Figure a
Set/Delete AdminCP PWD (password)
This manager will allow you add password protection to the SQL Client, Database,
File Manager, Member Groups, Forum Controls and Prune Members. Very useful for
those who have more than one or two administrators and want to keep some administrators
out of the crutial areas, while allowing others into those areas. Simply click
the link and add in the password of your choice (figure
a). You may then go into the password protected sections using that
password and decide which areas you wish to be protected. In addition, you can
go back in and remove the password by selecting the choice again and entering
the password that you put in previously. Please note passwords must be at least
5 characters long.
|
Figure a
|
AdminCP Protected Sections
Once you've set a password for the admin protected sections, then you can go
into this area to decide which areas you will require to be password protected.
You will first bed asked to log in (figure a),
then you will be asked which out of 7 areas you wish to password protect (figure
b). You can select any or all of them that you choose. They will
then all be protected by the same password you chose.
|
Figure a
 |
|
Figure b
 |
Skin/Language Defaults
Many people like the default skins, though many others make their own, or use
skins others have made. What happens when you want to set a different skin to
default? What about if you're in another country that speaks something besides
English? This is the place where you can set your default skin, and your board's
default language. Simply highlight your choice out of the list (must have additional
skins or language packs installed for this to work) and hit the button (figure
a). It will set your choices as the board's default.
|
Figure a
 |
Board Paths
If you have images not showing up, or change the name of your folders, or are
planning to, this is the place you go to fix your board paths so that it reads
out of the correct area. One of the most common problems is images not showing
up, which is usually caused by the board being told to read in the wrong place
for the images. Always look at this first to make sure that your board is being
told to look in the correct place for your files, or change them here should
you need to rename your folders (figure a).
|
Figure a
 |
Board Urls
CGI URL - The direct url typed in the browser that
will guide to the directory the inkonboard.cgi script is at.
NON-CGI URL - The direct url that can be typed
in the browser to guide people to the non-cgi folder (where your images are
stored)
Website URL - This is the link at the top of the
forums that your "website name" links to.
Uploads URL - The direct url that can be typed
in the browser window to guide people to the folder where Ikonboard stores uploaded
files/images.
Board Paths
CGI Directory Path - The full server path to your
CGI directory containing your Ikonboard CGI files.
Non CGI Directory Path - The full server path to
your non-CGI directory in which your non-CGI Ikonboard files are located.
Uploads Directory - The full server path to the
non-CGI uploads directory where Ikonboard stores all uploaded files.
Backups Directory - The full server path to the
Ikonboard CGI directory where your Backups are stored.
Database Directory Path - The full server path
to the Ikonboard CGI Database directory.
Perl Script Extension - This is the extension of
your "perl scripts", usually CGI, though in some cases, primarily
with windows servers, this may be pl.
Perl Path - This is the server's path to perl.
Usually will be /usr/bin/perl or usr/local/bin/perl.
Board Options
These are the basic board settings. This is the place you change your website
name on the forums, the forum name or description, the copyright information,
cookie settings, your time & date settings, including time zone (figure
a), security settings (figure b),
as well as turning several features on or off, like the calendar, board statistics,
users online, whether or not all people must log in prior to viewing the board,
enabling the skins feature (figure c), and
several others. When you first install your board, you will probably want to
spend your first stretch of time here, setting up the initial basics of your
board. You can change your mind later and adjust things then, if you so choose.
|
Figure a
 |
Board Details
Board Name : The name you wish your forums to have
Board Description : The description that appears
in the upper right of the forums below the board's name
Website Name : The name of the website you wish
linked to your message board
Your Copyright : The information you wish at the
very bottom of your board, signifying ownership ( this does not affect the "powered
by" at the very bottom of your board)
Cookie Settings
Cookie ID : This is if you wish the cookies from
your board to have a specific prefix
Cookie Path : This does not have to be entered,
but you do have the option of determining specifically where the cookies of
the board will be put inside the computers of those visitors to your board that
accept cookies from your board
Cookie Domain : Another optional field, this allows
you to set your cookies to go with the cookies from the rest of your domain
Time and Date settings
Board Time Adjust : This allows you to set the
Ikonboard clock so that it matches the time zone you are in. The display is,
by default, shown in 24 hour increments (AKA Military Time for US citizens).
Go upward to subtract time from the display, go downward to add time to the
display.
