Figure a
Pre-Register
Sometimes, you may need the option of pre-registering a member. This means making
their account for them, including filling in their password, email, and creating
their user name (figure a). You may set
them to a specific group if you wish, even create a post count number for them.
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Figure a
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Member Settings
Member Name - Select the name you want the person
to log in with. These are case sensitive, meaning letters that are capitalized
here must also be capitalized when the member goes to log in.
Member Password - Enter in at least a 5 character
password. The best passwords contain a combination of letters and numbers, and
words that can be found in the dictionary are not advisable.
Member Email Address - Enter the member's email
address, so that lost password requests, subscriptions, etc. can be sent directly
to them.
Member Post count - This option is, by default,
set to zero, however you can put whatever number in here you wish. This will
cause the user to appear to have made the number of posts that you enter.
Member Group: - You may change the member group
the member will belong to. It is set to put them into the default member group
automatically.
Allow this member to post where allowed? - Choose
to allow the member to post where it is listing their member group has permission
to post to.
Edit Member
There are going to be times, for one reason or another, that you may be called
upon to edit a member. Maybe they want you to change their password for them,
or perhaps they've been causing problems or making up for former problems and
you need to adjust their warning level. Maybe you need to adjust their member
group. For whatever reason you have, you may find yourself here. To start off,
enter the user name that they log onto the board with (figure
a).
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Figure a
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Now that you've entered their user name, now you will see the details of their profile. The last date they were active is handy if you keep track of who is and isn't doing anything on the board, then there is their real name, their posting permissions, member group, gender, warning level, their member title, email address, which avatar they use, it's size, how many posts they made, the url to their personal photograph, instant messenger information, location, website url, their signature, interests, hidden email setting, and of course, the place to reset their password (figure b).
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Figure b
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Main Settings
Last activity date - This is a new feature, allowing
a board admin to see the last date that the member had activity on the board.
Member Real Name - This field holds the "real
name" that the member entered into their profile.
Allow this member to post where allowed? - This
allows a member to post in areas that are set to allow their member group to
read, post, or reply to topics.
Member Group: - This is the group the member belongs
to. This will, in part, determine what areas the member may be active in.
Gender selection? - If the member has chosen to
add their gender into their profile, this will be shown here.
Warning Level: - The number of times a member has
been "warned" for something they have done that the moderators or
admins felt was inappropriate. Setting the level to five will remove all member's
posting rights and the member will be unable to post.
Title - This is the member title that this member
fits in to, if you have activated the members title feature.
Email Address - This is the address the member
has chosen to receive emails from the message board at.
Avatar - If the member has selected an avatar,
the name will be shown here.
Avatar Width - This is the width of the avatar
that the member uses, if the member uses a custom avatar.
Avatar Height - This is the height of the avatar
that the member uses, if the member uses a custom avatar.
Posts - This is the number of posts the member
has made.
Photo - This will show the url of the personal
photograph the member uses, if one has been added into their profile.
AIM Name - Their AOL Instant Messenger screen name.
ICQ No. - Their ICQ messenger number.
Yahoo Name - Their Yahoo! Messenger ID.
MSN Name - This can be either their MSN messenger
sign in name or their MSN messenger email address.
Location - If the member has chosen to reveal his/her
location, this information will be found here.
Website - This is likely to be the url of the website
they own.
Signature - If they have created a signature for
themselves, this will be here.
Interests - If the user has chosen to give a list
of their interests or otherwise, they will have it written up here.
Email Hidden? - If set to yes, the board members
will be unable to contact them via email, even should you have it set for members
to only email another member from the board. If set to no, then they will be
able to receive emails from other members.
Reset Members Password?
Enter a new password here If you wish to reset the pass -
ONLY if you wish to change the member's password, do you enter anything into
this text box. If you enter something in this box, whatever you have entered
will become their new password. Leaving this box alone will allow their password
to remain as it was.
DELETE Member(s)
More than likely at some point, you're going to have the need to delete a member,
for whatever reason. This option makes it a relatively painless task. To start
off, all you need to do is enter the user name of the member you wish to remove,
or you can enter their member number (figure a).
