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Forum Administration User Guide
An in-depth documentation of phpBB, the world's most popular bulletin board
script
Welcome to phpBB 2.0. This document should outline all the issues dealing
with the installation and operation of the second generation of phpBB. phpBB
2.0 has been a year in development and represents a huge leap forward for
the software. This version is truly a professional product that is suitable
for use in any environment and is scaleable for all types of implementation.
We, the members of the phpBB group, thank you for choosing our software and
hope you find it useful in all your endeavors.
phpBB 2.0 is highly configurable. Most configurations are done in
the administration panel. To get to the administration panel, log in
with an Administrator username and click the link that says Go
to Administration Panel at the bottom of any page.

You may also go to the page admin/index.php within the phpBB 2.0 root
directory.
The admin panel uses two frames. The narrow navigation frame on the
left shows the sub-panels available. The main frame shows the panel
you are currently using.
There are three uncategorized links at the top of the navigation frame:
Admin Index is the default admin page. It
shows Forum Statistics and Who's Online.
Forum Index will take you to index.php
in the phpBB 2.0 root, which shows the list of forums.
Preview Forum will also take you to the forum
index, but will keep the navigation frame, making it easier to return to
other parts of the admin panel.
The Forum Management panel is where most forum configuration is done.
Here you will control the organization of forums and categories.
Configuration of a forum's name, description, and auto-prune settings is
also handled here.
To create a new forum, look to the bottom of the category you want
your new forum to be in. Enter the desired forum name in the text
box at the bottom, and click Create New Forum.
You will be taken to the General Forum Settings panel.
(For more information on this panel, see 3.1.1.2
Editing Forums)
To edit a forum, look in that forum's row and click Edit.
You will be taken to the General Forum Settings panel.
Here you may adjust the following settings: Forum Name
- This is the name of the forum. (e.g. General Chat, Movie
Reviews, Support, etc.)
Description - Describes your forum. This is
the smaller text that appears under each forum name on the Forum Index.
Category - A dropdown list box that will allow you
to choose what category a forum is contained in.
Forum Status - A dropdown list box that will allow
you to lock or unlock a forum. A locked
forum may not be posted to except by moderators and administrators.
Auto-Pruning - Here you can enable/disable
auto-pruning. (For more information, see 3.1.1.5
Auto-Prune or3.1.3 Pruning)
A forum's location can be described in two ways. A forum is in
a category, and has a location relative to other forums in that
category. To change the category that a forum is in, use the General
Forum Settings panel, as described in 3.1.1.2 Editing
Forums.
To change a forum's position relative to other forums in its
category, use the Move Up and Move
Down links in the General Forum Settings panel.
Move Up will swap the position of the desired
forum with the forum above it. Move Down
will swap the position of the desired forum with the forum below it.
Move Up has no effect on the top forum in a
category, and, likewise, Move Down has no
effect on the bottom forum.
Some information in the database is contained it multiple tables.
This makes the board run faster by reducing the number of database
queries on some pages. Sometimes the information in different
tables of the database gets out of sync. This usually is caused by
a connection problem which interrupts updating of the database.
When this happens, your forum may start behaving in a strange way.
Links to topics or posts that don't exist are common symptoms of this
problem.
If you are having this problem, you can fix it by clicking Resync
in the General Forum Settings Panel. This will
recalculate the forum information based on the actual posts that exist.
This operation has no harmful effect on the forums, just generates a
small amount of overhead while you are doing it. This is a good
thing to try if you are not sure what is causing a problem on your
board.
Auto-prune is a feature that will cause a forum to prune itself.
(For more information on what pruning is, see 3.1.3
Pruning). To enable auto-prune, make sure the checkbox is
checked.
You may set the age of posts to prune. All posts older than the
set age will be pruned. You may also set the frequency of pruning.
For example, you could have the forums prune themselves once a day, or
once every seven days.
To add a new category, look at the bottom of the forum/category
listing. Enter the desired category name into the text box and
click Create New Category.
By clicking on the Edit link next to a
category name, you can edit the name of the category. Simply edit the
name in the textbox and click the Update button
to change the name of the category.
To move a category, click Move Up or Move
Down in the category's row. Move Up
will swap the position of the desired category and the category above
it. Move Down will swap the position of
the desired category and the category below it. Move
Up has no effect on the top category, likewise Move
Down has no effect on the bottom category.
In this panel you can control the forum permissions. You can
restrict the behavior of different types of users on a per-forum basis.
Here you can control who can read and post in a forum. You can also
control who can make special posts, like Sticky topics or announcements.
To edit a forum's permissions, select the forum in the dropdown box and
click Look Up Forum.
There are seven simple permission levels in phpBB 2.0.0. For
more information, see 3.1.2.4
Permission Levels and 3.1.2.3
Permission Types. Here is a description of the behaviors
allowed by each of the simple settings.

Public - Anonymous users can read and post.
Registered Users can additionally edit their posts, and create and vote
in polls. Moderators and administrators can make stickies and
announcements.
Registered - Anonymous users can read the forum.
Registered Users can additionally post, reply, edit their posts, and
create and vote in polls. Moderators and administrators can make
stickies and announcements.
Registered [Hidden] - Anonymous users may only
register. Registered Users can read, post, edit their posts, and
create and vote in polls. Moderators and administrators can make
stickies and announcements.
Private - Non-Private users may only see the forum.
Private Users can read, post, reply, edit their posts, and create and
vote in polls. Moderators and administrators can make stickies and
announcements.
Private [Hidden] - Only Private Users may see the
forum. Private Users can read, post, reply, edit their posts, and
create and vote in polls. Moderators and administrators can make
stickies and announcements.
Moderators - Anonymous and Normal users can only see
the forum. Moderators and administrators can read, post, reply,
edit their posts, create polls, vote in polls, and make stickies and
announcements.
Moderators [Hidden] - Normal users cannot see the
forum. Moderators and administrators can read, post, reply, edit
their posts, create polls, vote in polls, and make stickies and
announcements.
This table shows the equivalent Advanced Permissions
for each Simple Permissions setting.
|
Public |
Registered |
Registered [Hidden] |
Private |
Private [Hidden] |
Moderators |
Moderators [Hidden] |
| View |
ALL |
ALL |
REG |
ALL |
PRIVATE |
ALL |
MOD |
| Read |
ALL |
ALL |
REG |
PRIVATE |
PRIVATE |
MOD |
MOD |
| Post |
ALL |
REG |
REG |
PRIVATE |
PRIVATE |
MOD |
MOD |
| Reply |
ALL |
REG |
REG |
PRIVATE |
PRIVATE |
MOD |
MOD |
| Edit |
REG |
REG |
REG |
PRIVATE |
PRIVATE |
MOD |
MOD |
| Delete |
REG |
REG |
REG |
PRIVATE |
PRIVATE |
MOD |
MOD |
| Sticky |
MOD |
MOD |
MOD |
MOD |
MOD |
MOD |
MOD |
| Announce |
MOD |
MOD |
MOD |
MOD |
MOD |
MOD |
MOD |
| Vote |
REG |
REG |
REG |
PRIVATE |
PRIVATE |
MOD |
MOD |
| Poll create |
REG |
REG |
REG |
PRIVATE |
PRIVATE |
MOD |
MOD |
Advanced Permissions allow you to precisely control all behaviors in
a forum. To set advance permissions for your forum, click Advanced
Mode after choosing the forum to edit. You are presented
with a table that has each permission type with a dropdown box
underneath it. You may set each of these permissions to any level
you like by using the dropdown boxes.

