Table of Contents
- Forum Management
- Getting Started
- Category Management
- Permission System
- Role Management
- Team-Based Permissions
- Account Management
- Moderation Tools
- Moderation Page
- BBCode Management
- Management Dashboard
- Dashboard Widgets
- Guest Access
- Edit History Visibility
- App Initialization
- Best Practices
- Server Administration
The forum has two administration surfaces:
- Forum management — the in-app management panel accessed from the sidebar. Used for day-to-day configuration: categories, roles, permissions, BBCodes, and account management.
- Server administration — the Nextcloud Settings > Administration > Forum panel. Used for system-level operations: repairing seed data, rebuilding statistics, and assigning roles.
Forum Management
Accounts with the appropriate role permissions can access the management panel from the sidebar navigation inside the forum app.
Getting Started
- Access the Management Panel — Accounts with management-capable roles see the "Management" section in the sidebar
- Set Up Categories — Create category headers and categories to organize discussions
- Configure Roles & Permissions — Define roles and set granular permissions per category
- Customize BBCodes — Enable/disable formatting tags or create custom ones
Category Management
Organize your forum by creating:
- Category Headers — Grouping sections (e.g., "General Discussion", "Support")
- Categories — Individual discussion areas within headers
- Use drag-and-drop to reorder categories and headers
- Customize category appearance with colors and text contrast settings
Permission System
Control access with multiple permission levels:
- Global Permissions — Role-level (dashboard, account management, roles, categories, BBCodes, moderation)
- Category Permissions — Per-role or per-team, per-category (view, post, reply, moderate)
- Team Permissions — Assign permissions to Nextcloud Teams for easier bulk management
Role Management
- Create custom roles with names, descriptions, and color coding (light/dark theme variants)
- Assign multiple roles to accounts
- Default roles: Admin (full access), Moderator (moderation and management tools), User (basic access), Guest (limited access)
- Guest and Default roles cannot have management or moderator permissions
Team-Based Permissions
In addition to role-based permissions, you can assign category permissions directly to Nextcloud Teams:
- Teams have the same permission levels as roles (view, post, reply, moderate)
- Useful for granting access to organizational groups without creating custom roles
- Managed through the category edit interface under the permissions table
Account Management
- View all forum accounts and their statistics
- Assign forum roles to Nextcloud accounts
- Track account activity (post count, thread count, join date)
Moderation Tools
- Lock threads — Prevent new replies
- Pin threads — Feature important discussions at the top
- Hide threads — Remove inappropriate content from view
- Move threads — Relocate threads between categories (requires moderate permission on target category)
Moderation Page
The moderation page allows moderators and administrators to review and restore deleted content. Access it from the Management > Moderation sidebar item.
Deleted Threads
- Browse all soft-deleted threads with search and sorting (newest/oldest deleted first)
- Each thread shows its original title, author, category, and when it was deleted
- Click a thread to preview it in a modal with all its posts (including deleted replies)
- Restore a thread to make it visible again — statistics are automatically recalculated
Deleted Replies
- Browse all soft-deleted replies with search and sorting
- Each reply shows the full content with BBCode formatting, author info, and a link to the original thread
- Restore a reply to make it visible again in its thread
Permissions
Access to the moderation page is controlled by the Moderation role permission. By default, the Admin and Moderator roles have this permission enabled. It can be configured per role in Management > Roles.
BBCode Management
- Create custom BBCodes with HTML templates
- Built-in support:
[b],[i],[u],[s],[code],[url],[email],[img],[quote],[youtube],[list],[color],[size],[font],[left],[center],[right],[spoiler],[attachment], and more
Management Dashboard
The management dashboard displays:
- Total accounts, threads, posts, and categories
- Recent activity metrics
- Account statistics (top posters, recent activity)
Dashboard Widgets
The forum provides Nextcloud Dashboard widgets that accounts can add to their dashboard:
- Recent Activity — Shows the latest threads and replies
- Top Threads — Most viewed threads
- Top Categories — Most active categories by thread count
All widgets respect account permissions and only show content from accessible categories.
Guest Access
The Forum app supports optional guest access, allowing unauthenticated visitors to participate in forum discussions.
Enabling Guest Access
- Navigate to Management > Forum settings
- Enable the "Allow guest access" option
- Configure guest role permissions under Management > Roles > Guest
- Set per-category access permissions for the guest role
Guest Capabilities
Guests can:
- View threads and posts in categories with guest access enabled
- Create threads and post replies (when guest role has post/reply permissions)
- Search forum content
- View account profiles and statistics
Guests cannot:
- Subscribe to threads or use bookmarks
- Access preferences or templates
- View read/unread status
- Moderate categories
- Access management tools
- Be mentioned in posts
Guest identities are tracked via session tokens with auto-generated display names.
Edit History Visibility
Control who can view the edit history of posts. These settings are found under Management > Forum settings > Edit history.
How it works
The visibility of edit history is determined by a layered set of rules:
- Post owners can always view the edit history of their own posts
- Administration and moderators (globally or per-category) can always view edit history
- All other accounts are subject to the admin settings below
Admin settings
- Allow all accounts to view edit history — When enabled, any account can view the edit history of any post. When disabled, only post owners can view their own edit history.
- Allow accounts to hide their own edit history — Only visible when public edit history is enabled. When enabled, accounts get a privacy option in their preferences to hide their edit history from other accounts.
Account preferences
When the administrator enables both public edit history and the account override, accounts can opt out by enabling "Hide my edit history from other accounts" in their preferences under the Privacy section.
App Initialization
When the forum app is first installed, an initialization screen guides the administrator through
setting up default data (roles, categories, permissions, and BBCodes). This can also be triggered
manually via the forum:repair-seeds OCC command.
Best Practices
- Set Clear Permissions — Define who can view, post, and moderate in each category
- Create Organized Categories — Use descriptive names and logical groupings
- Enable Relevant BBCodes — Only enable formatting tags your accounts need
- Assign Moderators — Distribute moderation responsibilities with the Moderator role
- Monitor Activity — Regularly check the dashboard for unusual activity
- Rebuild Stats Periodically — Use the server administration panel or OCC commands to keep statistics accurate
Server Administration
The server administration panel is located in Nextcloud's Settings > Administration > Forum section. It provides system-level tools that are typically used by the Nextcloud server administrator.
Repair Database Initial Data
Restore default forum data (roles, categories, permissions, BBCodes). Safe to run multiple times as
it will skip data that already exists. Equivalent to the forum:repair-seeds OCC command.
Rebuild Statistics
Recalculate all forum statistics including account post counts, thread counts, and category
counters. Use this if statistics appear incorrect or out of sync. Equivalent to the
forum:rebuild-all-stats OCC command.
Assign Roles
Assign forum roles to Nextcloud accounts directly from the server administration panel.
OCC Commands
For command-line access to these and additional operations, see OCC Commands.