Discussion Web Part

Introduction

The Discussion web part allows users to start and participate in conversations directly on an intranet page. It provides a native commenting experience — users can post messages, reply, like, attach files, and mention colleagues using @. Discussions are scoped to a page, a site, or another site of your choice.

Example rendering — Discussion web part with post composer and conversation thread

Each discussion entry shows the author, timestamp, message content, and a like button. Authors and administrators can Pin, Close, Edit, or Remove conversations from the context menu.

Settings

The web part is configured through two dedicated panels, accessible from the edit mode:

• Which discussions are displayed — define the scope and number of discussions
• Settings — configure attachments, email notifications, and display options

Which discussions are displayed

"Which discussions are displayed" panel — scope selector and discussion count

Select the scope of the discussion

Choose where the discussions shown in the web part are sourced from:

• Current page — displays discussions attached to the current page only
• Current site — displays all discussions across the current site
• Another site — displays discussions from a different site (specify the site URL)

Make the conversation specific to the content displayed on the page

When enabled, the discussion feed is filtered based on the URL parameters of the current page. This is useful when a single page displays different content depending on query string parameters (e.g., an item detail page), ensuring each piece of content has its own dedicated discussion thread.

Select the number of discussions displayed

Set the maximum number of discussion threads to display in the web part. For example, entering 5 will show the five most recent discussions.

Settings

"Settings" panel — attachment storage, email notifications, see more button, and categorization

Define where all attachments are stored

Specify the name of the SharePoint document library where files attached to discussions will be stored. By default this is set to PowDiscussionsDocuments. Ensure the library exists on the target site before enabling attachments.

Manage email notifications

Configure which email templates are used for each notification trigger. Select an email template for each use case you want to activate:

• Mention notification — sent to a user when they are mentioned using the @ character in a discussion
• Reply notification — sent to the discussion creator when someone replies to their thread
• Creator notification — sent to the content creator when a new discussion is posted on their content

Leave a template field empty to disable that specific notification.

See more button

When enabled, a "See more" button is displayed at the bottom of the discussion feed, allowing users to load additional threads beyond the initial display limit.

Add a categorization

When enabled, you can assign a category name, color, and icon to the conversation feed. This helps visually distinguish discussion areas on pages that contain multiple web parts or content zones.