For more information on permission types and levels, see 3.1.2.3
Permission Types and 3.1.2.4
Permission Levels.
There are ten Permission Types. Each of these
types refers to a specific behavior within a forum. This is the
behavior that each of these permissions grants:
View - The user may see the forum on the forum index
page.
Read - The user may view topics in a forum, and read
posts in those topics.
Post - The user may post new topics in the forum.
Reply - The user may post replies to existing topics
in the forum.
Edit - The user may edit his/her own posts in the
forum. It is not recommended that this be set to "ALL",
because that will allow any anonymous post to be edited by any anonymous
user.
Delete - The user may delete his/her own posts in
the forum. A post can only be deleted by a non-moderator if it has
not been replied to. It is not recommended that this be set to
"ALL", because that will allow any anonymous post to be
deleted by any anonymous user.
Sticky - The user may make sticky Topics (for more
information, see 4.2.2 Sticky Topics)
Announce - The user may make Announcements (for more
information, see 4.2.1 Announcements)
Vote - The user may vote in Polls (for more
information, see 4.2.3 Polls). It is not
recommended that this be set to "ALL", because that will allow
an anonymous user to vote more than once.
Poll create - The user may create Polls (for more
information, see 4.2.3 Polls)
There are five permission levels. A user may be a member of
more than one permission level. To be in each of the permission
levels:
ALL - Every user in the board is in this permission
level. This level is used particularly to grant permissions to
users who are not registered and/or logged in.
REG - A user is in this permission level if he/she
is both registered at the board, and is currently logged in.
PRIVATE - There are two parts to being a private
member of a forum. In the forum permissions, there must be at
least one permission type set to the permission level PRIVATE.
Additionally, in the User Permissions or Group Permissions panel, the
user or group must be "Allowed Access" to the private forum
(or have permission types set to "ON" in advanced mode.)
For more information, see 3.3
Group Admin.
MOD - Someone is in this permission level if they
are a moderator of the forum.
ADMIN - Board administrators (and no one else) are
in this permission level.
To prune a forum, select it (or "All Forums") from the
dropdown box and click Look up Forum.
Specify a number of days in the text field. All posts with no
replies to them in the range specified will be removed.
Pruning is typically done to remove old unneeded posts
and to save space. If you like, you can set a forum to prune itself
automatically. For more information, see 3.1.1.2
Editing Forums.
The General Administration will allow you to perform general board
administration tasks. This includes database backup, general board
settings, smilies, word censors, and will let you send mass emails to
members of your board.
To backup your database, click Backup Database.
In Backup options you should select Full Backup unless
you have a specific reason to choose one of the other two. You may
include tables not used by phpBB by entering them here. If you
enable Gzip Compression, the file will be smaller, but
the server will work harder to generate it. Click Start
Backup to begin downloading the file.
To restore your database, click Restore Database.
Browse to your backup file, and then click Start Restore. The board
should return to exactly how it was when the backup was made.
Changes in files (MODs, avatars, etc.) will not be affected by this.
This panel is where most of the boards settings and preferences can be
changed.
Domain Name - Your domain name, as the end user will
see it. For example, if your Forum Index is
located at http://www.cheese.com/wheel/log/phpBB2/index.php,
the domain name you should enter is www.cheese.com.
Server Port - This setting should be 80
unless you are sure it should be something else.
Script path - The path from your domain to main
phpBB 2.0 files. For example, if your Forum Index
is located at http://www.cheese.com/wheel/log/phpBB2/index.php,
the script path you should enter is /wheel/log/phpBB2/.
Site name - The name of your site. This will
appear at the top of the Forum Index page.
Site description - A short description of your site.
This will be displayed on the Forum Index page, right
below the site name.
Disable board - When Yes, the board
is disabled and will not display to anyone. Do not log out before
you re-enable the board, or you will not be able to log back in.
Enable account activation - When set to None,
a user may log in as soon as he/she registers. When set to User,
a user must validate his email address before logging in. The user
will be sent an email with an activation link. When the user
clicks this link, their account is activated and he/she may log in.
When set to Admin, a user's account must be activated
by an administrator. For more information, see 3.5.3
User Management.
User email via board - When enabled, users may email
each other through a special form on the board. This keeps a
user's email private, and prevents spam bots from gathering email
addresses. When this is disabled, user's email address will be
shown.
Flood Interval - This is the number of seconds a
user must wait after posting before he can post again. This
feature is meant to prevent users/scripts from flooding the board with
posts.
Topics Per Page - This controls how many topics of a
forum will be displayed on the View Forum page. Additional topics
can be seen by advancing to the next page of the forum.
Posts Per Page - This controls how many posts of a
topic will be displayed on the View Topic page.
Additional posts can be seen by advancing to the next page of the topic.
Posts for Popular Threshold - When a topic gets many
posts, the topic icon will change to indicate that the topic is popular.
This setting will allow you to set the number of posts a topic must have
to be considered popular.
Default Style - this is the default style when a new
user registers. It will also be the style for anonymous users.
Override user style - When enabled, the user's style
setting will not apply. All users will see the default style.
Default Language - This language will be the default
when a new user registers. It will also be the language for
anonymous users. The board language only affects board messages,
not anything entered by users.
Date Format - This is the date format that will be
default when a new user registers. It will also be the format used
for anonymous users. The date format for the board should have
syntax identical to the syntax PHP's date() function uses. For
more information, see 4.7.1 Date Format.
Enable GZip Compression - When this is enabled, the
server will compress the pages before sending them. This will
increase the server workload, but will decrease bandwidth usage.
Enable Forum Pruning - Forum auto-pruning will only
work when this is enabled (for more information, see 3.1.1.5
Auto-Prune). Normal pruning will always work (for more
information, see 3.1.3 Pruning).
Cookie domain - The domain of the cookie your board
creates. Leaving this field blank will often work correctly; if
not, you need to determine the correct cookie domain and enter it.
Cookie name - The name of the cookie used by the
board. Make sure the name is not the same as any other cookies
used on your site.
Cookie path - The cookie path. Leaving this
field with the value "/" will often work correctly; if not,
determine the correct cookie path and enter it.
Cookie secure - If your board is running on a Secure
Socket Layer (SSL), this setting should be enabled. If not, leave
it disabled.
Session length - Allows you to set the session
length, in seconds. The session length is how long a user will
remain logged in while they are idle. For example, suppose you had
the session length set to 3600 seconds (one hour). If a user logs
in and keeps his/her browser open, he/she will not be logged out
automatically until they have been idle (with respect to the board) for
longer than an hour.
Private Messaging - This setting will allow you to
enable or disable private messages on your board.
Max posts in Inbox - A number that indicates the
maximum number of posts allowed in any user's Inbox. If this
number is exceeded, old posts will be removed as new ones come in.
Max posts in Sentbox - A number that indicates the
maximum number of posts allowed in any user's Sentbox.
Max posts in Savebox - A number that indicates the
maximum number of posts allowed in any user's SaveBox.
Max number of poll options - You may specify the
maximum number of poll options to prevent poll abuse.
Allow HTML - Here you may enable or disable HTML for
the entire board. If enabled, users may still choose to disable it
in their posts.
Allowed HTML tags - If HTML is enabled, you may
specify which tags may be used. This will help prevent users from
destroying your page layout with dangerous HTML. You only need to
specify the base tag (without angle brackets or closing tags) in order
to enable that tag's use on the board. For example; to allow
a user to use <span color="red">Red
Text</span>, you would add span to the
list of allowed tags.
Allow BBCode - Here you may enable or disable BBCode
for the entire board. If enabled, users may still choose to
disable it in their posts.
Allow Smilies - Here you may enable or disable
Smilies for the entire board. If enabled, users may still choose
to disable it in their posts.
Smilies Storage Path - To use smilies, you must
specify their location in relation to the phpBB 2.0.0 root directory.
So if your Forum Index page is at http://www.cheese.com/phpBB2/index.php
and your smilies are located in the folder http://www.cheese.com/phpBB2/images/smiles,
then your Smilie Storage Path should be images/smilies.
Allow Signatures - Here you may choose to allow
users to include a signature on each of their posts. If this
setting is enabled, users may still choose whether or not to include a
signature on each of their posts.
Maximum signature length - You may specify the max
length of a user's signature, in characters. The default value is
255 characters.
Allow Username changes - If this setting is enabled,
users may change their usernames when they like.
Enable gallery avatars - Here you may enable or
disable the use of gallery avatars on the board. For more
information, see 4.7.3 Avatars.
Enable remote avatars - Here you may enable or
disable the use of gallery avatars on the board. For more
information, see 4.7.3 Avatars.
Enable avatar uploading - Here you may enable or
disable the use of gallery avatars on the board. For more
information, see 4.7.3 Avatars.
Maximum Avatar File Size - You may specify the
maximum size of uploaded avatars on your board. The size specified
is measured in Bytes, and the default is 6144 (6 kB)
Maximum Avatar Dimensions - You may specify the
maximum dimesions for uploaded avatar images on your board. The
size specified is in pixels, and the default is 80 x 80.
Avatar Storage Path - This is the directory
(relative to the phpBB 2.0.0 root directory) that uploaded avatars are
stored to. Suppose that your Forum Index page is
located at http://www.cheese.com/phpBB2/index.php,
and you want avatars to be uploaded to http://www.cheese.com/phpBB2/images/avatars/,
then your Avatar Storage Path should be images/avatars.
Avatar Gallery Path - This is the directory
(relative to the phpBB 2.0.0 root directory) that your avatar gallery is
located. Suppose that your Forum Index page is
located at http://www.cheese.com/phpBB2/index.php,
and your avatar gallery is located at http://www.cheese.com/phpBB2/images/avatars/gallery/,
then your Avatar Gallery Path should be images/avatars/gallery.
Within this folder, you should have subfolders, each of which
represents a gallery category. Your gallery avatars should each be
located in the proper folder, so that they appear in the proper gallery.
Suppose you wanted the avatars limburger.gif, colby.gif,
chedder.gif in category Cheese Types. Suppose
you also want avatars wheel.gif, cube.gif, log.gif
in category Cheese Shapes. Within your avatar gallery
path you should have subfolders Cheese Types and Cheese
Shapes, with the appropriate avatar image files within each
subfolder.
In order for children under the age of 13 to use the board, their
parents must mail or Fax their consent to the board administrator.
COPPA Fax Number - The number of the fax machine
that a parent may fax their consent paperwork to.
COPPA Mailing Address - The address that parents may
send their COPPA consent paperwork to.
Admin Email Address - The email address that any
emails from the board will come from. These include registration
emails, forgotten password emails, topic notification emails, private
message notification emails, and mass board emails.
Email Signature - The email signature will appear at
the bottom of every email sent by the board.
Use SMTP Server for email - Enabled this setting if
you wish to use an SMTP server for outgoing email.
SMTP Server Address - Enter the hostname or IP of
your SMTP server. This setting is only needed if SMTP email is
enabled.
SMTP Username - If your SMTP server requires
authentication, enter the username here.
SMTP Password - If your SMTP server requires
authentication, enter the password here.
In the mass email panel, you may send an email to every user on your
board. You may also use this forum to send email to every member of
a usergroup.
Recipients - You may select All Users,
or any of the Usergroups on your board to receive the email.
Enter the email subject and body into the form, and click Email
to send the mass email.
In the smilie administration panel you may edit or delete existing
smilies, and add new ones.
To delete a smilie, click Delete in the
smilie's row. To edit a smilie, click Edit in the
smilies's row. You will be taken to Smilie Configuration.
Change the settings you like and click Submit.
To create a new smiley, click Add a new Smilie
(in the lower left corner). You will be taken to Smilie
Configuration. Input the settings you like and click Submit.

