to make it visible only for signed-in users, or Some users to make it visible only for a specific user access group by selecting one Authorized Group.

Next, configure the karma gains and the karma-related rights.

Karma points

Karma points can be given to users based on different forum interactions. They can be used to determine which forum functionalities users can access, from being able to vote on posts to having moderator rights. They are also used to set user ranks.

Karma gains

Several forum interactions can give or remove karma points.

Interaction	Description	Default karma gain
Asking a question	You post a question.	2
Question upvoted	Another user votes for a question you posted.	5
Question downvoted	Another user votes against a question you posted.	-2
Answer upvoted	Another user votes for an answer you posted.	10
Answer downvoted	Another user votes against an answer you posted.	-2
Accepting an answer	You mark an answer posted by another user as best.	2
Answer accepted	Another user marks an answer you posted as best.	15
Answer flagged	A question or an answer you posted is marked as offensive.	-100

Gamification

Ranks and badges can be used to encourage participation. Ranks are based on the total karma points, while badges can be granted manually or automatically by completing challenges.

Ranks

To create new ranks or modify the default ones, go to Website ‣ Configuration ‣ Forum: Ranks and click New or select an existing rank.

Add the Rank Name, the Required Karma points to reach it, its Description, a Motivational message to encourage users to reach it, and an image.

Badges

To create new badges or modify the default ones, go to Website ‣ Configuration ‣ Forum: Badges and click New or select an existing badge.

Enter the badge name and description, add an image, and configure it.

Assign manually

If the badge should be granted manually, select which users can grant them by selecting one of the following Allowance to Grant options:

Everyone: all non-portal users (since badges are granted from the backend).
A selected list of users: users selected under Authorized Users.
People having some badges: users who have been granted the badges selected under Required Badges.

It is possible to restrict how many times per month each user can grant the badge by enabling Monthly Limited Sending and entering a Limitation Number.

Assign automatically

If the badge should be granted automatically when certain conditions are met, select No one, assigned through challenges under Allowance to Grant.

Next, determine how the badge should be granted by clicking Add under the Rewards for challenges section. Select a challenge to add it or create one by clicking New.

Post questions

To create a new post, access the forum’s front end, click New Post, and fill in the following:

Title: add the question or the topic of the post.
Description: add a description for the question.
Tags: add up to five tags.

Click Post Your Question.

Interact with posts

Different actions are possible on a post.

Mark a question as your favorite by clicking the star button (☆).
Follow a post and get notifications (by email or within Odoo) when it is answered by clicking the bell button (🔔).
Vote for (up arrow ▲) or against (down arrow ▼) a question or answer.
Mark an answer as best by clicking the check mark button (✔). This option is only available if the Forum Mode is set to Questions.
Answer a question.
Comment on a question or answer by clicking the speech bubble button (💬).
Share a question on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn by clicking the share nodes button.

Click the ellipsis button (…) to:

Edit a question or answer.
Close a question.
Delete a question, answer, or comment. It is possible to Undelete questions afterward.
Flag a question or answer as offensive.
Convert a comment into an answer.
View the related Helpdesk ticket, if any.

On the forum’s front end, the sidebar’s Moderation tools section gathers the essential moderator functionalities.

To Validate: access all questions and answers waiting for validation before being displayed to non-moderator users.

: access all questions and answers that have been flagged as offensive. Click Accept to remove the offensive flag or Offensive to confirm it, then select a reason and click Mark as offensive. The post is then hidden from users without moderation rights, and 100 karma points are deducted from the offending user’s tally.

Closed: access all questions that have been closed. It is possible to Delete or Reopen them. To close a question, open it, click the ellipsis button (…), then Close, select a Close Reason, and click Close post. The post is then hidden from users without moderation rights.