Clock Type : Allows you to decide if you wish your
board to be displayed in 24 hour increments, or in 12-hour, am/pm increments.
Time Zone Name : You may label the time zone you
wish your board to be displayed in here. (Ex. EST - Eastern Standard Time, CST
- Central Standard Time, PST - Pacific Standard Time, etc.)
|
Figure b
 |
Time and Date Style
Clock Style : Joined Date - This is how the joined
date will show up for your members. Look at the commands directly above it if
you wish more or less or different information to show than what is shown by
default
Clock Style : Short Date - This is the shorter
version of the date that shows in various parts of the board. You may look up
to the examples above to adjust that to suit your particular needs
Clock Style : Long Date - This is set by default
to show a longer version of the actual "today's date" on your board.
Again, look above at the example commands to adjust it for your particular needs
Set a load limit (*NIX ONLY)
Server Load Limit : For heavily used boards, this
is a way to help keep your server from being overwhelmed if you have a large
number of people are on the board and posting to the board at once. Please do
NOT alter this unless you know what you're doing. Setting this incorrectly can
cause you and your users serious problems in attempting to get into your board.
Basic Security Settings
Flood Control : This option allows you to prevent
people from spamming the board or posting too quickly, which can slow your server
down, especially if you have a very active board. People must wait the amount
of time you set in this box (in seconds) before being allowed to post again.
Length of Sessions After Login : This number allows
people to "sit" on the board for a specified amount of time without
activity. The higher the number, the longer people will be showing as logged
in, prior to being "punted' out of the active users list.
How many days worth of historic records for the post markers
do you want to keep in the database before it is pruned automatically :
This feature allows you to set how long post markers are stored in your databases.
Each time someone posts to a particular forum, that post marker will be updated,
but this allows you to decide how long it will be before the post markers are
reset. This process happens once a day to conserve on resources. Your posts
will NOT be deleted with this feature.
Validate the users browser as part of the authorize procedure?
- This determines how a user will be redirected to the correct page.
There are two different methods, each depending on the specific browser the
member/visitor is using.
Allow dynamic pages in IMG tags? Enabling this poses a security
risk. - Enabling this allows the javascript problem that gives people
the ability to read your cookies if they enter the javascript command into the
[img] tag. We strongly advise keeping this option disabled.
|
Figure c
 |
Other Settings
Your default charset : For US/English speaking
users, you will likely not need to change this from default. This feature enables
you to be able to change the ASCII characterset for those who speak other languages.
Show Board Calendar? (Must have "Show online users"
on for this) : This feature allows you to choose whether or not you
want visitors to see the board calendar.
Show Board Statistics? (Total Users, Posts ..etc.) :
These are the statistics for your board - I.E. - Total Users, newest member,
Total number of posts, with how many replies to how many topics your board has.
Show users online in board index? : This will allow
you to choose if people are able to see who's on the board currently.
Show link to users online page? (If you choose to show online
users in the board index) - If you're allowing the users online to
be shown, then this will make their name be a link to their user profile for
the board. If you do not want anyone to be able to click on a member's name
and see their profile, then you would turn this off.
Enable Invite a Friend feature? - Sometimes people
refer other people to your board. This option allows you to decide if people
are able to use this "quick recommend" to do so.
Force everyone to log in before viewing the board? -
If you choose yes, then no one will be able to look at the board index (the
main page of the board) unless they register or log in.
Enable the Skins feature? - If you want to allow
your users to choose between skins (if you use more than one on your board)
then this will need to be set to yes.
Enable iB Template Tags? Allows the use of SSI in the
global templates - This has to do with being able to use SSI in global
(board-wide) templates. For those using, or wanting to use, such things as banner
scripts, frames, etc., this allows you to add SSI scripts into your template
and be able to have it called in like it would be for any other html page.
Compress HTML (removes newlines and multiple spaces) -
This will help lower file size, by removing extra garbage from your html.
Forum Options
When setting up your board or during times when you need to make some changes
to the defaults, this is a very important area. Here you decide how many topics
per page can be shown, how many posts makes a topic "hot", how the
topics are sorted by default (figure a),
and so on.
|
Figure a
 |
Forum Options
No. posts before it's a hot topic : This is where
you set the number of total posts for one thread till it's marked as "hot".
By default, the red envelope icon is how "hot" or popular topics are
marked.
Topics per page : Set this number to determine
how many topics are listed on a single page (maximum) when a user clicks to
enter a particular forum. The higher this is set to, the longer it can take
to load a page, especially if there are a large number of topics in any particular
forums.
