Basic User's Guide
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
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]Hardstyle iz the #1 Music in the World[/quote]

[quote="Screamer_Hardstyle"]Hardstyle
iz the #1 Music in the World[/quote]

[code]Enter
a text here[/code]

[list] [*]Hardstyle [*]Early
Hardstyle [*]Hardcore [/list]
- Hardstyle
- Early Hardstyle
- Hardcore
[list=1] [*]Hardstyle [*]Early
Hardstyle [*]Hardcore [/list]
- Hardstyle
- Early Hardstyle
- Hardcore
[list=a] [*]Hardstyle [*]Early
Hardstyle [*]Hardcore [/list]
- Hardstyle
- Early Hardstyle
-
Hardcore
[url=http://screamer-hardstyle.com/]Visit
Screamer Hardstyle[/url] Visit
screamer_hardstyle (Link URL:
http://screamer-hardstyle.com)
[url]http://screamer-hardstyle.com[/url]
http://screamer-hardstyle.com (Link
URL:
http://screamer-hardstyle.com)
[email]webmaster@screamer-hardstyle.com[/email]
webmaster@screamer-hardstyle.com
[img]http://forum.screamer-hardstyle.com/help/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.
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 Screamer_Hardstyle saying "Screamer
Hardstyle Recordz"
[quote="Screamer_Hardstyle"]Screamer Hardstyle
Recordz[/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 New PM Arrived!. 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
PM link 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 New PM Arrived!. 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.
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. 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 *style* will match style,
hardstyle, or early hardstyle.
Likewise har*style will match hardstyle,
or harder style.
To increase the
speed and decrease the overhead of the search utility, only words may be
searched for. Phrases (such as "hard style") 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.
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
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. g is the hour, 12-hour format without
leading zeroes. i is the minutes, with leading zeroes. a is
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
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
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 .
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