- Forum Dictionary! -

Hello, everyone!

We thought that without a dictionary explaining some of the key terms commonly used within the forums, the other posts may be a bit confusing so welcome to the Forum Dictionary!

Sub-community: A category is called a sub-community when assigned a home page and given a join-community button, this happens when the category is active, has a group of leaders, hosts regular check-ins and has subscribers. A sub-community is the joint of forums and member chatrooms so sub-communities have a related support room too in most cases.

Sub-forum or topic: This is where the community is broken up into more specific areas such as Health Anxiety within the Anxiety Community.

Thread: A collection of posts which typically form a discussion. These can be icebreakers, check-ins, a question or simply anyone asking for support.

Post: A response to a thread/person or a post can be the start of a thread. It is where you write something to contribute to a discussion or thread and will appear in its own section with your username and time it was written.

Reply: This is when you click a button that says reply in order to reply to a particular post, this may be to the original post or to a comment. WHen you press the reply button it also automatically includes the users name that you are replying to.

OP: Original Post - this is a first post that starts a thread.

Hyperlink: This is where you make it so a word becomes a clickable link (it typically becomes a blue colour unless the author of the post changes the colour) - there will be more information on how to make a hyperlink in a post that is soon to come!

FS: Forum Supporter - this is a person who contributes to their chosen community or communities through engaging and supportive threads or replying to other posts.

CM: Community Mentor/Teen Star - these are people who have shown dedication to their community and are active in the forum, they can edit and delete posts to moderate content and keep everyone safe. They can also help with the organisation of the community.

Forum Supporter and Forum Mentor/Star/Member leader roles are subcommunity based. You can apply to be global after a month in your role.

Forum PA: Forum Project Agent - these are people who work in making sure the forums and the teams within the forums are run efficiently. This is the first step in the Forum Leadership roles, they focus on the team as a whole not a particular subcommunity.

CML: Community Mentor Leaders - CML/TSL are leaders in forums who dedicated their time to building community across the whole side. They are always leading a forum-based project and want to improve the forums for everyone regardless of topic.

FA/Amb: Forum Ambassadors - work as a bridge between admin and the volunteer team and also hold trainings and meetings.

NR: This stands for Needs Reply which are posts that have had no response.

Flag: This is when you click the flag icon at the bottom of someone's post to report it as not following forum guidelines.

Upvote: This is when you click on the upwards arrow to show that you read a post and enjoyed it or found it helpful.

Ice-breaker/Fun activity: Respond to 1 post in the Needs Reply queue!

Updated by @tommy on July 27th, 2023