Default cut off date for topic display : This setting
will determine how long a topic is viewable. Once it's past the number of days
set here, the topic will remain in your database, but will not be visible when
people look inside a forum at the list of individual topics.
Default Forum Order
Default sort key - Set this to determine, by default,
how forum topics are displayed, be it by date of the last post, topic starter,
topic title, etc.
Default sort order - This is the ORDER in which
topics are sorted. Once they've been sorted by key, then they will be displayed
in the order you choose. Both of these options can be overridden by the member,
as well as yourself upon setting up the individual forums.
Forum Thread Prefixes
Prefix for Pinned Topics - You can select here
if you wish Pinned topics to contain a prefix in the topic title to help better
identify that it is a pinned topic.
Prefix for Moved Topics - You can select here
if you wish moved topics to contain a prefix in the topic title to help better
identify that it is a moved topic.
Prefix for Polls - You can select here if you wish
poll to contain a prefix in the topic title to help better identify that it
is a poll.
Topic Options
You'll need to, at some point, probably use this tool to help further customize
your board. This is the place where you decide how many posts show up per page,
if you want people to be allowed to upload images (generally, you'll need to
set it for each forum individually), if you want polls to pop up with each vote
(figure a) and so on. The tolls here make
it possible to further customize your board to suit the needs of yourself and
your users.
|
Figure a
 |
Topic Options
Posts per page : This sets the limit to the maximum
number of posts that will show up on one page before the board starts another
page for any topic exceeding this amount.
Allow votes to bump a poll? : If set to yes, then
when a person votes in a poll, it will be moved upward, as if it were a topic
that had been posted to.
Allow the poll creator to vote? : This decides
if the person who creates a poll may also vote in the poll they've created.
Post display order : This will show your choice
of the oldest posts on top and newest posts below it in their order, or if the
most recent post is shown first and the older posts below it.
Show uploaded images in posts (rather than a link to the
attachment)? - If you choose yes here, then those who upload images
(if you allow people to upload them at all), will have the image displayed in
their post. Otherwise, it will be displayed as a link.
Show default post icon in topic view? - This will
determine if the default icon that is displayed if a member, when posting, does
not select their own icon, is displayed when a person reads a thread of posts.
If you select no, then the default icon 
will not be displayed, but other icons will be displayed.
Show default post icon in forum view? - This
feature allows you to determine if the default post icon that is displayed unless
a member selects another when starting a topic is displayed when a person enters
a forum and begins to read the list of posted topics. If you select no, then
the default icon will not
be displayed, though any other post icon selected will be.
Email Options
If you decide you'd rather use sendmail than smtp mail, (figure
a) or vice versa, you will need to come here to make that adjustment.
You want the emails from your board to be text? Html? This is the area where
you also make that decision. You can set the email to be sent from a form (better
protecting your members) or not. The basic default message parts are located
here (figure b), as well. Anytime you need
to make the emails be logged or shut off the logging, this will also be where
you'll come for those settings.
|
Figure a
 |
Email Addresses
Outgoing Email Address : The email address for
emails coming from the message board .
Incoming Email Address : This is the email address
for emails coming into the message board.
Mail Options
Send mail using - This will allow you to adjust
your settings from sendmail to smtp or vice versa.
Email Content - Choose if email coming from your
board will be in plain text format or HTML.
Use a form for when members email other members? This
keeps all email addresses private - Leaving this marked as yes will
help prevent people from "stealing" email addresses and protects your
users from potential spammers. It will not prevent people from emailing them
from the board, but it will prevent people from seeing the email address their
mail goes to, by giving them a small form to fill out to give the subject line
and message for the recipient.
SMTP Server (If using SMTP) - If you are not
using SMTP for your email, then this does not have to be changed from the default
value. If you use SMTP though, you will need to make sure the correct "address"
has been given. Some use localhost, some use mail.yourdomain.com, etc.
Sendmail Path (If using Sendmail) - If you
are using SMTP, then this setting does not need to be adjusted. If you're using
sendmail (standard for UNIX-based servers), then you will want to make sure
you list the correct path for sendmail. This information can be attained from
your host. Some examples are /usr/lib/sendmail, /usr/sbin/sendmail, etc.
|
Figure b
 |
Default Email Content
Email Header : Whatever is written here will be
at the head, or beginning, of all emails leaving the board.
