To establish an orderly forum, you will first want to create categories. Well-defined categories will help your members find the information they seek and will minimize confusion. The trick is to not overwhelm visitors by the sheer magnitude of categories, but to separate out a few different homes for discussion. If a category isn’t working out, scrap it. Deleting a category will not delete the discussions that were organized by it. You can assign those threads to another category if you wish.
You can’t predict exactly where the conversation will roam over time, so it might be best to initially stick with very general categories, like the Art of Manliness does. Their site is a place that’s open to basically half the population — anyone who’s a man. Naturally, this general focus results in a ton of varied topics. Even after many years and thousands of discussions, these categories work. Note how they also have a category devoted solely to newbies who want to introduce themselves to the community. Try that approach!
To add categories to the Forum on your Ning Network, head to the My Network page and click the “Features” link in the Settings section. Then, click on the “Forum” link.
In the “Categories” section, add your desired categories by clicking the “Add Another Category” link. You can rearrange the categories by dragging and dropping them into the preferred order.
You can also choose who can start discussions or reply to discussions in each category. You can create categories that anyone can start a discussion under and anyone can reply to, categories that only you and your administrators can start a discussion under and anyone can reply to, and categories that only you and your administrators can start a discussion under and reply to.
Network Creators and administrators can move any discussion post to any category. You also have the power to close a discussion, delete any reply or delete an entire discussion thread if you think it’s inappropriate.
Deleting a category?: Worried about deleting discussions? If you need to delete a category, the discussions in that category won’t simply disappear. You can choose to either re-categorize the discussions in that category or delete them.