function add_topic ($id)
{
    $msg_post = new fud_msg_edit;			
    /* Process Message Data */
    $msg_post->poster_id = $id;
    $msg_post->poll_id = $pl_id;
    $msg_post->subject = "welcome to the forum!";
    $msg_post->body = "bla bla bla ...";
    $msg_post->body = apply_custom_replace($msg_post->body);
    $msg_post->body = nl2br(htmlspecialchars($msg_post->body)); 
    fud_wordwrap($msg_post->body); //?
    $msg_post->subject = htmlspecialchars(apply_custom_replace($msg_post->subject));
  // trying to create a thread
    $create_thread = 1;
    $msg_post->add(1, 0, "N", "N", "N", FALSE);

    user_register_forum_view(1); 
    rebuild_forum_view(1, 1);  // do i need to?
}