Smilie Code - The series of characters used to insert
a smilie into a post. Examples of this are :) (happy face )
or :wink: (winking face ).
Smilie Image File - Select the smilie image you wish
to use from the dropdown list. The selected smilie will be displayed
on the right, so you can be sure you selected the correct one.
Smilie Emotion - Enter the emotion to be associated
with the smilie. This emotion text will be display in a smilie's
tool tip, which appears when you hove the mouse cursor over the smilie.

You may import packs of smilies into your board. The pack
should come in a .zip file. First extract the contents of the .zip
file to the Smilies Storage Path (for more information,
see 3.2.2.4 User and Forum
Basic Settings). Next, go to smilie administration and click Import
Smilie Pack at the bottom of the page. You will be taken to
the Smilie Pack Import panel. Change the settings
as you wish, and click Submit to import the
smilies.
Choose a Smilie Pack .pak file - select the .pak
file you want to import from the dropdown box.
Delete existing smilies before import - If selected,
all of the smilies on your board will be removed. The new smilies
will then be added to your board.
Replace Existing Smilie - When this is selected, if
any of the new smilies have smilie codes that are the same as any of
your existing smilies; the existing smilie will be removed, with the new
smilie taking its place.
Keep Existing Smilie - When this is selected, if any
of the new smilies have smilie codes that are the same as any of your
existing smilies; the new smilie will not be imported, the existing
smilie will remain in place.
To make a smilie pack, first make the .pak file. To do this,
click Create Smilie Pack at the bottom of the
Smilie Administration Panel. Click the Here
link to download the .pak file and save it.
After creating the .pak file, create a .zip or .tar.gz archive that
contains both the .pak file and the smilie images. You may now
distribute this smilie pack to others.
You may have the board automatically censor words for you. To do
this, go to the Word Censor panel.
To delete an existing word censor, click Delete
in the censor's row.
To edit a word censor, click Edit in the
appropriate row.
To create a new censor, click Add New Word.
Each word censor has two parts. The first part is the text to be
censored. You may use the asterisk (*) wildcard to broaden your
search. The asterisk (*) will match any number of characters.
There is also a replacement string for each censor. Each spot where
a censor is found will be replaced by the appropriate replacement string.
This panel will allow you to create and modify groups and their
properties. It will also allow you to control Group
Permissions. For more information, see 4.4
Usergroups.
To create a group, go the Group Management
panel and click Create New Group. Here
you may input the properties of your new group. For more
information, see 3.3.1.2 Editing Groups
below.
In this panel you can change the properties of a group. You may
control the name and description of the group, how membership is
handled, and who is in charge of the group.
Group Name - Short name, uniquely identifies the
group.
Group Description - Text that describes the group.
The description is seen when the group's details are viewed.
Group Moderator - Username of the user in charge of
the group. The group moderator can add/remove users from the
group. The group moderator may also control the group status. (For
more information, see 4.4 Usergroups)
Group Status - May be one of three settings: Open,
Closed, or Hidden. For more
information, see 4.4.2.4 Group Types (Open,
Hidden, Closed).
Delete the old group moderator? - When you change
the group moderator, check this to remove the old group moderator from
the group. If this is unchecked when the moderator is changed, the
old group moderator will become a normal member of the group.
Delete group - Check this box and click Submit
to delete the group.
This panel will allow you to control a group's access to private
forums. It will also let you specify groups as moderators of a
forum. If a group is moderator of a forum, then each of the group's
members is considered a moderator of that forum.
To edit a group's permissions, select the group name from the dropdown
box, and click Look Up Group. To grant
moderator access to a group, look in the desired forum's row. In the
last dropdown box in the list, choose Is Moderator.
To grant a group access to a private forum using Simple Permissions,
Choose Allowed Access in the Simple Permissions
for that forum. Choosing Allowed Access is the
same as setting all Advanced Group Permissions to ON.

