Discord forum channels: how to set them up and keep them tidy

A Discord forum channel is a channel where every message starts its own post — a titled thread with tags — instead of one fast-scrolling chat. It is the best place for questions, bug reports, feedback, LFG or showcase posts, because each topic keeps its own conversation and can be found again later. To set one up you need a Community server, then you create a channel of the type Forum, add a handful of tags and write short post guidelines.

The hard part comes later: forums fill up with untagged posts, questions nobody marks as answered, posts that died weeks ago and the same question asked five times. This guide covers both halves — the native Discord setup that works without any bot, and how BotGG’s Forum Manager keeps a forum tidy with required tags, a Mark solved button, auto-closing stale posts and duplicate hints.

How Discord forum channels work

A forum looks like a list of cards. Each card is a post: a title, a first message (text, images, files) and the replies under it. Technically every post is a thread inside the forum channel, so the usual thread rules apply — members can follow a post, and inactive posts are archived (hidden from the default list) after the time you choose.

What makes a forum useful compared with a normal text channel:

• Topics stay separate. Two people asking different questions don’t talk over each other.
• Tags — up to 20 per forum, up to 5 per post — let members filter the list (“Bug”, “Question”, “Solved”).
• Search and sorting. Members can search titles and sort by recent activity or creation date.
• Post guidelines appear at the top of the forum and in the post composer.
• Media channels are a gallery-style variant for art, clips and screenshots; they use posts and tags the same way.

If you are still planning the channel list, the channel ideas guide shows where a forum fits in a typical server.

How to create a forum channel on Discord

Forums are only available on Community servers. If you haven’t enabled it yet: Server Settings → Enable Community, then follow the steps (verification level, explicit media filter, a rules channel and an updates channel).

1. Create the channel. Click + next to a category → choose Forum → name it, for example help or bug-reports. Pick Media instead for an art or clips gallery.
2. Write post guidelines. Edit the channel → Post Guidelines. Three to five lines: what belongs here, what a good title looks like, which tag to pick, and where other things go.
3. Add tags. Under Tags, create the categories people should pick from. Keep it short: 4–8 tags covering the main topics, plus status tags like “Solved” if you want them. A tag can be marked as moderated so only members with Manage Threads can apply it — useful for “Solved” or “Confirmed”.
4. Require a tag (optional). Discord has a native switch that forces members to pick at least one tag before posting.
5. Default reaction, sort order and layout. Set a default reaction emoji (for “+1” style voting), choose whether the list sorts by recent activity or creation time, and whether it shows as a list or a gallery.
6. Hide after inactivity. Choose how long a quiet post stays in the default list before it is archived (1 hour up to 1 week). Archived posts are still searchable and a new reply brings them back.
7. Slowmode and permissions. Set a posting slowmode if one person opens ten posts at once, and check that @everyone has Send Messages (to create posts) and Send Messages in Threads (to reply).

Good tags for common forums

Keeping a forum tidy: the four common problems

A forum that nobody looks after degrades in a predictable way. These are the four problems every busy forum hits, and what you can do by hand:

• Untagged posts. Without tags, filters are useless and the right helper never sees the post. Discord’s native “require tags” switch helps, but it can’t demand a specific tag or more than one, and it can’t give people a few minutes to fix it.
• Answered questions that look open. Members get their answer and leave. The post stays open, helpers keep opening it, and nobody can tell solved from unsolved. The manual fix is a “Solved” tag and a habit of adding it.
• Stale posts. Dead posts from three weeks ago crowd out new ones. Discord’s hide after inactivity archives them, but silently — the author never gets the chance to say “still broken”.
• Duplicates. The same question gets asked again and again because people post before they search. Pinned FAQ posts and a line in the guidelines help a bit.

Doing all of this by hand works for a forum with ten posts a week. Above that, it becomes a job — which is what a forum bot is for.

How to manage forum channels with BotGG

Forum Manager adds rules to the forums you choose. It works with Forum and Media channels, matches titles by words (no AI) and doesn’t need the Message Content intent — it only reads titles and tags.

Step 1: Turn it on and add your forum

Open https://console.botgg.app, choose your server and go to Community → Forum Manager. Switch the feature on, then on the Forums tab click Add a forum… and pick the channel. The editor loads the forum’s real tags from Discord, so you choose tags from chips instead of typing names. If you add a new tag in Discord later, press Reload tags.

