In our never-ending quest to improve the community and help the Power Platform Community members get answers faster, we are simplifying the layers of hierarchy on the site. As our community has grown organically over time, we've continued to add new forum topics to participate in. This has created the following challenges for our members:
Too many options to find where to post
First selection field on our Post a Question form has 48 forum options to choose from.​
Too many layers to navigate
All these different forums can make it a challenge to find the right place to locate a topic to participate in.
Forums appear inactive
When activity at the forum level is spread too thin, new visitors lose confidence that their question will get answered.​
Meaningless required categories
Legacy category options are either too broad to be useful or too specific to apply to many posts.​ They are also required, which made the category distinctions useless for many.
By simplifying the layers of hierarchy and removing barriers between members and discussions, we hope to bring our experts and our help-seekers closer together!
What is happening?
We are merging all forums within a product to a single forum and transitioning all of the prior forums into categories.
This will mean that the Forum drop-down option will no longer appear for each Product, and instead the former forum names will be listed as categories:
In addition, when you select the Post a Question option, the first option will contain only 6 options to choose from instead of 48:
You will also be able to select multiple categories for your question instead of having to choose between 2 or more overlapping options!
What are the new forums and categories going to be?
Here are the new forums and categories and how they will map to the legacy forums:
| New Forum | New Categories | Legacy Forum |
|---|
| Copilot Studio | Autonomous agents | Copilot Studio - Autonomous Agents |
| Bot administration | Copilot Studio - Bot Administration |
| Bot analytics | Copilot Studio - Bot Analytics |
| Bot extensibility | Copilot Studio - Bot Extensibility |
| Building Copilot Studio chatbots in Microsoft Teams | Copilot Studio - Building Copilot Studio Chatbots in Microsoft Teams |
| Calling actions from Copilot Studio | Copilot Studio - Calling Actions from Copilot Studio |
| Copilot Studio pre-built agents/templates | Copilot Studio - Copilot Studio pre-built Agents/Templates |
| Copilot Studio skills development | Copilot Studio - Copilot Studio Skills Development |
| Model context protocol | Copilot Studio - Model Context Protocol |
| Publish & channel management | Copilot Studio - Publish & Channel Management |
| Topic creation & management | Copilot Studio - Topic Creation & Management |
| General topics | Copilot Studio - General |
| Power Apps | AI Builder | Power Apps - AI Builder |
| Building Power Apps | Power Apps - Building Power Apps |
| Connector development | Power Apps - Connector Development |
| Error handling | Power Apps - Error Handling |
| GCC, GCCH, DoD - Federal App Makers (FAM) | Power Apps - GCC, GCCH, DoD - Federal App Makers (FAM) |
| Microsoft Dataverse with Power Apps | Power Apps - Microsoft Dataverse |
| Experimental features | Power Apps - Power Apps Experimental Features |
| Governance & administering | Power Apps - Power Apps Governance and Administering |
| Power Apps Pro Dev & ISV | Power Apps - Power Apps Pro Dev & ISV |
| Power Query | Power Apps - Power Query |
| General topics | n/a |
| Power Automate | AI Builder | Power Automate - AI Builder |
| Building flows | Power Automate - Building Flows |
| Connector development | Power Automate - Connector Development |
| Power Automate Desktop | Power Automate - Power Automate Desktop |
| Power Automate Mobile App | Power Automate - Power Automate Mobile App |
| Process mining | Power Automate - Process Mining |
| Translation quality feedback | Power Automate - Translation Quality Feedback |
| Using connectors | Power Automate - Using Connectors |
| Using flows | Power Automate - Using Flows |
| General topics | Power Automate - General Discussion |
| Power Pages | Administer & monitor | Power Pages - Administer & Monitor |
| Customize & extend | Power Pages - Customize & Extend |
| Design & build | Power Pages - Design & Build |
| Power Apps portals | Power Pages - Power Apps Portals |
| Security | Power Pages - Security |
| General topics | Power Pages - General Discussions |
| Microsoft Power Up Program Community | Build a Canvas app | Power Up Program - Build A Canvas App |
| Building model-driven apps with Microsoft Dataverse | Power Up Program - Building model-driven apps with Microsoft Dataverse |
| Create Power Automate cloud flows | Power Up Program - Create Power Automate cloud flows |
| Introduction to the Power Platform | Power Up Program - Introduction to the Power Platform |
| Microsoft Copilot Studio Experiences | Power Up Program - Microsoft Copilot Studio Experiences |
| Power Up final challenge | Power Up Program - Power Up Final Challenge |
| Social topics | Power Up Program - Social Board |
| Visualize data with Power BI | Power Up Program - Visualize data with Power BI |
Will there be any other navigation changes?
No, the header links and the front-page links will remain unchanged. User Groups, Blogs, and Video Blogs will also not be affected by these changes.
Does this mean my posts are going away?
No posts are being archived or removed as part of these changes. Posts will be migrated to the new forum hierarchy seamlessly and will remain accessible via existing bookmarks, browsing, and search.
Will I lose points I earned for posts that are moved?
No, community points are unaffected by these changes.
What about my subscriptions?
All forum subscriptions will be converted to category subscriptions​. There is no manual effort required on your part. Subscriptions to legacy categories that are being removed will no longer work after the change.
When is this happening?
The forum hierarchy changes will be deployed on December 5th during business hours US Pacific Time.
Will the forums be available during the move?
Yes, there will be no downtime required for these changes. Here is the planned timeline of events:
- Starting at 8am US Pacific time on December 5th, we will activate the new forums and start migrating posts to their new location. This process may take several hours to complete due to the large number of posts that are moving.
- While the posts are moving, they will still be accessible.
- You will continue to be able to make new posts and reply to existing posts during this period. However, the old forums will not be available for new posts. All new posts must be made in the new forums using the new categories.
- Once all the posts have been moved to the new forums, the old forums will be deactivated.
We’re excited to bring a cleaner, more active experience to the Community and our members!
If you have any questions, please let us know.