Advanced Permissions will allow you to grant
specific behaviors to a group. In the Advanced Permissions panel,
there will be a dropdown box for each Permission type that is set to PRIVATE
in the Forum Permissions panel (for more information,
see 3.1.2 Forum Permissions). To grant
the group a specific PRIVATE permission in a forum,
simply set the appropriate dropdown box to ON. To
grant all PRIVATE permissions of a forum to a group,
use Allowed Access in simple mode.
- 
Themes are the color/graphic information for a style. This includes
the font colors, background color and/or image, and much more. For
more information, see 3.4.4.1 Editing Styles.
Templates are the HTML-like files that are used to generate the output
HTML of phpBB 2.0. They control the layout and organization of all of
the pages, using basic HTML and special template variables.
So for a given template, you may have three or four themes. This
results in having three or four styles, each Style = Template + Theme.
This panel will allow you to add new styles. To add a new style,
simply click Install in the appropriate row.
This panel automatically detects uninstalled styles in your template
directory.
Important: When installing a new template(e.g. one
that you downloaded), be sure that your new template directory is nested
correctly in the templates directory. It also must
have the correct name (case sensitive). For instance, if you had a
new template named subCheese, then in the templates
directory you should have a folder called "subCheese" (not
"subcheese"), and in that folder will be all of your template
files (*.tpl files).
This panel allows you to create new Themes for any template you have
installed. This creates a new style, since a Style = Template +
Theme.
Theme Name: The name as it will appear in the style
dropdown selection box in the Edit Profile panel (see 4.7
Profile Settings) or General Configuration panel (see 3.2.2
General Configuration).
Template: Drop down box that contains all of the
currently installed templates. Choose the template that you want the
new theme to apply to.
All of the settings below Template are
self-explanatory. Color settings must be 6-digit hex codes (as used
in HTML). Class settings must be a valid CSS class name.
All settings below Hover Link Color are
template-dependent. If these template-dependent settings are not
explained by the Simple Name, check the documentation
included with the template you have questions about.
When you create a style according to the instructions in 3.4.2
Creating Styles, the new information is entered into the database, but
is not written to any files. The Style Export panel
will export the information from the database into the theme_info.cfg file
in the appropriate template directory. Once the data has been
exported, you can copy/distribute your template directory, and you will
not lose the theme/style information.
To export style info for a template, select the template from the
dropdown box and click Submit. It will then
write the data from the database into the theme_info.cfg in the
appropriate template directory. If it has trouble writing to that
file, follow the instructions if gives you. Your template should
then be ready to be copied/distributed with all of its themes.
In Style Management you can edit or delete styles that
are installed on your board. For more information, see 3.4.4.1
Editing Styles.
To edit a style, go to Style Management and click Edit
in the appropriate row. You are then presented with a form that
will allow you to change all of the theme information for that style.
Theme Name: The name as it will appear in the style
selection box in the Edit Profile panel (see 4.7
Profile Settings) or General Configuration panel (see 3.2.2
General Configuration).
Template: Drop down box that contains all of the
currently installed templates. Choose the template that you want
the theme to apply to.
All of the settings below Template are
self-explanatory. Color settings must be 6-digit hex codes (as
used in HTML). Class settings must be a valid CSS class name.
All settings below Hover Link Color are
template-dependent. If these template-dependent settings are not
explained by the Simple Name, check the documentation
included with that template.
Simple Names are short descriptions of what the different theme
variables correspond to. Theme variables with Simple Names are
template-dependent; similarly Simple Names are template dependent.
This panel allows you to ban users using several methods. This
panel also makes it easy to remove bans.
When a username is banned, that user may no longer login to your
board. When they login, they will be informed that they have been
banned. The user may still view and read the board as a Guest
(Anonymous User). To prevent a user from seeing your board at all,
you must ban them by IP. For more information, see 3.5.1.2
Banning by IP or Hostname.
To ban by username, simply select the username(s) to ban in the Ban
one or more specific users listbox. To ban more than one
username at once, simply select all of the usernames you are trying to
ban. This is normally accomplished by holding the CTRL
key and clicking each name. When all of the desired names are
selected, press Submit to add the ban
information to the database.
Similarly, to un-ban usernames, simply select the banned username(s)
from the Un-ban one or more specific users listbox and
press Submit.
When an IP or hostname is banned, your board's content will be
blocked from any connection coming from that IP or host. Users
from a banned IP will be informed of the ban, but may not view the board
at all.
To ban by IP or hostname, simply enter the IP address or hostname to
ban and click Submit. To specify multiple
IPs or hostnames, you may separate the multiple entries with commas (,).
For instance, to ban the IP 192.168.8.19 and the hostname banned.cheese.com,
you would enter 192.168.8.19,banned.cheese.com
You may also ban multiple IPs or hostnames using ranges and wildcard
characters. To ban a range of IPs, use -(hyphen) (e.g. 192.168.8.19-124).
Banning a range of IPs will cause each IP in that range to be added to
the list, so using specific IPs or wildcards is preferred. The
wildcard *(asterisk) will match any characters, so to ban all IPs that
begin with 192.168, use 192.168.*.* This also works
with hostnames. For example *.cheese.com will ban all
hostnames that end with ".cheese.com"
To un-ban IPs and hostnames, simply select the banned IP or hostname
from the Un-ban one or more IP addresses listbox and
press Submit.
Banning an email address prevents anyone from registering using that
banned email address. Any users currently using a banned email
will not be affected. To deny the user access to the board, you
must still ban their username or delete their account. When
someone tries to register with a banned email address, the registration
will fail, and they will be informed that it failed due to a banned
email address.
To ban an email address, simply enter the email address to ban into
the text field and click Submit. You may
ban multiple addresses by separating them by commas. You may also
use the wildcard *(asterisk) to ban email addresses meeting certain
criteria. For instance, to ban all email addresses at hotmail.com,
you would enter *@hotmail.com into the field.
To un-ban email addresses, simply select the banned email address
from the Un-ban one or more email addresses listbox and
press Submit.
This panel will allow you to specify usernames that you do not want
other people to use. This is commonly used to prevent users from
using profanity in their usernames. Another use is preventing users
from impersonating board administrators by registering similar usernames.
When someone tries to register using a name that has been disallowed, the
registration will fail, and they will be informed that the username has
been disallowed.
To disallow a username, simply enter it into the text field and click Add.
You may use the wildcard *(asterisk) to match any character. For
instance, to disallow all usernames that contain "cheese" (with
any characters before and/or after), simple disallow *cheese*
To re-allow usernames, simply select the disallowed username(s) from
the dropdown list and click Delete.
This panel will allow you to change settings and information for any
user on your board. To use it, simply enter a username into the text
field and click Submit.
This panel will allow you to edit any part of a user's profile.
The panel is identical to the standard profile panel, with a few extra
settings at the end. For more information, see 4.7
Profile Settings.
At the bottom of this panel there are Special admin-only fields
that are not part of the standard profile settings.
User is Active - You may deactivate/activate a user.
This is most often used to activate a user who is having trouble with
email activation. A user may not log in while their account is
inactive.
Can send Private Messages/Can display Avatar - Both of
these may be turned on or off for each user.
Rank Title - Allows you to specify a Special
Rank for a user. If "No special rank assigned" is
selected, the user's rank will be determined by the normal rank system.
For more information, see 3.5.5 Ranks.
Delete this user? - To delete a user, check this box
and click Submit. A deleted user's posts
are converted to Anonymous posts with their old username as the
name specified.
This panel will allow you to control a user's level, and their access
to private forums. You can also specify users as moderators of a
forum.
To edit a user's permissions, select the group name from the dropdown
box, and click Look Up User. To grant
moderator access to a user, look in the desired forum's row. In the
last dropdown box in the list, choose Is Moderator.
User - The user is a normal user. They may
have special permissions such as group membership or moderation
privileges, but they have no access to the administration panel.
Administrator - The user is a board Administrator.
This means that they have access to the administration panel, and they
have moderator permissions in every forum and group.
To grant a user access to a private forum using Simple Permissions,
Choose Allowed Access in the Simple Permissions
for that forum. Choosing Allowed Access is the
same as setting all Advanced Group Permissions to ON.

