Best Of

Here are some tips and tricks for using this forum:

• Use the reactions. These let you share how you feel about other’s comments. The most liked content shows up on the Best Of page.
• Mention others. Put an @ symbol before the username to mention someone. They’ll get notified when you do.
• Update your notification preferences. You’ll receive a notification if someone mentions you or posts to a discussion that you’ve bookmarked. You can set notifications from the Edit Profile page.
• Send messages. You can private message members by going to your inbox, or visiting their profile page (click their username anywhere).
• Don’t want to see everyone’s signature? You can hide signatures by going to Edit Profile > Signature Settings.
• Check out the forum from your mobile phone. Just go to the forum URL in your browser - no need to download an app.
• Want to embed a YouTube video, a Pinterest Pin or a Tweet? Just paste in the link. Vanilla will handle the embedding for you!
• Check out what’s going on with other community members on the Activity page.

Have fun!

There's nothing sweeter than a fresh new forum, ready to welcome your community. A Vanilla Forum has all the bits and pieces you need to build an awesome discussion platform customized to your needs.

Here are a few tips for you as the administrator:

• Use the Getting Started checklist in the Dashboard to get your site ready for visitors.
• Don't create too many categories. We recommend 3-8 to start with, keep it simple for your users!
• Announce a discussion (click the gear) to stick to the top of the list, and Close it to stop further comments. This is useful for posting the rules, or welcoming new members.
• Use Sink to take attention away from a discussion that might be getting out of hand. New comments will no longer bring it back to the top of the list.
• Bookmark a discussion (click the star) to get notifications for new comments. You can edit notification settings from your profile.

We've created a few sample discussions to help get you started. They contain some useful "Day 1" information and also show you how things might look once your forum has a bit of real activity. Feel free to keep, edit, or delete them as you see fit!

Now spread the word to get this place cooking. Cheers!