Software package

Community forum package

A forum your moderators can actually run: categories with permissions, threads with rich replies and attachments, a single moderation queue with each member's history beside the report, warnings that expire and bans that stick, reputation and badges, messages, search that finds last week before 2009, spam defence and an import from the forum you have now.

Custom build Concept demo

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Who it is for

Built for

A good fit

Interest and hobby forums, local and special-interest communities, product and software support communities run by brands, and communities attached to publications or podcasts, from a few hundred members to hundreds of thousands of posts. It suits communities that need more than a chat group: categories that outlast the week, moderators who need tools rather than goodwill, members who deserve recognition for years of help, and an archive that newcomers can search. Daily users are the administrator setting categories and permissions, moderators working the queue, members posting, replying and messaging, and guests reading and searching before they register.

Not the right fit

It is not for vetted professional communities with applications and profiles, which have the professional community package, nor for internal staff discussion tools or help desks with tickets. Brands that want staff-marked official answers feeding a knowledge base, or sign-on with a customer account, need the custom route for those parts.

The operational problem it solves

How it runs, step by step

Sunday evening, the busiest hour of the week.

A moderator opens the queue on her phone: fourteen items, sorted with the most serious at the top.
Three are first posts from accounts created today, held automatically because they contain links; two are clearly spam and she bans both with one action, and the third is a genuine newcomer whose post she approves.
A report about a personal attack in the classifieds category shows the post, the reporter's note and, beside it, the member's history: two warnings, the second one expiring next month.
She issues a third warning with points that push the member into a seven-day posting restriction, which the system applies, and writes a case note the other moderators will see.

In the meet-up category the weekly thread has hit its length limit and a new one is created automatically with a link back.

A member who has answered questions for eight years crosses a reputation threshold and earns the badge and the trust level that lets him edit thread titles and tags, so he tidies a mistitled thread without asking.
A newcomer searches for a common problem and the solved thread from last month appears first, ahead of the 2009 thread on the same topic.
Someone tries to send twenty private messages in a minute from a new account and is stopped at the limit.
The administrator looks at the day's figures: registrations, posts, reports resolved, supporter tier renewals, and the search engine traffic to thread pages, which has held because every old address redirects to the new one.
By ten the queue is empty and nobody had to be awake before breakfast.

Features

What the package does

The package ships as modules that mirror how a forum runs: structure and posting, moderation and safety, reputation and recognition, messaging and notifications, search and discoverability, and the import that brings the old forum across. Each module below lists what it does; the comparison table shows which package variant includes it.

Content and editorial

Categories with permissionsCategories and sub-categories, each with its own rules for who can view, post and attach files.
Import from existing forum softwareMove threads, attachments and messages from common forum software, with a redirect map so old links still arrive.

Messaging and notifications

Threads and repliesRich text posts with quoting, mentions, attachments and image limits.
Private messages and notificationsPrivate messages limited by trust level, with notifications and subscriptions to threads and categories.
Solved-thread workflowThreads marked solved by the asker or a moderator, so the answer is easy to find.

Compliance and records

Moderation queueReports, held first posts and spam flags in one queue, with the member's history beside each item.
Warnings, restrictions and bansWarning points that expire, posting restrictions, temporary and permanent bans and case notes.
Spam defenceLimits for new accounts, link rules and rate limits to keep spam out.

Memberships

Reputation, badges and trust levelsReputation from signals you configure, with badges and trust levels that unlock tools as members earn them.
Paid supporter tierA supporter tier with a badge and benefits, paid through a connected provider.

Directory and reviews

Search favouring recent and solved threadsSearch that weights recent and solved threads and can be scoped by category.
Stable thread URLsThreads at permanent addresses with pagination, canonical tags and sitemaps, so search engines can follow them.

Roles and permissions

Who does what

Administrator
- Create categories with view, post and attach permissions
- Set warning points, expiry, ban rules and spam thresholds
- Define reputation signals, badges and trust level unlocks
- Manage the supporter tier and benefits
- See registrations, activity, reports and search engine traffic
Moderator
- Work the moderation queue with member history beside each item
- Approve, edit, move, merge, split, lock and pin threads
- Issue warnings, restrictions and bans with case notes
- Review held first posts and spam flags
- Cannot change categories, permissions or reputation rules
Member
- Post threads and replies with rich text, quotes, mentions and attachments
- Subscribe to threads and categories and manage notifications
- Send private messages within their trust level limits
- Earn reputation and badges and unlock trust level tools
- Report content and join the supporter tier
Guest
- Read public categories and search
- Register with verification and spam checks
- Cannot post, message or see members-only categories

Example screen

Concept demo

Concept demo of a forum moderation queue showing held first posts, a report with the member's warning history and the warning action panel.

