Category
A category is a high-level grouping of boards inside a forum that helps organize related topics together, such as 'Announcements', 'Support' or 'Course weeks'.
Category
A category is a high‑level grouping that helps organize boards inside a forum. Categories act as visual and navigational containers – members cannot post directly to a category, but they make it easier to find related boards.
What is a category in Forumera?
In Forumera, categories sit between forums and boards in the hierarchy:
- A forum is the overall community.
- Categories group related boards together.
- Boards are where threads actually live.
- Threads contain posts.
Categories are purely organizational. They help admins structure large forums by clustering boards that share a theme, audience or workflow.
How categories appear in the UI
You will see categories in several places:
- On the forum home page, where boards are often grouped by category.
- In navigation menus, where categories act as section headers.
- In the forum structure manager, where admins create and organize categories.
URL patterns typically show boards nested under categories, but the category itself is mainly a visual grouping.
When to use categories
Good reasons to create categories include:
- Grouping by topic. For example, "Announcements", "Support", "General Discussion".
- Organizing by workflow. For example, "Week 1", "Week 2", "Week 3" in a course forum.
- Separating audiences. For example, "Public", "Members Only", "Staff".
Categories work best when you have several boards that naturally belong together. If you only have a few boards, categories may add unnecessary complexity.
Best practices for categories
- Keep category names short and clear. "Support" is better than "Customer Support and Help Desk".
- Use categories sparingly. Too many categories can make navigation confusing.
- Give each category a description. Help members understand what boards belong there.
- Review periodically. Merge or remove categories that no longer serve a purpose.