Okay, the title is a little confusing.
Here's the situation...
I have an international group who want to have subordinate websites for countries and/or states. (We shall use states as an example)
I can create 50 topics (one for each state) and then sub topics for their discussions... this I know. What I "want" is to be able to display that topic as it's own forum per se. I would like to hide the other state topics as a default setting but allow people to select to view all states.
I know I can use the scalability in the set up to create 50 forums, but I'm trying to avoid that (desperately). Plus I would like to have a way for people to see all the states/countries if they so choose.
Any ideas?
I guess a simpler way of describing it would be:
Is there a way to show just one of many topics on a page?
(Solving this would also help me with another pet project, that is to use the forum as an article commenting module where articles posted on the website would have their own topic for members and guests to comment. All other articles would be hidden unless the visitor chooses otherwise.)