3.1.1: Forum Management
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.
3.1.1.1: Adding Forums
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)
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)
3.1.1.3: Moving Forums
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.
3.1.1.4: Resync
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.
3.1.1.5: Auto-prune
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.
3.1.1.6: Adding Categories
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.
3.1.1.7: Editing Categories
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.
3.1.1.8: Moving Categories
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.
3.1.2: Forum Permissions
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.
3.1.2.1: Setting Simple Permissions
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.