It is an open area for responsive debate. Members of the group or the portal who have the required authority, set by the administrator or moderator (or everyone, if the forum is public) can write messages and receive answers.

As all the authorised members can write messages and receive replies, it is an extremely responsive and direct debating space.

The forum allows members of the group or the portal to open parallel discussions on different themes. Its structure allows you to follow the development of a debate and to join in at any moment.

1- Go to the Forum you are interested in. If it belongs to a particular group, go to Groups > Group > Contents > Forum. If you want to access a general forum on the portal, you only need to choose it in the Tools section in the menu on the left hand side of the portal's main page.

The first page in Forum, shows an index of the topics being discussed in your group and the number of posts. To the left of each topic you can see the following icons:

	You have no new messages.
	The forum is blocked and you cannot publish, reply to or edit topics.
	You have new messages.

The appearance of these icons can change, depending on the type of message:

	Indicates that the message is an Announcement (appears first on all the pages in the Forum).
	Indicates that the Announcement is new.
	Indicates that the message is permanent - Sticky (appears first on the first page of the Forum).
	Indicates that the permanent message is new.
	An icon like a bell which is moving indicates that there are a lot of answers to the message.

Only administrators and moderators can post permanent messages or announcements.

To see the messages linked to a topic, just click on the topic title. This opens a window where you can see all the linked messages, showing the author and date and time of posting of each message.

To update the message list, once you have read all the topics, click on Mark all topics as read.

- To see previous messages:

1- Go to Show previous topics.

2- You can filter on a specific time period (from one day up to a year).

3- Click Go.

- There are two ways to post messages on the Discussion Forum

•  Open a discussion (publish a new topic).

•  Post a message on the Discussion Forum to participate in a discussion which is already open.