lorax - 11:26 am on Sep 23, 2011 (gmt 0)

Greetings and welcome to WebmasterWorld.
WordPress alone isn't going to provide you a ready made forum. If this is going to be an active forum, you should consider using professional forum software instead - especially since you're a newbie. There are plugins out there but I wouldn't trust them for an active forum - but if the plugin is free, it's worth a trial.