What is the community forum, and how is it different from the club room?

How it is different from the club room

The 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.

Where to find it

Once your forum is open, Your forum appears in the menu on the left of bernard, just above How to. It opens your forum in a new tab, so you can see it the way your members do.

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. See Who is in my community, and who has gone quiet?.
• Let someone in. Give a name and email - Bernard adds them to your contacts and sends one sign-in link. See How do I let someone into my community?.
• Remove someone. Their access ends at once and their posts stay. See Someone is causing trouble. How do I remove them?.
• What happened? Ask for the week’s digest: new threads, who spoke, the busiest topic, anything a member flagged. See What did my members talk about this week?.
• Take a post down. Name the post - Bernard removes it. It is hidden, not destroyed, so a mistake can be undone. See How do I take down a post or close a thread?.
• 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. See How do I post an announcement to everyone?.
• Change a role. Make someone a moderator so they can help you look after the place. See Can someone help me moderate?.
• Add, rename or tidy rooms. See How do I add, rename or tidy the areas in my forum?, and Can each of my courses have its own discussion room? for a room per course.
• Public and private rooms. Some rooms can be open to the world, others kept for your subscribers only. See Can some areas of my forum be public and others for paying members only? and How do I give my subscribers their own private area?.
• Let lots of people in. Bring a whole member list in at once. See How do I let my whole member list into the forum at once?.

What a person at bernard does

If your site does not have a forum yet, see Can my members have a forum on my site?.

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. Who can see each room is not part of setup: you change it by asking. 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.