How To Make A Forum With Wordpress _ Free Forum Website

What is that party people ?

My name is Darryl Wilson .

And today I'm gonna teach you all how to make a really nice form with wordpress .

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Now , let me just give you guys an example of what this form looks like and show you guys the features and everything else .

Now , I like this form because it has like those really cool like achievements for people .

You know , like when people are on forms , it gives like those achievements and stuff .

It actually has that uh embedded inside this form and this is a free plug in .

So you won't have to pay a dollar for it .

Now , this form also works or the plug-in also works for virtually any theme .

So it doesn't matter what theme you're using , you can be using , you can be using flats , any theme that you want and it will work .

So for example , let's say uh we have like these main categories .

So here we have like the the main topic , like the main kind of like subject .

And then here we have different subtopics .

So like best Wordpress themes , Wordpress topics .

Now your users can go ahead and click on it and then here you can display a list of topics and then right here , I'll say , OK , what is wordpress ?

And then wordpress is a source to create stuff .

OK ?

Cool .

And then here I can go ahead and leave a reply and you have all these gadgets right here where people can , you know , add different stuff .

Now , uh One thing I loved about this uh form thing is that it shows like user stats .

So right here it shows all the stats for each member .

Um Also it has like the the achievements .

So by their name , it shows like if they've done a lot of cool stuff , it'll say like , oh he's level two , level three , people love that stuff , you know , they really love it .

So uh today I'm gonna show you how you can set this up for your website .

You guys can also change the color scheme as well uh on this form .

So I just chose like a dark form , but you can have the full options to change any color or however you want to style it .

OK ?

So I'm gonna go to another website with nothing installed on it .

Now , this is the theme here .

Um I'm gonna go to my other demo website and I'm going to install uh this plug-in from scratch on this theme .

Uh This theme right here is called The Bright Theme .

It works for Element .

Uh If you guys wanna look at it , there's a link in the description below to that .

But again , you guys can use anything you want .

So here I'm gonna go to plugins and go to add new .

Now about a year ago , I had a tutorial on BB Press and Buddy Press .

But guys , since that's happened , you know , a lot of people watch their competitors and they kinda build and improve upon products .

So we're gonna be using , actually , you can just type it in .

So for them and we will be using this one right here .

WP four forum .

We're going to install that .

I found that this one was really good .

Uh Us Garros Forum was not bad , but after kind of tinkering around with it , I realized uh WB four is a little , a little more customizable and it's really simple to make a form before it was a little hard with BB press .

I'm not gonna lie or uh yeah , Buddy Press or BB Press .

You know , they used to be the same plug in a long time ago , then they split them up for some reason .

So uh basically I installed that plug-in now on the left side right here , you're going to see um forums .

Sorry guys , I have a lot of plugins installed on this one right here .

All right .

So we have this page right here .

All right .

Now , we have different settings , like forums , settings , tools , moderation .

I'm gonna go through each and every one of these to make sure that you guys understand what they are .

So you guys will not have to leave me comments .

I'm just kidding .

I , I don't mind the comments guys .

I really don't , you know , so this is like the main category .

So like what is this all about ?

And again , you can edit this to say whatever you want .

So main category , let's call this something like wordpress discussion .

All right , I'm going to publish it .

Now .

One thing I wanna let you guys know when you publish it , it doesn't give you like that updates .

OK ?

So don't keep clicking on publish it works .

OK ?

So don't panic if you're like , oh my God , it's not working .

OK ?

It works , it works .

So let's click on forms again and we have main form now , this is the default setting .

So we're gonna go ahead and make our own .

But I just want to give you guys a small understanding of it .

So let's just say I want to change this to something like uh plugins , right ?

Word press plug ins , wordpress plugins .

And then I'm gonna click on update that and remember on the right side right here , it says parent form of now there's an easier way to change this and I'm gonna show you in just a bit .

So here click on forms .

Let's make a new form now .

So the new form is gonna be Wordpress Themes , ok ?

So Wordpress themes and then here you can give like a , a brief description of it .

Um something like um uh we talk about wordpress being here , you know what guys , another really big thing about forms about why they're so good is because these things actually get picked up on search engines and you know , it actually helps with seo so I highly recommend to getting it or to get one , you know , why not ?

You know , not unless you don't want to deal with people because I don't like to deal with people .