Email Footer : The contents placed here will be
at the foot, or end, of every email leaving your board.
Signature : This "signature" will be
below the footer of all messages leaving the board.
Email Logging
Log all emails sent from this board? - This allows
you to retain logs of emails sent from your board.
Search Options
By default, the search option is turned on. If you ever wish to turn it off
or modify it, this area gives you some necessary options. You decide how many
characters are stored, as well as what words are skipped by the search to help
narrow it down and provide a bit more clarity and relevance to what your members
may be searching for (figure a).
|
Figure a
|
Search Options
Allow the use of search? : Do you want your members
to be able to search for a specific subject/author/etc. or not?
No. of characters to store (Leave blank to store complete
post) : This is the maximum amount of characters the search will store
of each post to use for searching.
Skip these words: (Case Insensitive - One per line) :
These are typically "common" words that tend to hinder search optimization.
Add more to make a list of "common" words that will not be used as
keywords stored from a post to be searched for.
Register Options
In setting up your board, this will be one of your crucial areas. Register options
contain the settings to allow people to register or not, if you want their email
to be validated prior to becoming a member, if you prefer to preview all registrations
prior to allowing them to post, if you want notified for each new member, if
they will be allowed to use the same email address more than once, if you want
a welcome message sent to them upon completed registrations and how long they
have to validate their email before they are removed from the database (figure
a), if you choose that option. This is also the place where you set
up the board rules all members are shown before logging in for the first time.
|
Figure a
 |
Register Permissions
Allow new users to register? : This is where you
either allow or deny any user to register to your board.
Send email to validate registrations? : This option
gives you the ability to force every one to confirm their email address prior
to registering. Anyone who does not confirm their email address will have to
reregister later on to access your board, unless you directly approve them.
Preview all registrations before enabling posting rights?
: Setting this option to yes will prevent any newly registered members
from posting until you have approved them for posting rights.
Get notified via email for each new registration? :
This allows you to require the board to send you an email notification with
each newly registered member.
ALLOW multiple use of the same email address? : Setting
this option to no will prevent people from registering any additional accounts
and use the same email address as any other account they may have on the board.
Send Welcome PM to new members? : This is a new
feature of 3.1, allowing the board owner to decide if a private message will
be sent to new users upon their completed registration.
How long to allow validation via email? (In days) :
If you have required members to validate their email address prior to being
able to complete their registration, this option allows you to determine the
deadline they will be given to validate their email address prior to their incomplete
registration being removed from the database. If they do not confirm within
the time frame, in days, that you set here, then they will be required to reregister
if they wish to post on your board.
Board Rules
Show board rules on registration? : If you intend
to use your own personal rules for your board, and wish people to have the opportunity
to read them prior to logging in the first time, then you will want this set
to yes.
Board Rules Title : Give your personal set of rules
it's own name.
Edit Board Rules : This is where you customize
your personal board rules, if you're having people view them prior to logging
in the first time.
Edit Terms of Services : These are your own TOS
guidelines. These are a bit different than board rules, but you can use these
features as best suits your board.
A new feature in this version is allowing other "extra" fields to be required for new users to register. There are 12 options listed (figure b), and you can make any or all of them required in order for new people to be able to register. Remember that if those fields are required, people who do not complete that information will not be able to complete the registration process. Last, but not least, if you have certain names that you do not wish other people to register with, such as variations of an admin name or words you feel are inappropriate, then you must enter them here to prevent their use. These are case INsensitive, meaning if you use all lower case letters and someone tries to register a name that matches it, except for capitalizing a letter or two or all, it still will not allow them to register with that name.
|
Figure b
 |
Things you want to require the user to fill to complete
their registration
Show Skin and Language selection at registration? :
This gives you the ability to ask board members to select their default skin
and language preference upon registration.
Show Gender Selection at registration? : This option
allows users to select their gender prior to completing their registration.
Show the Real Name at registration? : Enabling
this feature will allow new users to have the option of giving their real name
when they register. You can also make this a required field, so that they must
enter a value into this field prior to being able to complete their registration.
*Note* You can also choose not to have the name people enter to show up into
their member profile when someone views it if you choose to make this a required
field.
Show Location at Registration? : Here you can opt
to have the field for users to place their location upon signing up. You may
also select this field to be required, meaning they cannot complete registration
until they have entered a value into this field.