The moderation queue on a Sunday evening: fourteen items sorted by severity, three held first posts with links from new accounts, a report in the classifieds category with the member's two previous warnings and their expiry shown beside it, and the action panel offering a third warning with points and the restriction it triggers.

Scope and options

What is included and what is extra

In the base package

Categories and sub-categories with view, post and attach permissions
Threads and replies with rich text, quoting, mentions, attachments and image limits
Moderation queue combining reports, held first posts and spam flags with member history
Warnings with points and expiry, posting restrictions, temporary and permanent bans, case notes
Reputation from configurable signals, badges and trust levels that unlock tools
Private messages with limits by trust level, notifications and subscriptions
Search weighted to recent and solved threads, scoped by category
Spam defence with new-account limits, link rules and rate limits
Stable thread URLs with pagination, canonical tags and sitemaps

Common add-ons

Import from common forum software with attachments, messages and a redirect map
Paid supporter tier with badge and benefits through a connected provider
Third-party spam and abuse checking service
Solved-thread workflow with asker or moderator marking

Needs custom work

Staff role with official answers feeding a public knowledge summary
Single sign-on with a brand, shop or membership account
Import from bespoke or heavily modified forum software
Trust level rules beyond the standard signals

See the custom development service

Ownership, maintenance and pricing

After the build

Deployment and ownership

Runs on your own hosting or on hosting we manage; the choice is made in the proposal and can change later. You own the code and your data in both cases. Members, threads, posts, attachments, messages and moderation records can be exported at any time in standard formats, and nothing in the package stops a move to another provider.

Maintenance

Maintenance is optional and scoped separately from the build. When taken, it covers security updates, monitoring of email delivery, spam thresholds and search indexing, backups, and a monthly window for small changes such as a new category, revised warning points or a new badge. Larger changes are quoted as change requests.

Pricing model

Priced per proposal.

Sold as a one-off setup and customisation with optional monthly maintenance and hosting as separate recurring lines. The setup figure depends on the number of categories and permissions, the moderation and reputation configuration, the add-ons selected, the size and software of any forum to import and the traffic the forum carries. The proposal itemises each line so recurring costs are never hidden in the build.

Software package

Custom build Concept demo

Variants

Custom Platform : quote for this variant

Categories and sub-categories with view, post and attach permissions
Threads and replies with rich text, quoting, mentions, attachments and image limits
Moderation queue combining reports, held first posts and spam flags with member history
Warnings with points and expiry, posting restrictions, temporary and permanent bans, case notes

Priced per proposal. A written proposal is the only binding figure.

Get a quote for this package Prefer a fully custom build?

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How does the moderation queue work?

Reports, held first posts and spam flags arrive in one list sorted by severity. Each item shows the content, the reporter's note and the member's full history of warnings and cases, so any moderator acts with the same knowledge. Every action leaves a case note.

Do warnings expire?

Yes, if you want them to. Warnings carry points with an expiry you set; thresholds trigger posting restrictions or bans automatically, and the history remains visible to moderators after the points lapse.

Can we import our existing forum?

With the import add-on, members, categories, threads, posts, attachments and private messages come across from common forum software, with a redirect map from the old URLs. The import runs first as a trial so moderators can check it. Bespoke or heavily modified software is custom work through custom forum development.

What stops spam registrations?

New accounts have posting, link and message limits until they earn trust; first posts with links are held for review; rate limits stop bursts. A third-party checking service can be added where the volume demands it.

Can long-standing members get more powers?

Trust levels are earned from the reputation signals you choose and unlock tools such as editing titles and tags, posting in restricted categories or higher message limits. Which tools unlock at which level is your configuration.

Will thread pages be indexed by search engines?

Public categories have stable thread URLs with pagination, canonical tags and a sitemap. Members-only categories are excluded from indexing. Redirects from an imported forum keep existing search traffic pointing at the right threads.

Is this a finished product I can see running?

Not yet. The readiness badge shows the real state: the package is a custom build assembled from our content, messaging, memberships and search modules for each community, and the moderation queue on this page is a labelled concept demo rather than a live client system.

Get a quote for Community forum package

Tell us about your locations, the people who will use it and the add-ons you need. We reply with a clear, competitive proposal.