So I made this for , you know , and it's , it's , you guys can see now it's , it's its own topic , but maybe I don't want this to be its own topic .

So what I can do is I can drag it .

So you see now how wordpress themes and wordpress plugins are um apparent of wordpress discussion .

OK .

So this is a very simple way to create a hierarchy .

And in fact , you could even do it like that .

So you can have wordpress discussions and then wordpress themes or wordpress plugins and then you can have another category for that specific section as well .

Maybe you can even talk about different types of plugins , you know , but uh for it to to purposes .

We're just gonna keep it simple and I'm gonna drag it there .

Now , let's just say I want to go ahead and say , you know , let's , let's , let's not talk about wordpress , let's talk about um Woocommerce or something .

So right here , I'm gonna go to or a new and go to Woocommerce or just type in , you know , whatever .

I'm just giving you guys an example .

Again , this stuff right here , we don't need to mess with um the other bottom stuff .

You guys can kind of mess with that a little bit later .

So uh we'll talk more about that .

Let's see right here .

So yeah .

All right , safe hierarchy .

OK ?

So I save the hierarchy .

Now , let's go ahead and do one more .

So add new and now I'm gonna do like uh so what we talk about Woocommerce , let's talk about uh payment methods and click on publish .

All right .

So now we have payment methods right here .

Now we need to go ahead and drag this , put it right there .

So you see what we're doing here .

We're basically creating a main category and we're adding subcategories below it .

So when people see our form , they can say OK , Woocommerce and payment methods .

OK ?

Cool .

II I get this .

I understand it .

Now , let's just make one more and then I'm going to show you about how to do registration colors , all that stuff .

Uh Here , we'll talk about Woocommerce themes because I just make this up as I go along .

I really , I am not on the script , you know , it's , I just , I just do it , you know , so we should have actually saved uh the hierarchy .

So uh right here woocommerce , I gotta , I gotta remember how to do that .

All right here , save form hierarchy and just do it one more time just in case , just in case it doesn't work .

OK ?

So we have our form there .

All right now , right here we have different settings .

All right .

So we have uh like our form base URL .

So this URL right here is our uh our page right here .

So if you go to community right here , we're gonna go ahead and see our form right here or we can just go ahead and type it in .

So we can just type in community .

You can always change the name of the hyperlink to something like um you know , uh I don't know whatever you want , you know .

So this is our form , you know , it looks good already .

Of course , it doesn't match the color scheme of my theme , but you can always change that in the options .

So here we have wordpress discussion .

We have different topics , posts online members , guys .

This is a really clean setup .

I love this setup .

So here we have like wordpress plugins and then you can like leave uh people can start actually posting in it .

So right now we have no posts because that's what the people do .

You can always make your new post as a moderator or you can just , you know , add new topic .

And let's , let's talk about plugins , the 10 , the 10 worst plugins .

I hate this plug-in list or I hate this plug-in called .

And then you can go ahead and put in your , you can go ahead and add it in there .

OK ?

And then right here we'll click on , add a topic and then of course , people can go ahead and respond to this right here .

They can say , you know , I don't like it .

I think it sucks , whatever , uh , you know , whatever they want to go ahead and talk about .

Ok ?

So that's basically our quick little form .

Now , let's go ahead and talk about different things like , um uh we'll talk about members , we'll talk about all the other settings .

So , uh clicking on forms right here .

We kind of had , we kind of have our , our form already set right here in our members , click on members and then right here we have , uh me right there .

So Darryl .

So if I click on that , so we can kind of view the member .

Now , uh , you can guys actually install uh buddy or member as well on this to kind of like , you know , uh I know it's compatible now with , uh , I think it's Buddy Press or Member press .

I'm not too sure .

It's the one with the profiles I think is Buddy Press , but it's compatible with that because it just came out with an update .

So it allows you to uh you know , combine it as well .

So uh that's an example of what it looked like .

And again , you guys can , you know , add in like um you know , different uh achievements and everything .

Let's go in the settings .

Let's let's go ahead and show you guys .

All right .

So we have our forms .

Uh I think we would do settings , right ?

We did settings .

OK ?

So let's go through this .

So right here we have the form title , whatever you want your form to be called , you can go through that .

Now guys , a lot of these settings , I'm not really gonna go far too in , you know , I'm not gonna really explain it like number of recent topics .