Show AIM Name at registration? : Choosing required
field makes all users required to enter their AIM name upon registration, though
marking this option yes, simply adds that field to their registration for, though
not forcing them to enter that information prior to being able to register.
Show ICQ Name at registration? : Choosing required
field makes all users required to enter their ICQ number upon registration,
though marking this option yes, simply adds that field to their registration
for, though not forcing them to enter that information prior to being able to
register.
Show Yahoo Name at registration? : Choosing required
field makes all users required to enter their Yahoo! ID upon registration, though
marking this option yes, simply adds that field to their registration for, though
not forcing them to enter that information prior to being able to register.
Show MSN Name at registration? : Choosing required
field makes all users required to enter their MSN name upon registration, though
marking this option yes, simply adds that field to their registration for, though
not forcing them to enter that information prior to being able to register.
Show Website at registration? : This option allows
you to force users (if you select required from the drop down) to enter their
website address prior to being able to complete their registration. Selecting
yes, will simply add that as an optional field in their registration form.
Show Hide E-mails or not at registration? : This
option allows you to give new members the option to choose if they want their
email address to be hidden or visible upon registration. This does not have
an effect on if you choose to have members required to fill out a form to send
their email, unless they choose no, which will prevent anyone from being able
to email them from the message board totally.
Show Signature at registration? : Choosing to set
this to required will force all new users to enter a "signature" for
their posts upon registering. This field will have to be filled, or the member
will not be able to complete their registration. Setting it to yes will simply
add that as an optional field into their registration form.
Show Interests at Registration? : You can give
new users the option to fill this field out upon registering by selecting yes,
or by setting it to required, it will force users to enter their interests upon
registering to the board before being allowed to complete their registration.
Reserved Names
Reserved Names: (Case Insensitive - One per line) :
If you do not wish new members to register with certain names, you need to
enter them in this field. It is case insensitive, meaning if you enter something
in all lower case and a member tries to register the same name, though capitalizing
certain letters, they will still not be allowed to create that user name. Enter
the words of your choice, hitting enter after each one to drop you down to the
next line to enter the next.
Post Options
If you need more rows for the dozens of emoticons you have, want to set a limit
to how many emoticons one person can use in their posts, set the largest font
size your members can have to keep them from posting with outrageously sized
fonts or set the allowable extensions for images inserted into a post, set the
default posting color, as well as determining if your users will or will not
be able to select their own posting color (figure a),
then you will need to set your configurations here. The "swear word filter"
(figure b) is also configurable through
here, giving you explanations on how to set up a replacement word or characters
for words matching a certain criteria, as well as being able to set if flash
can be used and what it's max. dimensions can be.
|
Figure a
 |
Post Permissions
Smilies per row in Clickable Table : This allows
you to increase or decrease the number of emoticons per row (going across) in
the clickable smilies table.
Allow Polls? : Gives you the choice of if you wish
people to be able to create polls .
Allow Images to be posted? : This option allows
you to decide if you wish people to be able to post images inside their posts.
Max. (in kb) Post Length : The amount you set here
will determine how large (in KB) that a single post from a user can be. Especially
useful for those with smaller webspace, as it enables them to set a maximum
on post sizes.
Maximum no. images per post : This option allows
you to set a maximum number of images that a single user can link into one post.
Maximum no. emoticons per post : Select the maximum
number of emoticons that one person can put in a single post.
Maximum font size allowed (default is 10) : This
feature allows you to prevent people from posting a larger font than a certain
size (in pixels). Useful to prevent people from posting extremely large words.
Default Post text color : This newly added feature
allows board admins to select the default text color of member's posts who do
not select a color through their control panel (if this option is allowed) or
through iB or html commands in their actual post.
Allow members to use the text color feature in their CP?
: This feature gives board admins the opportunity to choose if board
members will or will not be able to select their own post colors through their
personal preferences in their member control panel.
Allowed Image Extensions: (Case Insensitive, one per line)
: This allows you to determine what TYPES of image files a person
can put into their post. The standard types of images are already entered, though
you may choose to add additional ones, such as png, jpe, tff, and so on.
Flash Permissions
Allow Flash to be posted? : This will allow you
to decide if members can or cannot post flash movie files onto your board.
Max. Flash Movie Width : Select the maximum width
any flash movie posted to your board can be.