Under Forum staff pick the roles that count as staff in your forums. Members with Manage Threads always count.

Step 2: Required tags

Turn on Require tags and choose:

• Which tags — pick specific tags, or none so any tag counts.
• At least — how many tags a post needs (1–5).
• Grace period — how long the author has to add them (10 minutes by default).
• After the grace period — Remind (the bot reminds the author once) or Close the post (closed and locked).

A new post without the tag gets a short “Please add a tag” note right away. If the author adds it in time, the deadline is simply cleared.

Step 3: The Solved button and /solved

With Allow marking posts solved on, every new post gets a Mark solved button, and /solved works inside the post. Choose Who can mark solved — Author or staff or Staff only. When a post is solved, BotGG:

1. adds your Solved tag (if the post has room — Discord allows 5 tags per post),
2. adds ✅ to the title (optional; Discord allows two renames per post every 10 minutes),
3. posts a short “Marked as solved” note,
4. closes the post — right away or after a delay (60 minutes by default, so people can still say thanks), as Archive (a reply reopens it) or Lock (only staff can reopen it).

Staff who prefer tagging by hand can keep doing that: adding the solved tag yourself counts as solving the post.

Step 4: Auto-close stale posts

Turn on Auto-close stale posts and set Inactive for (7 days by default) and the Warning time (24 hours). When a post has had no member messages for that long, BotGG posts “This post will close soon” with a Keep open button. If the author or staff click it, or anyone replies, the post stays open. Otherwise it closes with a short note.

Use Never close posts with for tags that should stay open forever — “Feature request”, “Pinned”, “Known issue”. And if someone replies to a post that was closed as stale, it opens again.

Step 5: Duplicate hints, welcome message and Help Center

• Suggest similar posts — when a new title looks like an earlier one, the bot links up to 3 similar posts from the last 30 days. Similarity (60% by default) sets how close titles must be; the match works on words in English, Russian and Hebrew.
• Post a welcome message — your own text or embed under each new post, with {user}, {title}, {forum} and {server}. Good for “Before you wait: include your OS and a screenshot”.
• Suggest articles — if you use Help Center, up to 3 matching articles appear under the post, with “Open on web” links when the Help Center is public.

All of this goes into one bot message a few seconds after the post is created, together with the Mark solved button. If there is nothing to say, the bot says nothing. The live preview in the console shows exactly what it will post.

Step 6: Read the stats

The Stats tab shows posts, solve rate, median first reply and time to solve, and how many posts were closed as stale, for 7, 30 or 90 days, per forum or all together, with a per-day chart and a table view. The Posts tab lists every post with its status and a link to Discord. A falling first-reply time is the best sign your support forum works.

Recommended setups

Automate the rest with Flows

Forum Manager adds three Flow triggers — a post was created, solved, or went stale — and three actions: mark solved, close, add a tag. For example: when a post tagged “Bug” is created, ping the QA role; when a post is solved, log it in a staff channel; when a post goes stale, post a reminder for the team. The no-code automation guide shows how Flows work.

If you run support through a forum, it pairs well with tickets for private cases — see the ticket system guide for when to use which.

FAQ

How do I make a forum channel on Discord?

Enable Community in Server Settings, click + next to a category, choose Forum, name it, then add post guidelines and a few tags in the channel settings. Forums aren’t available on servers without Community.

How many tags can a Discord forum have?

Up to 20 tags per forum and up to 5 tags per post. Keep the list short — most forums work best with 4–8 topic tags plus one or two status tags like “Solved”.

Can I close a forum post when it’s solved?

Discord has no built-in Solved button. With BotGG’s Forum Manager the author or staff press Mark solved or use /solved; the bot adds the solved tag and ✅, then archives or locks the post right away or after a delay you choose.

Does Forum Manager read members’ messages?

No. It reads post titles and tags and notes when a post gets activity. Duplicate hints compare titles by words, without AI, and the Message Content intent isn’t needed.

Is Forum Manager free?

Yes. The free plan manages 2 forums with every rule, Pro manages up to 25. See the pricing page for details.