What is the community forum, and how is it different from the club room?
A community forum is a real discussion space on your own site, at your own address, where your members talk to each other and to you. It looks like your site - same fonts, same colours, same header - and it runs on your domain, not on a separate platform.
The prompt
“What is the status of my community forum?”
Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).
How it is different from the club room
The [[the-club-room|club room]] is a single conversation on your membership page. It works well for a small group, but once people want to talk about different subjects at the same time, threads get tangled. The forum has categories (Studio Talk, Critique Corner, News from Lewis) and each conversation is its own thread. Members can browse, reply to the ones that interest them, and skip the rest.
If your site has a community forum, the forum replaces the club room. Your members talk in the forum; the club room is no longer where the conversation happens.
What you can ask Bernard to do
Every day-to-day job is a tool Bernard can reach:
- Who is in? Ask who is in your community, or who has gone quiet.
- Let someone in. Give a name and email - Bernard adds them to your contacts and sends one sign-in link.
- What happened? Ask for the week’s digest: new threads, who spoke, the busiest topic, anything a member flagged.
- Take a post down. Name the post - Bernard removes it. It is hidden, not destroyed, so a mistake can be undone.
- Lock a thread. Members can still read it, but nobody can reply.
- Post as the host. Tell Bernard what to say and where - it shows you the words and posts only after you approve.
- Change a role. Make someone a moderator so they can help you look after the place.
What a person at bernard does
Setting up the forum, matching it to your site, and pausing or exporting it are done by a person at bernard, not by the AI. Ask Bernard to request a forum, and the request goes to the team - they will tell you what happens next and when.
How members sign in
There is no password. A member enters their email on the sign-in page and receives a link. They click it, agree to the community rules once, and they are in. Their device stays signed in for 90 days, so they do not see the sign-in page again unless they switch devices or clear their browser.
See How do my members sign in? for the member-facing explanation.
Questions people ask
- Is a community forum the same as the club room?
- No. The club room is a single conversation on your membership page. A community forum is a full forum on your own site address, with categories, threads and moderation. If your site has a forum, it replaces the club room - your members talk there instead.
- Do my members need a password?
- No. They sign in with a link sent to their email. One click, no password to remember. Their device stays signed in for 90 days.
- Can I run the forum myself without learning an admin panel?
- Yes. Every job - letting people in, taking a post down, posting an announcement, hearing what happened this week - is something you ask Bernard to do in the workshop chat. There is no admin panel for you to learn. Posts as the host go out only after your approval.
- Who sets the forum up?
- A person at bernard. They match it to your site - your fonts, your colours, your address - and hand it to you ready to use. Ask Bernard to request one.