HOW TO: Making the Forums Work for You

Hopefully we've ironed out the confusion with the term "discussion" by now. For this How-To we're going to focus on the Forums section.

Currently, when you click the Forum in the toolbar, the default that loads is viewing ALL discussions, with the MOST RECENT activity at the top. Although this is a handy way to see what the most recent activity is, many users get hung-up here and don't realize the other options they have available. There is a sort option and a view option.

There are THREE different ways to sort when you are viewing ALL the discussions.

Latest Activity is the default sort; the most recent post or reply will appear at the top, and descends in chronological order of recent activity from there.
Newest Discussions will display discussions in the order posted, with the most recent at the top; sorting this way ignores the replies made to a discussion.
Most Popular will display the discussions in order of popularity based on the number of views and clicks those discussions are receiving; sorting this way ignores when the post was made and the replies made to the discussion.

There are TWO different ways to view discussions.

Discussions view is the default, which displays all of the discussions and allows you the ability to apply the sort options listed above.
Categories view will hide the discussions and instead display the (currently) 64 categories available. Once you are viewing these categories, you can click on the category of your choice, and then just the discussions in the category will be displayed. Also once you are viewing the discussions within a category, you will have the three sorting options mentioned above available again.

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You should also keep the categories in mind when creating a new discussion in the Forums.

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Here is a screen-shot of the current 64 categories available:

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Just to add to the confusion, you'll probably notice that some of these categories have the same name as some of the Groups that have been created. These are NOT the same, but instead are two separate areas with the same title.

Also note that you DO NOT have the option to select a category when creating a new discussion within a Group. Again, if needed refer to the differences in use of the term "discussion"


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I am not a Ning expert. I'm a tech-head who has worked in IT for over 10 years; and I have some experience on another Ning network. This is not an official statement from the GW staff; just some friendly tips for my fellow GW users. Feel free to message me if you have questions, comments, or suggestions for other topics. ~Johnny