Max. Flash Movie Height : Select the maximum height
for any flash movie posted to your board.
|
Figure b
 |
Word Filter
Words : This is also referred to as the "swear
word filter". Those words you feel are inappropriate on your board, you
have the option here to add/remove words you do not wish allowed, as well as
deciding if you want them replaced with another word, or if you wish them to
be marked out like ####. There are four methods of entering words into your
banned list, examples given below :
To match a word's exact spelling AND replace it with a substitute word, you
will enter it like this : {dang=shoot} This will cause the word dang, to be
replaced with the word shoot, should someone type dang into their post.
To match a word's exact spelling and replace it with ####, then you will enter
it in like this : {dang} This will cause the word dang, to be replaced with
####, should someone type dang into their post.
To match a word's spelling, even should it be part of another word, then you
will enter it in like this : dang This will cause dangit to be replaced with
####it, should someone type dangit into their post.
To match a word's spelling, even should it be part of another word AND be replaced
with a different word, then you would type it like this : dang=shoot This will
cause dangit to be replaced with shootit, should someone type dangit into their
post.
(Note, words used here for demonstration purposes only)
New Topic Etiquette Filter
Remove Excess Exclamation Marks and Question Marks? :
This will prevent titles or descriptions from containing numerous ?? or !!.
The program will remove any more than 2, leaving only 1.
Stop members from SHOUTING? : If marked yes, people
CAPITALIZING ALL THEIR LETTERS will find the title or description to be written
normally.
Member Options
So you want your members to be allowed to use avatars, want them to be able
to use their own, but you want to limit how big they can be. Perhaps your board
members complain that their interest space is too small, or that they want to
be able to use HTML in their signatures. All these features and more are listed
here. The settings here will directly affect all of your members, as far as
what they can and can't do with some of the more basic features (figure
a).
|
Figure a
  |
Member Permissions
No. posts before the user can change their own member title
or leave blank if you do not want them to change it. : If you use
member titles on your board, then this is something you may wish to set, if
you would like to allow members to change their title after having posted a
specified amount. This does not change their member group, only the title that
is affected my their post count.
Allow Avatars? : Avatars are those little images
under a person's name when they've posted. Enabling this option here allows
them to select or change their avatar, according to their preferences and settings.
Show the members real name in Profile view? : This
is an option you will need to set to either yes or no, depending on if you want
the real name your members put into their profiles to show up for other members
when viewing that person's profile.
Allow users to input a URL for an Avatar? : This
option permits you to either allow or disallow people to put a link to the location
of their personal avatar, when it is saved in a place outside of the avatars
folder.
Allow HTML in signatures? : Here you can decide
if members can use html in their signature or not.
Allow iB CODE in signatures? : This allows you
to decide if members are able to use iB code in their signatures.
Allow smilies in signatures? : You can set emoticons
to be allowed or not allowed here.
Send an Happy Birthday Message on their birthdays? :
Do you wish an automated message to be sent to board members who enter their
date of birth when their birthday arrives? Yes will allow it, no will turn this
feature off.
Allow members to rate each other? : Though this
feature is listed, it does not function. A dev team member had intended to code
this in, though it had never been finished and has not yet been removed.
Maximum Custom Avatar Width (in px) : For members
linking to their avatar, this will help set a size restriction to keep people
from using too large images. This determines the maximum width in pixels.
Maximum Custom Avatar Height (in px) : For members
linking to their avatar, this will help set a size restriction to keep people
from using too large images. This determines the maximum height in pixels.
Pre-Installed Avatar Width (in px) : This is to
set the maximum width in pixels an avatar from the non-CGI/avatars directory
to show up.
Pre-Installed Avatar Height (in px) : This is to
set the maximum height in pixels an avatar from the non-CGI/avatars directory
to show up.
Maximum Signature Length (in characters) : This
number determines the maximum number of characters a person may use in their
personal signature.
Maximum Interests Length (in characters) : This
allows you to set the maximum number of characters a person may use for entering
in their personal interests for their profile.
Maximum Location Length (in characters - cannot be greater
than 128) : This is the maximum length a member may use to state where
they reside.
Allowed Avatar Extensions (Case Insensitive, one per line)
: This allows you to determine what type of images members may use
for their personal avatars.
PM Options
OK, so members are going to be sending each other private messages, more than
likely, so you want to have some control over the space and type of pms that
they can send to you and each other. Well here is where you'll need to make
the adjustments in your settings. You can decide if members can use html, iB
code, if they have email notification turned on whether or not the entire pm
gets mailed to them or just a note saying that they've been messaged, the maximum
size of messages and how often people's private messages are pruned, to conserve
on storage space (figure a).
