Discussions

I am new to EP and KM. I need to determine how to start Discussions on our development server. I see that the Discussion Service is configured:

Root = discussions

Only Folders Enabled = true

Repository = /collaboration

KM/Configuration/Content Mgmt/Global Services/Collaboration Services = Active

KM/Configuration/Content Mgmt/CM Repository/collaboration sessions & discussiongroups & documents have discussions under Services

All I see on the portal when I click on Discussions is 'No Topic Available'. There are no buttons to start a topic, etc...

Thank you,

Debbie Taylor