Advanced Permissions will allow you to grant
specific behaviors to a user. In the Advanced Permissions panel,
there will be a dropdown box for each Permission type that is set to PRIVATE
in the Forum Permissions panel (for more information,
see 3.1.2 Forum Permissions). To grant
the user a specific PRIVATE permission in a forum,
simply set the appropriate dropdown box to ON. To
grant all PRIVATE permissions of a forum to a user, use
Allowed Access in simple mode.
- 
A Rank is a special title that appears next to each
user's username when they post. It also appears in their profile.
Ranks are a way to show how long someone has been posting to your board,
or how active they are. Ranks are also a way to indicate something
special about a member or a group of members.
There are two types of Ranks, normal Ranks and Special
Ranks. Normal Ranks are granted to all users based on their
post count. Special Ranks are granted to specific users in the User
Management Panel (for more information, see 3.5.3
User Management).
To create a rank, click Add New Rank.
Enter the appropriate information and click Submit.
For more information on the settings, see 3.5.5.1
Editing Ranks below.
To edit a Rank, click Edit in the
appropriate row. There are several settings to edit for a Rank.
Title - The title the Rank grants to a user of that
Rank. The title normally shows up below the user's name in his/her
profile and each of his/her posts.
Special Rank - If this is set to yes, then the Rank
must be granted specifically to users through the User
Management Panel. If this is set to yes, then the Minimum
Posts field does not apply to this rank.
Minimum Posts - The lowest number of posts a user
must have to obtain this Rank (if it is not a Special Rank).
If there are multiple Ranks on a board, a user's Rank will be the Rank
he/she qualifies for with the highest minimum post setting. For
example, if a user has 70 posts, and there are Ranks:
Bite-Size Cheese (Min Post 10)
Cheese Cube (Min Post 25)
Cheese Wheel (Min Post 50)
The Big Cheese (Min Post 100)
Although the user qualifies for ranks Bite-Size Cheese, Cheese
Cube, Cheese Wheel; he/she's title will be Cheese
Wheel, because that is the highest rank he/she qualifies for.
Rank Image - This is a small image that is normally
shown directly beneath the rank title. The image must be a png,
gif, or jpg image, and the path specified must be relative to the phpBB
2.0.0 root directory. So if your forum index was at http://www.cheese.com/phpBB2/index.php,
and a rank image at http://www.cheese.com/phpBB2/images/ranks/teh_rank.gif,
then you would enter "images/ranks/the_rank.gif" to display
that rank.
phpBB 2.0 is forum software. It allows people to post ideas,
opinions, and information in an organized way. Posts are organized in
a way that makes it easy for people to find the information they are
interested in, but without having to wade through unrelated information.
Postings in phpBB 2.0 are organized into three subdivisions:
Post - A post is a piece of information submitted by a
single user. It may be a new post, which starts a new topic, or a
reply to an existing post. Posts are typically a sentence, paragraph,
or a few paragraphs.
Topic - A topic is a collection of posts. The
posts are organized in chronological order. The idea of a topic is
that there is a single post that contains the topic of discussion. The
rest of the posts in the topic are replies to this first post and to other
replies. Topics are sort of like conversations, allowing many people
to state their opinions about an idea, or debate an issue.
Forum - A forum is a container for topics. Forums
often have a general subject that the topics within are about. For
instance, you might have a Movie Reviews forum, which would contain
topics in which people would discuss movies and their opinions about them.
Navigating through posts in phpBB 2.0 is based on the idea of posts,
topics and forums. Generally, a user will start at the Forum
Index (index.php). The Forum Index shows a
list of forums. If you click on one of the forums, you will be shown
the View Forum page, which is a listing of the topics in
the forum (viewforum.php). By default they are sorted in chronological
order by the most recent post in each topic. If you click on a topic,
you will be shown the View Topic page, which is a listing
of the posts in that topic (viewtopic.php). The posts in a topic are
organized chronologically, with the oldest post first.
phpBB 2.0 is based on a user system. When a user is logged in,
his/her username will be shown with each post he/she makes. Each user
may also have some custom settings which allow them to control the look and
feel of the board as they use it.
In order to log into the board as a user, you must register a username.
To do this, click the small Register link at the
top of any page.

You will be taken to the Registration Agreement Terms,
which you must agree to in order to register.
You will then be taken to the registration information form. Fill
out each of the required fields, and any of the optional fields you like.
The settings on the registration form are identical to those in the Profile
Settings form, for more details see 4.7
Profile Settings.
When you register, you must specify an email address. All email
from the board to you will be sent to that address. If the board is
set to User Activation, you must check your email and
click the activation link there before you may log in.
In order to post using your username and use your custom settings on
the board, you must log in. To log in, you must use the small login
form at the bottom of the Forum Index page.

Alternatively you may click the small Login
link at the top of any page to be taken to the Login Page.
Enter your user name and password, and click Login.
You will be taken to the page you were previously using, but will now be
able to post with your username, change your profile, check private
messages, etc. To log out of the board, click the small Logout
[<your username> ] link at the top of any page.
If you are not logged in and attempt to do anything that requires a
login, you will be taken to the login screen. After you log in, you
will be taken to the page you were attempting to go to before logging in.
Things that require login include changing your profile, checking your
private messages, posting to forums (if they require it), etc.
If you forget your password, go to the Login Page.
Click I forgot my password.

