Differences between Forum and Category

When it comes to set permissions in forums, the most frequent problem experienced by new members is the fact that sometimes, they don't see the permission control panel, even if they are in Management+. The reason is simple : many newbies have problems to differenciate forums and categories.

Differences between "Forum" and "Category"

Category
Can't contain any topic in itself. It contains only forums or other categories. A category is used to regroup forums who have a common theme..
We can't set permissions for categories because they don't contain any topic by themselves. We must then set the permissions of each forum inside the category.
Examples on this forum : "Miscellaneous"

Forum
Can contain topics as well as other forums or categories.
We can set the permissions for a forum because of the fact that it contains topics.
Examples on this forum : "Frequently Asked Questions", "Need of an Administrator", "General Discussions", "Garbage"