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Figure a
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After you have entered the member's name or number and hit "Go!", then you will pull up their information (figure b). If there are other users with similar names or numbers, then it will pull up all members matching the information you had entered. Select the checkbox next to the member you wish to delete, then hit "Delete selected member" and they'll be removed from your database. You can delete multiple members, if there are others meeting the criteria you had entered. Don't forget to re-index member profiles after deleting members from your database.
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Figure b
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PRUNE Members
If you get tired of having a database overburdened with people who do not post
to your forums, then this is an option you'll really want to pay attention to.
Otherwise, you may want to set it to the highest values. For those wanting to
help keep their databases from being overwhelmed with "empty" memberships,
then you'll want to do this probably at least once a month, or more often, depending
on how many members you have. Decide how many days you wish a member to remain
in the database and inactive, as well as what type of activity you consider
them as having been "active" (figure a).
If simply logging in is good enough for you, then the default "by last
activity date" is what you'll choose. If you're a bit more strict with
your definition of active, then you may wish to change it to their last post
date. Then, when you've made your settings, it will pull up a list of all members
who match that criteria. They will be sent a letter notifying them that they
must click on a link if they do not wish to be deleted from the database. Unless
you choose to prune them immediately, then they will be deleted from the database
if they do not "validate" their account by the amount of days set
in the registration area for days they have to validate their account. If you
change your mind, then you may cancel the pruning process, or you can prune
members immediately from the administrative index that will show a full list
of those about to be removed. The email message they receive is editable in
the templates section.
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Figure a
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Ban Control
Unfortunately there's always someone causing trouble, raising cane or generally
being an annoyance or disruption. That's why there is a ban control, to help
you keep those troublemakers off your board. When a member makes a post, the
board admin and moderators (if you've enabled that option) can view a person's
IP address. If they're being a serious problem, then you can enter this address
into the Banned IP's area, which will prevent any computer from that IP address
from joining and posting to your board. The only downside to this is if they
are a user of an ISP that does not give them a specific IP and it changes with
every time they log in. This is, in part, why the email address banning is also
available. You can enter in their specific email address, preventing anyone
using that specific email address to register or post on your board. There is
also the option of banning people from a specific domain's email address, such
as *@yahoo.com. This would prevent ANYONE who uses a yahoo email address from
registering or posting to the board, which could cause problems should there
be other people using yahoo email that you would have normally wanted to allow
them onto your board, though useful if you have specific problems with a number
of people from a specific domain (figure a).
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Figure a
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Send Email
Let's say you're going to have the site down for 2 hours to do some updating,
or your server has notified you of impending downtime for maintenance, or you've
got a major announcement to make or an event that will affect certain member
groups. For whatever reason, you need to send an email to everyone on a specific
member group to notify them of something. This feature allows you to compose,
title and send a message to the user group or groups of your choice (figure
a). Simply select the group or groups you wish it to go to, add a
subject, then type in your message. Hit send, and you're done. All members who
have chosen to receive announcements from the board admin will receive the email.
Please use this feature responsibly. Those using it to send large amounts of
junk mail are likely to end up with a lot of angry users.
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Figure a
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Add/Edit/Remove Titles
We get dozens of questions regarding those "little stars" or "pips"
or "titles" or "post counts". All of these things are based
in this area. How it works is that you create a title that a member would get
(the title does NOT affect member groups unless you adjust the settings here)
after making a set amount of posts, that is also up to you. You then also decide
how many pips that person would get after they've posted the amount of times
you state. You can make as many member levels as you want, and assign them however
many pips you choose. You also have the option of allowing members to advance
to a different group, once they've posted the amount of times you've listed
as required (figure a). For security, primarily
preventing a super admin from being shifted into another member group, Super
Administrators are exempt from the member group advancement, though their pips
will still increase and posts will be counted, increasing their member titles.
If you have other groups you wish exempt from the member group advancement,
such as moderators, then you will need to select them at the bottom of the page.
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Figure a
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Create member list CSV file
This is a very handy tool. What this does is create a text file of your member
list, in a format that will allow it to be imported into any spreadsheet program
to set up an "external" version of your member's list (figure
a).
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Figure a
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Written 7/11/02 by Snow Wolf for Ikonboard
Jarvis Network