How many do you want a number of recent topics right here ?

So depending on how many you want to display without it going to the next page , you can list it here .

Um form accesses .

So this is actually important .

So read access only .

So these are for people who are kind of lurking on your website who are just kind of they're not registered , but they're just looking around .

So what permission do you want to give them here ?

You can say like you can view replies but you cannot post because we want them to register first .

I'll show you guys how to do registration in just a bit .

But um all this stuff right here , you can say for people who are not registered but are visiting the website can do these functions right here and then right here , standard access of people who are registered and then for access and then full access .

So uh what permission do you want to give your moderators ?

You can give them the permission to ban people , you know , ban everybody .

You know , I've , I've been banned from forums guys , I've , you know , I put in my two cents sometimes and people are like , you know what man , you're out , you know , so you can , you can add those uh uh permissions over there .

Uh This again is just different other settings like as far as minutes go , um you guys can kind of go through these , these are not really uh super important here .

We have uh members .

So right here like this is like their member Ur URL .

So remember we went to the members section um you know , all that stuff .

That's the URL S .

Now , you guys will need to use this right here .

This is very important .

So where do you want the login and the registration and last password URL to be ?

So right here , we'll do something like log in uh right here , register .

I think it's pretty good , pretty standard .

And then right here we'll do like lost password .

Now , these sections right here .

Are saying , OK , when someone logs in on your website , where do you want them to go ?

That's basically what it's saying .

Uh I would recommend putting it on like their profile .

So , you know , profile , you guys can actually see what they've actually done right here .

And then also right here account and then this subscriptions or something , you can always modify it yourself .

Uh This is the cool section right here .

This is where you have all the uh settings for badges , you know , like I got some badges from , so I kind of feel good .

So here you guys can add badges , you can say um number of posts .

So if you post five times , we'll give you the one star badge and then you can change the red color to whatever you like , you know .

So right here , you guys can see you can change the , the color to something .

So if your site matches a current scheme , um you can go ahead and change that right there here .

Uh You know , reputation , all this other stuff , you know , you guys can go ahead and go through this .

It's , it's not really too important .

So it's just kind of like , you know , reputation titles for selected user groups , et cetera .

So going back up over here , I'm gonna go to or click on update options one more time or enter a URL .

So right here , please enter a URL after log in .

Uh ok , so I'll go ahead and put in the whole URL sorry about that .

And then right here guys , if it , if you don't uh put this and they do log in , it'll just take them to your home page .

So it's not , um it's not the end of the world .

So just letting you know .

So , uh email is right here .

So these are the emails and you can go ahead and decorate the emails once they register or a new topic is created or if we're having like a , you know , you know how people get in like the debates with forms and they start going at each other .

Yeah , you gotta let them know .

So here are just some other options you can add .

Um It can actually like um you can show the form page title , uh everything else .

Now , if you guys , I think there's a plug in now that will get rid of the actual page title .

Um I think actually , you know , this will actually do it now .

That's cool uh before they didn't have that .

So here you can actually take away the page title .

So if you want , you don't want to show form , you can just go ahead and take that out .

OK ?

Uh Styles , different colors .

So I gave mine a dark color scheme .

You can guys can always go ahead and , and change it to something else you like to , you know , whatever you guys want .

That's pretty self-explanatory .

I'll do I'll do , I'll do green and then click on update options .

Uh If you're a developer , you guys can always add your CS S right here .

Um Like a text wrap or whatever you want .

Um tools .

Uh They have like their own controls as far as like handing spam .

Usually they kind of like uh if someone posts a link , they'll kind of like flag it , you know , because people out there who are like , hey , check this out and then you go , it's like a Viagra website , you know , it's really annoying .

So here we have like the different settings , you guys can go ahead and go through like , you know , a login form .

Uh Don't worry about the login form .

I'm going to show you the URL S because I know people are wondering about that .

So moderation , uh these are like things that are held for moderation .

So topics and posts .

So if you have the settings where basically you're saying you must be moderated before we prove it , that's where we're gonna go ahead and set its members right here .

You guys can see your members , you guys can always modify their stuff , user groups here as well .

You guys can always add like user groups .

So by default guys , I don't think you'll add another one .

I mean , I've seen some forms have like under admins , they have like the sub admins like the beginners , you can always make something like that .