You will be taken to a form to enter your username and email address.
A new password will be created, and sent in an email to you. When
you receive the email, you need to click the new password activation link.
The new password activation link exists so that if someone else enters
your information into the Forgotten Password form, your
current password will remain intact. After you have activated your
new password, you may log in with it. You may change your password
to what you like in your profile. For more information, see 4.7
Profile Settings.
There are two primary ways to create a post. In the View
Forum and View Topic pages, you may click New
Topic. This will take you to the posting form, and, when you
have posted, will create a new topic with your post as the first one in the
topic. In the View Topic page, you may also click Reply.
This will take you to the posting form, and, when you have posted, it will
add your post to the topic you replied to. To reply to a specific
post, you may also click the Quote button in the
upper right corner of that post. For more information, see 4.2.6
Quoting Messages.
When you post a new topic or post a reply, you are taken to the posting
form, where to enter your post.
Subject - The subject of your post. If this is a
new post, the subject is required, and it will be the name of the topic.
If the post is replying to another post, the subject is not required, but
may be added, and will be shown at the top of the post.
Message Body - The Message body is a large text area
where the body of your post is input. Plain text is the only thing
allowed in this text area, but special formatting, links, smilies
(emoticons), images, etc. may be added through the use of Smilies,
BBCode and/or HTML (if they are
enabled).
Smilies - Smilies (also called emoticons) can be added
to posts. You may only use smilies in your post if they are enabled
on the board you are using. To see if smilies are enabled, look in
the lower left corner of the posting form, you should see "Smilies
are ON/OFF".
If smilies are enabled and you would like to disable them in your post,
check the box next to Disable Smilies in this Post.
For more information, see 4.2.6
Smilies
BBCode - BBCode allows you to add special formatting
to your posts. You may only use BBCode in your post if it is enabled
on the board you are using. To see if BBCode is enabled, look in the
lower left corner of the posting form, you should see "BBCode is ON/OFF".
If BBCode is enabled and you would like to disable it in your post, check
the box next to Disable BBCode in this Post.
For more information, see 4.2.5
BBCode.
HTML - You may use HTML to format your posts.
The HTML tags allowed may be configured in the administration panel (for
more information, see 3.2.2
General Configuration). You may only use HTML in your post if it
is enabled on the board you are using. To see if HTML is enabled,
look in the lower left corner of the posting form, you should see
"HTML is ON/OFF".
If HTML is enabled and you would like to disable it in your post, check
the box next to Disable HTML in this Post.

Signature - You may add a signature to your post.
To do this, check the box next to Attach Signature.
You may change your signature by editing your profile. For more
information, see 4.7 Profile
Settings.
Reply Notification - When you post, you may be
interested in knowing when that topic is replied to. If so, you may
check Notify me when a reply is posted. For more
information, see 4.6 Watching Topics.
Sticky/Announcement - To make a post into an Announcement
or a Sticky Topic, look to the bottom of the posting
form. There are radio buttons at the bottom that will allow you to
set the post as Normal, Sticky or Announcement.
These options will only be visible to a user for the top post in a topic,
and only if they have permission to make Announcements and Sticky topics.
For more information, see 4.2.2
Announcements, 4.2.3 Sticky
Topics and 3.1.2 Forum
Permissions
Polls - To add a poll, look to the bottom of the
posting form. These options will only be visible to a user if they
have permission to make Polls. For more information, see 4.2.4
Polls.
Announcements are a special type of topic. In the View
Forum page, Announcements appear above all other topics (at the
top of the forum). Announcements will also appear on every View
Forum page. For instance, if you had 75 topics in a forum
and 50 on each page, announcements would appear on the page with the first
50 topics and on the page with the last 25 topics.
To make a topic into an announcement, simply select the Announcement
radio button on the posting form. The top post of a topic must be
specified as Announcement for the topic to be an
Announcement. For more information, see 4.1.1
Posting Form.

Sticky topics are a special type of topic. In the View
Forum page, Sticky topics appear above all other topics except
for Announcements. Sticky topics only appear on the first View
Forum page.
To make a topic sticky, simply select the Sticky radio
button on the posting form. For more information, see 4.2.1
Posting Form.
Polls are a special type of that allow community members to vote on an
idea or issue. Polls can only be made from the top post in a topic.
Poll Question - This is the subject of the Poll, the
question that is being answered by the poll. The poll
question appears at the top of the topic, above the poll options.
This is required for the poll.
Poll Option - Poll Options are the possible answers to
the poll question. To add poll options, type the option into the
text field and click Add Option. To have a
valid poll, at least two options must be offered.
Run Poll for - Number of days to run the poll for.
After the specified time has passed, the results of the poll are displayed
in the topic, and no one else may vote.
BBCode is a system that will allow you to format your posts in special
ways. The BBCode system uses tags in a way nearly identical to HTML.
The primary difference between BBCode and HTML is that BBCode uses square
brackets [ and ] instead of angle brackets < and >. For a more
detailed description of how BBCode works, click the small BBCode
link on the lower left corner of the Posting Form.
You may also go to http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/faq.php?mode=bbcode.

Here is a list of sample BBCode and its output:
[b]Bolded Text[/b]: Bolded
Text
[i]Italicized Text[/i]: Italicized
Text
[u]Underlined Text[/u]: Underlined
Text
[color=red]Red Text[/color] or [color=#FF0000]Red
Text[/color]: Red Text
[size=24]Bigger Text[/size]: Bigger
Text
[quote]This cheese is delicious[/quote]: 
[quote="The Cheese Man"]This cheese is
delicious.[/quote]: 
[code]if ($cheese == "tasty") { return true; }[/code]:

[list][*]Cheddar Cheese[*]Limburger Cheese[*]Cottage
Cheese[/list]:
- Cheddar Cheese
- Limburger Cheese
- Cottage Cheese
[list=1][*]Cheddar Cheese[*]Limburger Cheese[*]Cottage
Cheese[/list]:
- Cheddar Cheese
- Limburger Cheese
- Cottage Cheese
[list=a][*]Cheddar Cheese[*]Limburger Cheese[*]Cottage
Cheese[/list]:
- Cheddar Cheese
- Limburger Cheese
- Cottage Cheese
[url=http://www.phpbb.com/]Visit phpBB![/url]: Visit
phpBB! (Link URL: http://www.phpbb.com)
[url]http://www.phpbb.com/[/url]: http://www.phpbb.com/
(Link URL: http://www.phpbb.com)
[email]no.one@domain.adr[/email]: no.one@domain.adr
[img]http://www.phpbb.com/images/phpBB_88a.gif[/img]: 
Again, for more info, see http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/faq.php?mode=bbcode.
Smilies are small images that appear in posts. Usually they are
small images of faces, and are often used to show emotion.
To use smilies in your posts, you need to enter a series of characters.
Common character series are :) for a happy face ,
:( for a sad face ,
etc. Another common style for smilie character sequences is :emotion:
(i.e. the emotion the smilie shows, with a colon ":" before and
after this). Examples of this are :wink: for a winking face ,
:lol: for a laughing face ,
etc.
Many templates (including subSilver, the default template) have smilie
buttons on the posting form. Normally, this is a grid of the smilies,
any of which may be clicked to insert the appropriate character sequence
at the current text insertion point. For more information, see 3.2.4
Smilie Administration.
Quoting messages allows you to include other's posts in your own.
It is useful for showing that you are replying to a post, or part of a
post.
To quote all of someone's post, look at the top right corner of their
post and click Quote. This will take you to
the posting form, and will allow you to reply to the post. It will
also automatically add the appropriate BBCode to your
post to quote the post you are replying to.
The proper syntax to quote a post is:
[quote="<name to quote>"]<text to
quote>[/quote]
<name to quote> is the source of your quote, and <text
to quote> is what you are quoting. So to quote the user Cheese
Man saying "Power the behold of cheese."
[quote="Cheese Man"]Power the behold of cheese[/quote]
For more information, see 4.2.5
BBCode.
Editing posts allows you to go back and fix errors, remove incorrect
information, or add new information to your posts. To edit a post,
look at the top right corner of your post and click Edit.
You will be taken to the posting form to edit your post, and then click Submit
to enter it into the database. If you edit a post after it has been
replied to, a small message will appear at the bottom of it indicating how
many times it has been edited, and when and by whom the last edit
occurred.
To delete a post, click Edit and check Delete
this Post. Click Submit to finish
deleting the post. You may not delete a post if it has been replied
to (i.e. it is not the last post in the topic)
Private messages allow users on a board to contact each other out of the
public eye. Private messages can be described as a cross between
email, instant messaging, and phpBB 2.0 forum posting.
To use private messaging, you must be logged in to the board. Look
at the top of any page, and click You have X new message(s).
This will take you to your private messaging center.

