Ask a question in the community

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read

    • Ask a question in a forum to get an answer from other community users.

    Before you begin

    Role required: sn_communities.community_user

    You can only ask a question in a forum if you have been assigned the correct permissions.

    About this task

    If you ask a question, you can edit or delete it. If you created the question and reply with an answer, your answer is labeled Author.

    There are three ways of asking questions in Communities.

    Procedure

    1. From the Communities homepage, perform one of the following actions.
      • Locate the forum to ask a question in, click its name, and then click Have a question? Click here to start typing. Type-ahead search shows related posts. Click to open a related post in another page.
      • Locate the forum to ask a question in and click Post > Question.
      • If you do not see a forum, click Have a question? Click here to start typing.
    2. Click Question.
    3. On the form, fill in the fields.
      Table 1. Ask a question form
      Field Description
      Question Your question.
      Forum Forum to add the question to.
      Note:
      If you created the question by clicking a forum from the Communities homepage, this forum is automatically entered in this field.
      Topic (s) (optional) Topic to add the question to.
      Note:
      You can repeat this previous step for as many topics as you want. If you change your mind about a particular topic, click its corresponding xicon.
      Description Content of the question.

      To insert an image, click the Insert Image button (Insert image), navigate to the .png or .jpg file, and then click Open.

      To insert a video, click the Insert Video button (Insert video), enter the video URL, and then click Upload.
      Add attachments To attach a file, click Add attachments and then drag the file into the Attach Document box or click the box and then navigate to the file.
      • You can add up to three attachments.
      • File types supported are PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, DOC, DOCX, TXT, PDF, PNG, BMP, JPG, JPEG, GIF, ZIP.
      • Maximum file size is 2 MB.
      • Supported file types are listed.
      • Click the X icon to delete an attached file.
      Note:
      Your system administrator may have set a limit on the total number of attachments allowed across the community.

      When you click Add, your attachments are added and displayed in the question. If a user attaches a file to your question, you receive an email notification.

      Note:
      If antivirus protection is enabled, all attachments are automatically scanned for viruses once the question is posted.
    4. Click Post.
      • The question is added and is available to users in this forum. You are automatically subscribed to this question. When there is a reply, you receive a notification.
      • Community users who are subscribed to the forum receive a notification that content has been posted. Activity and content feeds are updated accordingly.
      • If you have added attachments to your question and your community administrator has enabled antivirus protection, a scan automatically runs in the background.
        Note:
        • If the scan is successful, the attachments are available to download.
        • If the scan is in process or unsuccessful, the file is unavailable for download.
        • Question authors and community administrators receive a notification that an attachment is infected.
      • Click Edit to remove the infected file and upload the attachment again. You cannot add any more attachments until the infected file is removed.
      • If you are a user whose content is due to be moderated, the content is not posted until approved by a community moderator.