A Forum Topic is the initial post to a new discussion thread within a Forum. The link (above) is to add such a Topic. It goes within a Forum (and Forums are within Containers). NOTES: To get the most "bang for your effort", all should know this: Even a Topic is technically a web page. Not only can it be of any length (you can write a dissertation, if you like), but the page it is on (actually: the page it IS) has meta tags in the head. DO take time to click the meta link and change the 2 meta tags with default content to something that describes YOUR post. Google will find it. The site is SEO. (P.S. "Ditto" for other kinds of content.) Anonymous may post to 2 open, public Forums.
Editors may also make new Forums. A Forum is a Heading below a Container and is a container for a new set of Topics. In addition to Forums with the default permission (i.e. for Registered Users on up) : Editors may also make completely public Forums within the Public Forum Container -- make sure to set the Forum permissions properly when you do so. Editors may also make Forums just for self-declared activists people (and Editors). These Forums should go under the regular 99%-ers Forums area, but these Forums should have "(99%-activist-only)" at the end of their titles to avoid confusion -- when non-activist people find they cannot access them. Again set the permissions correctly to just allow Sreguser users (declared 99% activist people), Editors, and Admins access them