There are three primary ways to send a private message. First,
you may go your private messaging center and click New
Post. Secondly, you may click Post Reply
from a private message you are reading. Finally, you may click the PMlink
on any user's profile or post.
The posting form is identical to the normal posting form with a few
exceptions:
Username - The username of the person you want to
receive the message. If you are replying to a PM, or clicked the PM
link in someone's profile, this field will be automatically filled for
you.
Additionally, PMs may not be Sticky Topics, Announcements,
or contain Polls.
There are three ways that one may be notified of a new private message.
Most obvious is the Private message link at the top of every page.
It will display You have X new message(s), where
X is the number of new messages you have. You may click this link to
take you to your Inbox.
You may be informed of new PMs by an email sent to the email address
your username is registered to. You may also be informed of a new PM
by means of a small window that pops up while you are viewing the board.
Email and pop-up notification will contain a link to your Inbox.
Email and pop-up notification may be enabled/disabled in your Profile
(for more information, see 4.7
Profile Settings)
Sometimes you may be informed of a new PM, but when you go to your
Inbox, there is no new message. This is not a bug, it simply means
that the sender must have deleted the PM before you read it. For
more information, see 4.3.3 The
Outbox.
You may delete messages by selecting them and clicking Delete
Marked. Alternatively, you may delete all messages by
clicking Delete All. You may also
sort/display messages by age by using the dropdown list box in the upper
right corner.
When you send a PM, the message goes to your Outbox.
It remains in the Outbox until the recipient visits his/her Inbox, at
which point it is moved from your Outbox to their Inbox. While the
message remains in your Outbox you may edit or delete your post if you
like. The message remains in your control until it is received.
The Savebox is provided as a place to keep important PMs. Often
it is used to save valuable messages from the Inbox, and then you can use
the Delete All function to discard the rest.
You may save messages in your Inbox by selecting the messages (with the
checkboxes next to each message) and clicking Save
Marked.
Usergroups are a powerful feature of phpBB 2.0.0.
They allow moderator permissions, private permissions, and any other special
user settings to be granted to multiple people. This makes it easy to
change settings for a group that has things in common without having to edit
each user's individual permissions. It is also possible to make the Group
Moderator (controls group membership) someone who is not an
administrator, granting power to users without leaving your board's
administration panel vulnerable.
There are two ways to join a group. First, you may be added to
the group by the group moderator. This is not controlled by the
user, but by the group moderator through the group control panel.
This is the only way to become a member of a Closed or Hidden
group.
To join an open group, click the small Usergroups
link at the top of any page.

Choose the group to join from the Join a Group
dropdown list shown, and click View Information.
This will take you to the Group Control Panel.
Click Join Group to request membership in the
group. The Group Moderator will receive an email
informing them of the request, which they must approve before you become a
member of the group. For more information, see 4.4.2
Moderating a Group.
For each group, there is one Group Moderator.
The group moderator may control membership to the group by adding and
removing members. They may also control the Group Type.
The group moderator is specified in the admin panel. For more
information, see 3.3 Group
Administration.
To add members to a group, go to the Group Control Panel.
In the lower right corner, there is a text field. Enter the
username to add, and click Add Member.
Additionally, you may use Find a username if
you are not sure of the name of the user to add.
To approve a user's membership to a group, go to the Group
Control Panel. Look at the bottom of the page at the Pending
Members section. Check the box next to the member(s) to
approve and click Approve Selected. You
may similarly select and deny a user's membership to the group.
When a user requests to join a group, email will be sent to the group
moderator with a link to the Group Control Panel.
This allows the group moderator to be notified, speeding the approval
process.
To remove members from a group, go to the Group Control Panel.
Check the boxes next to the names of members to remove, and click Remove
Selected.
Group types may be changed by the group moderator or a board
administrator in the Group Control Panel. They
may also be changed by board administrators in the Group
Management section of the admin panel. For more
information, see 3.3 Group
Administration.
Open - All users may see the group and group
members. Users may request membership to this group. For
more information, see 4.4.1
Joining a Group.
Closed - All users may see the group and group
members. Users may not request membership to the group, but may be
added by the group moderator.
Hidden - The group and its members are not visible
to normal users. Users may be added by the group moderator.
If a hidden group is moderator of a forum, the group will
show up in the Moderators list.
phpBB 2.0 has a search system that will allow you to find topics you are
interested in. To get to the search page, click the small Search
link at the top of any page.

Search for Keywords - You may search for words in the
content of topics. Enter the words to search for into the text
field.
If you select Search for any terms or use query as entered,
then topic containing ANY of the words you entered will be displayed.
You may use the AND, OR, and NOT
operators to indicate which words you want to search for. Use AND
to indicate that multiple words MUST be found. Use OR
to indicate that a word is optional/alternate. Use NOT
to indicate that a word should not be present in the topics displayed.
If you select Search for all terms, only topics
containing all of the words in the query will be displayed.
Selecting this option has effects comparable to using Search for
any terms or use query as entered, with the AND
operator between each term.
You may use the asterisk(*) wildcard character to broaden your search.
The asterisk will match any number of characters. So *cheese*
will match cheese, cheesewheel, wheelcheese, or
wheelcheesewheel. Likewise cheese*fudge will match
cheesefudge, cheeseyfudge, or cheese597fudge.
To increase the speed and decrease the overhead of the search utility,
only words may be searched for. Phrases (such as "cheese
wheel") may not be searched for, except by their component words.
The minimum size for words is four characters, and the maximum size is
twenty characters. Any non-alphanumeric character (e.g. white space
and punctuation) is a word boundary.
Search for Author - You may search for posts by post
author. Simply enter the author's username into this text field.
You may use the asterisk(*) wildcard in author's names to broaden your
search. Again, the asterisk will match any number of characters.
Forum - Select the forum you wish to search in, or All
available. To search multiple forums, search by Category.
Category - Select the category you wish to search in,
or All available.
Display Results as Posts - Search results will be
displayed as a list of the posts. Part of the post that matches the
query will be displayed, and the search terms highlighted. For each
post there is a ling
Display Results as Topics - Search results will be
displayed as a list of Topic titles. For each topic there is a link
to the forum it is in, the topic itself, and the author of the topic.
Search Previous - This dropdown box will allow you to
specify the maximum age of posts to display as results of the search.
There are also radio buttons here that will allow you to search only the
body of posts, or the subject(title) of the posts as well.
Sort by - This will allow you to specify how search
results are organized. You may sort by Post Time, Post Subject,
Topic Title, Author, or Forum. The sort may be in ascending or
descending order alphabetically (or chronologically where appropriate)
Return first - When Display Results as
is set to Posts, this dropdown box will allow you to
control how much of the post is displayed in the search result.
You may subscribe to topics in phpBB 2.0.0. When a topic you are
subscribed to is replied to, an email will be sent to the email address that
your username is registered to. The email will contain a link to the
topic that has been replied to. You will only receive one email per
topic until the next time you log in to the board.
To subscribe to a topic, look at the lower left corner of the Topic
View page. Click the small Watch this
topic for replies link.

