Phpbb
How do I use phpBB?
PhpBB is an online discussion board available to IE Internet customers. Please find below information on some of the many features available using phpBB. A general introduction to how phpBB works can be found below:
Introduction
PhpBB is a discussion board or forum. 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 are organised 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 organised 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. You could compare a Topic to a conversation.
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 "Website Design" forum, which would contain topics relating to the design of websites.
A user navigates through your board using the idea of posts, topics and forums. Generally, a user will start at the Forum Index. 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 .
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. The posts in a topic are organised chronologically, with the oldest post first in each forum.
NOTE
To test any of the information contained in the pages listed below you'll need to login to your board's administrative feature. If my website is www.mydomain.com then I can get into my board's administrative feature at http://www.mydomain.com/board/admin.
Logging in brings you the "Admin Index", your default page. It shows you the statistics for each forum you have set up and who's online at the moment.
Forum administration
You can divide your discussion board into individual rooms or forums. To create a new forum, under "Forum Admin" click "Management". Most people get by with just one form, but if you wish to have multiple rooms, with moderation done by different people, then create as many rooms as you wish.
You can set the permissions individuals have for each forum through Forum Admin -> Permissions. This system has two modes of operation; Simple and Advanced. Simple uses a set of pre-defined authorisation levels, Advanced settings allow you to specify individual levels for each operation in each forum. The best thing to do here is to experiment with some test users to get your permissions right for each user.
General adminstration
This section of your board allow you to perform many common administration tasks such as:
Database backups
The best option to use here is "Full Backup". Backups can be restored using the "Restore Database" option.
Configuration
Here you can edit many of your board's general settings, such as the name of your board. You are advised to not change any features you do not fully understand as this may cause the board to stop working.
Mass Email
This option allows you to email all board users.
User management
With phpBB's "User Admin" section you can manage who can be a member of your board and what permissions they may have. Examples of what you can do here include:
- You can ban users based on username, IP address, hostname or email address.
- To avoid people using profane usernames, you can ban such names in this section.
- You can add or delete users here, or moderate their ability to use avatars and to send private messages
- Finally, users can be allowed or disallowed from certain behaviours such as the ability to moderate a board. The "Permissions" section allows you to manage these permissions.
Moderating your board
With board moderation, you can control what content is displayed on your board. Each forum should have at least one moderator, who can edit, delete, split, or move topics in that forum. Your board administrator - supplied to you by IE Internet - automatically has moderator permissions for all your forums. You can giive moderator permissions for a specific forum to a user or group of users.
To moderate a forum, simply view the forum through the "Forum Index" link. Once logged in you can:
- Move topics from one forum to another
- Delete a topic
- Lock or unlock a topic
- Split a topic into a new topic
Further Information
If you would like to learn more about phpBB, you might like to refer to the following links: