Open the room.
Invite your people.

Try a room that’s already running

Launch the live WordPress demo → Five channels, 16 fictional discussions, threaded replies, pinned topics, and a locked house-rules thread. You are the administrator of a temporary browser-only site. Refreshing resets it; no emails are sent.

1. Install the plugin, then the theme

Download Epic Commonroom and upload it under Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin. Activate it. Then upload the Commonroom theme under Appearance → Themes → Add New. Activate the theme. These are two separate ZIP files.

2. Make it your room

Set your title and tagline under Settings → General. Change the homepage headline and intro label under Appearance → Customize → Commonroom homepage. Save Post name under Settings → Permalinks. The front page automatically becomes your discussion board. This is a classic PHP theme, not a full-site-editing block theme. Demo discussions are not included in the ZIPs.

3. Create channels and seed the conversation

Open Discussions → Channels. Start with three to five clear categories. Under Discussions → Add New, write a useful opening question, choose its channel, enable comments, and publish. The Discussion controls box lets an editor pin a topic or lock new replies.

4. Invite members

Create Subscriber accounts under Users. If you enable “Anyone can register” under Settings → General, keep the default role set to Subscriber and plan for spam prevention. The plugin does not provide an additional anti-spam service. Visitors can read published discussions; members must sign in to start topics or reply.

5. Moderate what goes live

Frontend discussions always wait for approval, even if the submitter is an administrator. Review and publish them under Discussions. Member replies are always held for approval under Comments; moderators follow your standard WordPress approval settings. Locked topics keep existing replies but reject new ones. Topic submissions are limited to one per member per minute.

6. Help people find their way

Channel links filter the board. Search looks through discussion titles and content. Sort by newest or most discussed; pinned topics remain at the top. The board paginates after ten discussions. Counts include published topics and approved replies, not invented activity.

Your content stays yours

Discussions, channels, and comments remain in WordPress when you switch themes. The plugin provides [epic_commonroom] for the board and [commonroom_submit] for the member form, usable with another theme. Deactivating it retains your data; reactivate to manage discussions again.

What this alpha doesn’t include

No private messages, paid memberships, custom member profiles, email subscription service, built-in AI, automatic updater, or commercial support agreement. Standard WordPress comment notifications depend on your hosting and Discussion settings. Set up moderation, backups, and email delivery before inviting a public community.