Additionally, if you post or reply to a topic, you may check Notify
me when a reply is posted to subscribe to a topic.
To unsubscribe from a topic, look at the lower left corner of the Topic
View page. Click the small Stop watching
this topic link.

Alternatively, you may look at your notification email. At the
end of the email (right above the signature) there is a link that will
unsubscribe you from the topic.
To edit your profile, click the small Profile
link at the top of any page.

You must be logged in to edit your profile. To make changes to your
profile, change the values on the form and click Submit
at the bottom of the page.
Username - Your username on the board, the name you use
to log in. You may change this name if the board administrators allow
it. For more info, see 3.2.2.4
User and Forum Basic Settings.
Email - The email address your account is registered to.
All emails from the board to you will go to this email address. You
may change the email address if you like. If you change your email
address and the board is using User activation, then you
will need to activate your changed email address. You will be sent an
email (to the new address) with an activation link if this is the case.
Password - The password you use to log in. If you
change your email address or password, you must enter your current password.
If you are changing your password you will need to enter the new password
twice to verify it.
Fields in the Profile Information are self-explanatory.
Always show my Email Address - If Yes a
link to email you will appear in your profile. If set to No,
the link will not appear.
Hide your online status - If Yes you
will not be visible to normal users in the Who is Online?
list at the bottom of the Forum Index.
Always notify me of replies - If Yes
then the Notify me when a reply is posted checkbox on the
posting form will be checked by default. You may still uncheck it each
time you post.
Notify on new Private Messages - If Yes
an email will be sent to your registered email address each time you receive
a private message.
Pop up window on new Private Messages - If Yes
you will see a pop up window notifying you of new Private Messages you
receive while browsing the forums.
Always attach my signature - If Yes
then the Attach signature checkbox on the posting form will
be checked by default. You may still uncheck it each time you post.
Always allow BBCode - If Yes then the Disable
BBCode in this post checkbox on the posting form will be unchecked
by default. You may still check it each time you post.
Always allow HTML - If Yes then the Disable
HTML in this post checkbox on the posting form will be unchecked by
default. You may still check it each time you post.
Always enable Smilies - If Yes then the
Disable Smilies in this post checkbox on the posting form
will be unchecked by default. You may still check it each time you
post.
Board Language - Selects the language of board
messages/text. Any text from other users or administrators is
unaffected.
Board Style - Selects the style that the board.
This setting will not work if the administrator has turned on Override
user style (for more information, see 3.2.2.1
General Board Settings)
phpBB 2.0.0 allows you to specify the date format that you see on the
board. This is done by allowing you to specify the format using the
PHP syntax. For full details on how this works, see http://www.php.net/date.
The date string is a series of letters and punctuation. Each
letter will be replaced with a part of the current date and time, and the
punctuation is used to organize this information in a way that makes sense
to you.
The default string for this field is "D M d, Y g:i a"
This will display your date in the form Sat Apr 09, 2002 4:09 am.
All of the punctuation and spacing remains intact, and each letter is
replaced with part of the date/time.
D is the first three letters of the day of the week. M
is the first three letters of the month name. d is the
numerical date, with leading zeroes. Y is the year,
four-digit format. gis the hour, 12-hour format without
leading zeroes. i is the minutes, with leading zeroes. ais
am/pm, in lowercase letters.
To see the complete list of letter substitutions, go to http://www.php.net/date.
To have the board time show correctly, please select your time zone.
The time in phpBB 2.0.0 does not work with Daylight Savings Time, so if
you have Daylight Savings Time, add 1 to your GMT modifier. So if
you are in GMT-5 and have DST, you will need to set your time zone to
GMT-4.
Avatars are small pictures that display each post. Each user may
choose his/her own avatar. However, permission to allow users to
have avatars is controlled by the board administrator. Each of the
following settings may be enabled/disabled in the Administration Panel
(for more information, see 3.2.2.5
Avatar Settings).
Gallery Avatars - You may choose your avatar from a
gallery of avatars. The gallery is a collection of avatars stored on
the server that the board is running on. To select an avatar from
the gallery, click Show Gallery. You may
use the dropdown list at the top of the gallery to navigate between
categories of avatars. To choose an avatar, check the radio button
underneath it and click Select Avatar.
Remotely Linked Avatars - You may use an image that is
hosted on another site as your avatar. To do this, just enter the
URI into the text field. It is recommended that the images are small
and do not deform tables or distract people. Administrators have the
ability to block specific users from having an avatar (for more
information, see 3.5.3 User
Management)
Uploaded Avatars - If you have an image that you would
like to use, you may upload the image to the server that the board is on.
You may upload an image on your computer by clicking the Browse
button. You may also upload an image by entering the URI that the
image is located at. Uploaded images have an admin-controlled limit
on file size and image size (for more information, see 3.2.2.5
Avatar Settings).
Moderation allows content on your board to be controlled. A
moderator of a forum may edit, delete, split, or move topics in that forum.
A moderator may also edit or delete any post in a topic in that forum.
A board administrator automatically has moderator permissions to every forum
on that board. Moderator permissions for a specific forum may also be
granted to a user or group of users. For more information, see 3.3.2
Group Permissions and 3.5.4 User
Permissions.
To get to the Moderator Control Panel, click the small moderate
this forum link. This link appears in the lower right corner of
Forum View and Topic View pages that you
have moderator permissions in.

In the Moderator Control Panel, you may move any
number of topics from the current forum to another forum. To do
this, check the boxes next to each topic and click Move.
Select the forum that you would like to move the topics moved to.
Select if you would like to leave Shadow Topics, and
click Yes to complete the move.
Shadow Topics may be left when a topic is moved from one forum to
another. Shadow topics exist so that when someone commonly checks
a topic, they will not be confused when it gets moved. A shadow
topic appears in the original forum, and links to the topic in its new
forum. The text "Moved: " will appear in front of
the shadow topic in the old forum. A shadow topic will not be
marked unread when new replies are posted to the topic,
so it should eventually move down the forum as new topics are made and
replied to. The actual topic (in the new forum) will be updated as
replies are posted.
Suppose there was a topic titled "What kinds of cheese do you
like?" in a forum named General Discussion. Suppose
that a moderator moved that topic to the Cheese Discussion
forum, and left a shadow topic. In the Cheese Discussion
forum, there will be the topic named "What kinds of cheese do you
like?" This topic will be marked unread as
replies are posted to it. In the General Discussion forum
there will be a topic named "Moved: What kinds of cheese do you
like?" This topic will link directly to the topic in the Cheese
Discussion forum, and will not be marked unread as
replies are posted.
In the Moderator Control Panel, you may delete any
number of topics. To do this, check the boxes next to each topic and
click Delete. You must confirm your
decision by clicking Yes.
In the Moderator Control Panel, you may lock or unlock
any number of topics. To do this, check the boxes next to each topic
and click Lock or Unlock.
A locked topic may only be posted to by moderators and administrators.
In the Moderator Control Panel, you may split a topic
by clicking on the topic title. You will be taken to the Split
Topic Control Panel. You may select the posts to split;
they will then be removed from the topic and put into a new topic.
This will allow you to move off-topic posts to another topic, keeping your
topics more organized.
New Topic Title - The title of the new topic created
by the split.
Forum for new topic - The forum that the new topic
will be located in.
To split only specific posts from a topic, check the box next to each
post and click Split selected posts.
To split a post and every post after that one, select the first post to
split and click Split from selected posts.
Moderator Quick Actions are small buttons at the bottom of each topic.

They allow moderation tasks to be performed quickly for the specified
topic.
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