Create a Community Site in SharePoint 2013

A Community Site is the base for SharePoint 2013 OOTB Collaboration.

Community Sites

Community Site is a template in SharePoint 2013 that provides a forum experience and the following features:

1. Discussions
2. Categories
3. Members
4. Badges

For example, we can use the site to create a forum for the Development Team. They can post discussions on various topics like:

1. How to deploy a WSP solution?
2. What are the frameworks available used in Project-Y?

We can also create categories like:

1. C#
2. SharePoint 2013
3. SharePoint 2010

Members can participate in the discussions.

Moderators can manage the site by:

1. Setting rules
2. Editing/Removing unwanted entries
3. Rewarding badges for best replies and participants

Member Permissions will be managed through the Owners, Members and Visitors group of the site.

How to create a Community Site

Use the following procedure to create a community site.

Step 1: Create site

Choose the Site Contents -> New Sub site option to get the following page. Choose the site template as Community Site, enter the title, URL and click the Create button.



Step 2: View Site

You will get the following site displayed.



Step 3: Create Category

From the right hand side choose the Create categories link.



You will get the following page.



Choose the new item and create a category named SharePoint 2013 as shown below. You can also use the image URL.



You can see the new category with image as shown below.



Step 4: Create Discussion

Click on the New Discussion item to start a discussion topic.



Enter the details in the page that appears.



On saving the content the list will look like.


Step 5: Replying to a Topic

You can click on the Discussion topic to open it and answer it.


More answers can be added through the Add a reply text box.

Please note that Member Permissions should be managed through the Site Permission groups.

References

Overview of communities in SharePoint Server 2013

Summary

In this article we have explored the Community Site template and how to use it.