A public forum can be accessed by all website visitors. You can configure the forum permissions in such a way that any website visitor can take part in your portal. You can allow them to view, post and respond to the online discussions.

To create public forum:

Go to Settings section.
Select the Forums tab and click on New link from the left side menu.
This opens the New Forum Details page.
Update Basic Details:
- Name: Enter your forum name.
- Description: Provide a short description about your forum.
- Forum Type: Choose your forum type to be Public.
Assign Forum Moderators:
- Forum Moderators: Enter the Email ID(s) or Name(s) of the portal member whom you want to nominate as a moderator of this forum.
- Moderator Groups: Select a required group from the drop-down list, if you wish to assign moderators from a particular group.
Configure Forum Permissions:
- Enable the View permission to Everyone.
- Enable the Post permission to Everyone.
- Enable the Response permission to Everyone.
- Enable the Attach files permission to Everyone.
- Enable the Moderate Users permission for None, Guest or Everyone.
Click on Create. See image below
The public forum gets created and available for your community.

Note: You can also update the forum permission as per your requirement. For Instance: If you wish to allow your visitors to only view and not to participate in discussions, you can configure the View permission to "Everyone" and configure other permissions to "Portal Members"

Private Forum

A private forum can be accessible only by a specific group of users. For Example: A private forum for your sales team so that they can discuss their sales procedures, marketing campaigns etc.,

To create private forum:

Go to Settings section.
Select the Forums tab and click on New link from the left side menu.
This opens the New Forum Details page.
Update Basic Details:
- Name: Enter your forum name.
- Description: Provide a short description about your forum.
- Forum Type: Choose your forum type to be Private.
Enter the user names (if registered with Zoho) or Email IDs of the required members in the Members text-box.
Assign Forum Moderators:
- Forum Moderators: Enter the Email ID(s) or Name(s) of the portal member whom you want to nominate as a moderator of this forum.
- Moderator Groups: Select a required group from the drop-down list, if you wish to assign moderators from a particular group.
Click on Create. See image below
The private forum gets created and can be accessed by the selected members.