Can I use Airtable for a discussion forum?

[Valerie_Marcel]

Did Airtable use its own platform to design this Community Forum? It’d be perfect for what we are trying to do…

We are trying to design a (closed - invitation-only) platform on which collaborators can start threads by asking questions.

Currently each new record is a question. There is a tab for collaborators to be assigned to the question. The answer to the question is given in a long text field (with tabs for grouping the questions by issue) and the collaborators can upload documents to the record. Any comments and back and forth are in the Activity tab of the record as a comment.
In Blocks, we have appear.in and google hangouts so participants can chat or video conference to discuss…
But the above is missing the sequential conversation format (ask question, get reply, another reply, another reply and a resolution comment).
It would also be great to be able to mention a group of collborators instead of naming each individually. Is that possible? (I have grouped the collaborators by country).
Thanks!

[Jeremy_Oglesby]

No, they are using a popular web platform:

Discourse - Civilized Discussion

Discourse - Civilized Discussion

Discourse is modern forum software for your community. Use it as a mailing list, discussion forum, long-form chat room, and more!

[Alice_Linell]

Hi Valerie, did you ever figure out how to do this in Airtable? We'd like to do the same and use Airtable for our user group forum and don't want to purchase another tool to do the job. Thanks!

[samking0090]

Airtable did not use its own platform to design this Community Forum; it’s built on Discourse. However, you can customize Airtable to achieve a similar experience for your closed, invitation-only platform.

### Sequential Conversation Format:
To create threaded conversations:
1. **Create a "Comments" table:**
- Fields: comment text, author, date, and a link to the related question.
- Link this table to the "Questions" table to display related comments.

### Group Mentions:
While Airtable doesn’t natively support group mentions, you can use a workaround:
1. **Create a "Groups" table:**
- Fields: group name and a link to collaborators.
- Link this table to your "Questions" or "Comments" table.
- Use lookup fields to display group members.

### Enhancing Collaboration:
Utilize Airtable’s Blocks feature:
1. **Page Designer block** for summaries of questions and comments.
2. **Web Page block** to integrate video conferencing tools for easy access.

### Document Upload and Management:
Optimize your long text and attachment fields:
1. Organize and clean up uploaded documents regularly.
2. Use Airtable’s automation features to send notifications or reminders about updates.

By implementing these strategies, you can create a dynamic platform within Airtable that mimics a traditional forum’s functionality while leveraging Airtable’s robust database capabilities. For more detailed guidance, explore Airtable community forums or contact Airtable support.