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Figure a
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Messenger Permissions
Allow HTML in the PM's? : If you use member titles
on your board, then this is something you may wish to set, if you would like
to allow members to change their title after having posted a specified amount.
This does not change their member group, only the title that is affected my
their post count.
Allow iB code in the PM's? : Avatars are those
little images under a person's name when they've posted. Enabling this option
here allows them to select or change their avatar, according to their preferences
and settings.
Send the content of the PM with the notification eMail when
Member chooses to receive a notification? : This is an option you
will need to set to either yes or no, depending on if you want the real name
your members put into their profiles to show up for other members when viewing
that person's profile.
Maximum Message Size (in Kb) : This option permits
you to either allow or disallow people to put a link to the location of their
personal avatar, when it is saved in a place outside of the avatars folder.
No. of days before messages are pruned : Here you
can decide if members can use html in their signature or not.
Maximum number of members it is possible to write at the
same time : This is a limit you can set to help prevent a member from
spamming a bunch of other members at a single time.
Active Users Hi-lighting
This area is where you "highlight" users of various member groups.
When you want or need those of certain member groups to stand out (ex. Moderators,
Admins, etc.), then this is the place to do it in. There's an example of one
method to use to create that highlighting effect, and there are other ways,
as well. You can use <font color="#000000"> with </font>
at the end, you can change the color, font used, make them bold or italic, among
several other things. Each member group that you make will show up here, and
you can give them each their own unique code, or make them all the same, the
choice is yours. If you choose to enter nothing into this area, then all users
will look the same. (figure a).
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Figure a
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"Report Post" set up
This is the area to set up that "Report this post to a moderator"
configuration. You can enable or disable this feature, you can change it to
notify as a pm or an email or both ways, if you choose, as well as deciding
to have the reports go to a super moderator if there are no moderators selected
for that forum. You can even alter the layout of the report posts, though be
careful about messing with the tags, especially if you don't know what you're
doing. (Figure a).
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Figure a
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Configuration
Enable this feature? : Turn reporting posts off
or on.
Which method do you wish to use to contact the moderator?
: Allows you to select if you want reported posts to go to the moderators
via private message, email, or both ways, handy should they not be on the board
at the time the post is reported.
Send the report to the SuperModerators if no Moderators available?
: If no moderator is assigned to that forum, then the report a post
will go to super (global) moderator.
Message to be sent to the moderators: (Do not rename the
<#TAGS#>) : This is the layout of the message that will go to the
moderators, including the tags to include the necessary information, such as
the person reporting the post, the IP address and user name of the poster, the
name of the topic and the actual message itself.
"Event calendar" set up
You want to keep track of important dates that may or may not be important to
the members of your board, special events, holidays, gatherings, etc., then
this is something you will need to configure to determine how events will be
displayed (figure a).
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Figure a
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Calendar Event Manager
Do you wish to generate the news file? : Setting
this to yes will create two files. One will be the event notice on the index
page of the board, and another will be an file of the individual events themselves
as they appear on the index page in an text file for SSI use. You can edit the
templates themselves in the templates editor further down in the menu.
How often do you want to generate the news file(in minutes)?
: This allows you to decide how often the SSI file is updated. A user
posts a new event, then it shows up immediately on the index page's events list,
but the new event is not updated into the SSI (text) file until after the amount
of time set here is reached.
What is the span of days that you would like to display on
the front page? : This determines how far away the events can be before
showing up on the index page. For example, if you set it for 7 days, then all
events that will arrive within that seven days will appear listed on the index
page.
In what color would you like to display the event on the
topics NAV bar? : This allows you to make your color selection for
the event calendar's navigation bar.
In what color would you like to display the event in the
calendar? : This allows you to make your color selection for the event
calendar on a day an event is posted.
In what color would you like to display the event in forum
view (topic list)? : This allows you to make your color selection
for the event calendar in the topic list.
In what color would you like to display the event on the
front page (event in the next few days)? : This allows you to make
your color selection for the event calendar when an event is happening within
the time span you've selected.
In which forums do you wish to allow events to be posted?
: This is where you decide what location members will be able to post
events, if you have also selected the option to allow any member groups to add
an event to the calendar.
Written 7/7/02 by Snow Wolf for Ikonboard
Jarvis Network
