Managing categories & boards

The structure manager lets admins design and evolve the way a forum is organised, without losing existing content.

Accessing the structure manager

From the admin dashboard or a forum admin view, open the structure or categories & boards area. There you can see:

• All current categories.
• The boards inside each category.
• Controls to create, edit, reorder, and remove items.

Changes you make here update how members experience the forum.

Creating and editing categories

For each category, you can:

• Set a name and (optionally) a description.
• Choose the order in which categories appear.

Guidelines:

• Use names that are clear and stable over time.
• Avoid duplicating concepts across categories.
• Think from the member's point of view: "Where would I look for X?"

Creating and editing boards

Boards live inside categories. For each board, you can usually configure:

• Name and description.
• Who can see the board.
• Who can start threads and who can reply.

Common patterns:

• Public boards for announcements or onboarding.
• Member-only boards for ongoing discussion.
• Staff-only boards for internal coordination.

Reordering and refactoring

Over time you may need to:

• Move boards between categories.
• Merge low-activity boards.
• Split large, noisy boards into more focused ones.

Forumera's structure tools aim to make these changes safe and predictable, keeping existing threads intact while improving navigation for members.