The Forums are where the Hack The Box community members gather to discuss current and past Challenges, Machines, labs, and events within the community. If you're stuck on a certain Challenge or Machine, you can visit the dedicated thread for it and search for hints from other players.

To access the forums, you need to be logged into your Hack The Box account. Looking at the Dashboard, you need to drop down the Social menu and click on Forum.

This link will take you to the classic version of the platform on the Forum menu. If you haven't created an account yet, you will have the Create Forum Account option available above the Visit the Forum button. If this option is not available to you, you have already completed the Forum creation process, and you will be required to Sign In instead.

Clicking the Create Forum Account button will trigger an automated process that will associate your Hack The Box platform account to your newly created Forum account, under the same email address and using a generated password displayed on the creation screen. In this case, we have replaced the password with a placeholder text for security reasons.

You can proceed back to the Forum page by clicking the Forum URL mentioned below the generated password. Then, you can proceed to Sign In to your newly created Forum account by clicking the Sign In button at the top right of the Forum page.

You can proceed back to the Forum page by clicking the Forum URL mentioned below the generated password. Then, you can proceed to Sign In to your newly created Forum account by clicking the Sign In button at the top right of the Forum page.

Once your account is created, you'd wish to set up your Forum Profile. To do so, click at the top right of the Forum homepage, where your profile picture and name are. This will take you to a bio page where your completed public information resides.

From there, click on the User icon at the top right, next to the profile picture, and click on Preferences.

You can also access the Preferences menu by clicking on the cogwheel at the top right of the Forum homepage and Preferences.

If you want to change your Notification Preferences, your Picture, Signature Settings, or Quote Settings, you can do all of these from this page. All of the available options are situated on the right side of the page.

When posting on the Forum, please make sure to follow our Terms of Service.

Besides the general communication rules stated there, keep in mind that each piece of content we host has its own dedicated thread that a user has started at some point. Not only that, but these threads are also grouped by Challenge or Lab type, so you can always find what you're looking for in one single area.

To browse the different categories, you can access the table on the right side of the Forum page.

The Discussion submenu will contain all of the categories created to discuss the respective subject. This consists of different information security topics but also our own content.

The Tutorials submenu will contain educational resources and how-to resources for newcomers to delve into to expand their skillsets.

The Links submenu will contain news about recent platform changes but also announcements from other users.

To create your first post, select one of these categories and see if the context of the chosen category fits the post you are planning to make.

As an example, we will be taking the Off-topic Discussion category into account. Once there, there will be a red plus button at the bottom right of your screen. Press this button to start the process of creating your first post.

You will be presented with the post-editing screen. From here, you can use Markdown to edit the text in the post, set a Discussion Title, and set Tags.

Some of the Tags you can use for your post have already been created and used by other users. If you start typing in the Tags box, they will come up as auto-complete to your current wording. If you can't find a Tag you want to use, you can create it yourself by typing it in the box and hitting Enter. Other members use tags to find your post and any others related to the same topic.

Once your post is ready, you can also click the Preview button to preview what your post will look like once live. If you're satisfied with the result, you can click the Post Discussion button to post it publicly. If you still wish to edit the post, click the Edit button to go back to the editing view.

Once you press the Post Discussion button, there's no going back. The post is live and can not be deleted unless actioned so by an administrator. You can notice the post's board is hosted on is the Off-topic category we used in our example.

Below the post, you and other users can comment with their opinion on the original post. There are also options for Editing the post further if you press the cogwheel at the top right of the post. The button below that, Report Spoiler, is designed to be used by anyone to report blatant spoilers to the progress of Challenges, Machines, or any other Hack The Box content. The Quote option, right under the post, can be used to insert a small paragraph at the beginning of a reply to reference the user's post.

This can keep discussions more organized if several users are taking part in a single thread.

Once you receive replies to your post, these can be found either by clicking on your username or profile picture at the top right of the Forum homepage, then pressing on the Discussions button at the bottom right, or by clicking the Globe icon at the top right of the Forum homepage.

You can also visit all of your active posts by clicking on the My Discussions button on the Forum homepage.

All of these options are pictured below.

To use your badge containing your username, rank, and points on the Forums signature, you'll first need to get your badge icon.

To do this, visit your Dashboard, then click on your profile picture on the top right and click on the Visit My Profile link.

While on your profile page, click on the Get Badge button below your Rank Progress meter. This will initialize the popup menu where you can select the code for the static badge. The Forums don't currently support <script> tags, so you will need to update it manually with a new static link every time you reach a new Hacker Rank.

After you copy the <img> string, visit the forums at this link.

On the top right-hand side, you will need to click the Settings cog, then Preferences.

On the right, navigate to Signature Settings. In the text box on this page, you can paste your static <img> link to your badge together with any other links you'd like people to visit, such as your Twitter, MySpace, etc.

You can now test out the signature functionality by posting something on the Forums! The signature will appear right underneath your post.

If you have forgotten your Forum password, you can click on the Forgot? button on the Forum Sign In page. This will take you to a prompt to input your email address. Pressing the Request a new password button will send you a password reset email to your inbox.

Reading the email, you will find out about the next needed steps in the password reset process.

To delete your Forum account, you will need to reach out to the Technical Support team by clicking the chat bubble at the bottom right of this web page.