And then give them permission for something .

But I think this is pretty good .

I think this is pretty standard .

I don't think you're not going , you know , you're not gonna run like the next um like crazy stuff and these are like just like front end phrases .

You guys will see uh this is more for , for , but you guys can always like , you know , modify it .

You guys can always add your own , but most of you probably won't need this because they've done a really good job at adding the front end phrases .

Next we have themes .

So this is the current theme and I don't know if they have other ones , you guys can always uh check out their website .

Uh Also they give you guys instructions on like , you know , different ways to style the custom sheets , you know , or the style sheets .

But uh you as beginners uh probably are never going to use that stuff .

And then here you have add ons .

So if you want to add different add ons , you can add them on .

Now , let's go ahead and do our register page .

Now , before we do our register page guys , we will need to change some settings and install one simple plug in .

So over here under the plugins , I want to go to add new and we are going to install Buddy Press .

Now , the reason why we saw buddy guys is that because that actually enables us to have the Perma links and it creates our log in page for us .

So people can actually lo in without having to use um WP dash like log in or whatever .

So let me just give you guys an example .

All right .

So we saw Buddy Press .

Now again , we did that because now if we go over here and we do register , it's going to give him this beautiful page right here .

Oh , that's because I'm logged in .

Oops .

Oops , I look like a bad instructor .

So here I'm gonna go to uh uh what's it called ?

Uh register .

So let's just say they want to register .

You can like put , put in that link to like a button anywhere on your website .

And let me brought to this page right here .

Now , I don't have this set and that's because the last setting that we need to check is a little check box in the settings .

So let's go ahead and I'm gonna go ahead and log back into my website .

And guys , this is like the most important step of this entire section .

Please do not forget this step .

If you get this step , your form just it won't work .

So over here , we're gonna go to our um are uh was it the general settings ?

Is it the um settings right here , settings and general ?

And then right here , this little box right here , we need to click on .

Anyone can register .

Now .

I hope you guys watched this tutorial since this part or from the beginning to now because if this is not checked , your form will not work .

So save changes .

And guys , I think that's about it .

Now , let's go ahead and just do like a quick little walk through of our , our uh form now really quickly .

Guys , you guys can go ahead and go to like your menu and maybe add it to your uh menu as well .

Don't forget about that .

Remember the page is a community .

So uh by default , it actually creates the page for you .

So right here , I have so many pages guys because I , I install templates .

So I can probably just um there it is form .

There we go .

So by doing that , you should , you know , it's , it's easier for people to get to your form .

OK ?

So um also you guys can go to pages and um all those WP four is guys , it's a short code .

So over here under my pages , he's being a little slow .

I can just show you guys really quickly what the short code looks like .

So right here we have form and guys literally , it's a short code so you can take this short code and put it anywhere .

You can , you know , you can even decorate it .

You can add like stuff over here and then maybe , you know , mess around with it trial and settings , you know , it just depends on the theme that you're using .

Uh I can't really say for sure if you can decorate it or not , but I know some things you can , but it has its own little , you know , template or um this color schemes .

So you don't really need to .

Now , let's just go ahead and um let's go ahead and view this page right here .

So we're here and click on view page and again , you know , our form is legit , it looks great .

Uh Here we have two members right here .

Uh People can log in , people can register , people can do whatever they want .

So here , I'm gonna click on , log out .

And now up here , I'm gonna go to register now really quickly .

They can also register through this right here as well if they choose to or they can use the one that you created for them uh like this right here .

OK ?

So Buddy Press creates a really nice structure for this .

So right here , um you know , they can log in and then after they log in , it'll take them to uh the page that you want that you signed .

So , um again , guys , I hope this tutorial was helpful .

Uh If you guys have any questions , uh feel free to let me know in the comments below .

I think this is probably one of the best forum uh software that I've seen for wordpress .

Uh Go ahead and give them a positive rating , you know , they have a really nice plug in or nice .

Yeah , it is a plug in .

Um They have a pro version .

So check out the pro version or not a pro version , but the added features .

If your form gets big enough , you might want to start adding some add-ons to it .

So go ahead and check that out .

All right .

So I hope this tour was helpful guys .

Um Make sure to like the video .

All right , subscribe .

All right , and I'll see you guys later .

Take care .