There are different levels of user roles, for categories, and forums. Topics within a forum inherit the membership roles granted for that forum.
The following summarizes the different roles and privileges used by Oracle Discussions:
Global Administrators are granted the privileges to execute all tasks on all items in the system. Global administrators can create root categories in the Oracle Discussions system and post system-level announcements.
Category Administrators administer specific categories. The privileges granted apply only to the items within the categories for which they have administrator rights. A category administrator for a given category automatically has forum moderator privileges for all the forums within the category. Users with this role can also post category-level announcements.
Category Creators can create new categories and forums within the category for which they are granted this role. Category creators are automatically granted category administrator and forum moderator privileges for the categories and forums they create.
Category Writers automatically have forum writer privileges for all the forums within the category for which they were granted this role.
Forum Creators have the privileges to create and delete forums within a specific category.
Forum Moderators have the privileges to manage content within a specific forum, including editing forum settings. Forum moderators can post forum-level announcements.
Forum Writers can post messages on a specific forum and may be allowed to edit and delete messages they post. They cannot edit or delete messages posted by other users.
Forum Readers have read-only access to the forums for which they are granted this role.