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Configuring Forums


If you have not already familiarized yourself with the basics of module function, module settings, and forum usage, you’ll want to do that before proceeding with this tutorial.

The Forum Home view is the default view for the web page that contains your forum module. It's what you normally see when you first arrive at the page. As a site administrator, you'll notice that there are three features on your Forum Home view that are not visible to other users. They are the Forum Administration,  Moderate,  and Settings buttons. These three functions are what you will use to configure and manage your forums.


Forum Administration

From the Forum Home view, Click on Forum Administration and you will be taken to the Control Panel:

 
From this central location, you will be able to launch into the various tasks involved in administering your forums. Let's begin by creating your first forum. This is done from the Manage Forums/Groups page:


Manage Forums/Groups:

In the Control Panel above, click on Manage Forums/Groups to see the tools shown below:

 
The Forum module is flexible enough to create not only multiple forums, but also multiple groups of forums. On creation, all forum modules contain a default group called 'Discussions,' as shown in the above image. Clicking on the 'plus ' sign next to the Discussions group will expand the group to reveal a single default forum entitled 'General.' You may rename this default group and default forum to establish your first forum. To rename, click on the blue pencil icon, located at the right in the above view. Note that every forum must belong to a group. Thus, to create any additional forums, they must either be created from within your first group above, or else you can create a new group by clicking 'Add Group.' Then, you can create your new forum from within that new group.


Create A New Forum:

If you're in the Forum Home view, click on Forum Administration. Next, click on Manage Forums/Groups, as shown above. Now click the plus sign by the group of forums to which you want to add your new forum. Finally, click Add Forum and fill out the form provided. Then click Update.

 
General Settings:

Return to the Control Panel, and click on General Settings to access a page called, "Forum Configuration:"

 

Here you can adjust settings that affect the appearance and behaviour of all forums within this module, as well as allow or disallow your forum users to do certain things within the forums, such as post attachments to their entries. In the settings above, you can change the name displayed in the Forum Home view, determine the number of threads and posts that appear on a single page of any forum, and decide how many times a thread needs to be viewed by your users before it is automatically labeled as 'popular.'  You can change the overall style and appearance of your forums, adjust time zones for forums that are predominantly used by posters in a certain geographic area different from your own, and so on.

The above image is only a partial screen shot, but don't be overwhelmed by the number of forum configurations. Most of them are for fine tuning, and can be left at their default settings until you have become more comfortable with the module. This tutorial covers the essential settings needed to configure and manage your forums under normal circumstances. (For guidance on settings not covered here, place your cursor over the question mark located next to each setting on most forum administration pages.)


Forum Users:

Return to the Control Panel, and click on Forum Users to access a page called Manage Forum Users. Much of what you'll see there will be familiar from the tutorials on Forums and Working With User Accounts. But one additional group of settings is important here: the Admin Settings. You will use these settings to assign advanced levels of trust to your forum users, so that you don't have to keep an eye on their conversations. You can even assign them moderator roles so that they can help you manage the forums!

In the Manage Forum Users main view, find the person you want to assign a level of trust to, and click on the blue pencil next to their name. This will take you into that person's User Settings, which include the Admin Settings:

 

 Is it safe for this person to be able to post threads without your being notified? If so, place a check next to Is Trusted. Do you want this user to assist you in moderating (managing) forums? Then place a check in the moderator permissions box, and also checkmark each forum that he or she will moderate. Important: Do not place checkmarks next to the folders. Doing so will disable the user. Instead, click each folder to open it, then place checkmarks next to any or all of the individual forum titles inside the folder.

Important Note: In order for web site users in your community to participate in any level of forum discussions, you will need to do the following:

  • Have each user register with the site so that they will have a User account.
  • Instruct each User to log in to the site and navigate to the web page on which the forum is located. For forum purposes, a User does not even exist until they have visited the forum page at least one time.
  • Using the Security Roles settings found in the Admin menu, create a new role specifically for forum users.
  • Access the module settings page for the forum, find Permissions under Basic Settings, and then assign ‘edit module’ permissions to the role to which the users will belong.
  • Using the User Accounts settings found in the Admin menu, place each User into the role you created above for the forum.


Moderate

From the Forum Home view, click into Forum Administration, then into Manage Forums. Find the forum you wish to moderate, then click the blue pencil to edit that forum. Under General Settings, you will find the check box that will allow you to moderate the forum.

When posting to forums, all users whom you have not assigned as trusted users, will see the following message on screen every time they post: "Since you posted to a moderated forum, a forum administrator must approve your post before it will become visible. Please be patient. This may take anywhere from a few minutes to many hours. Note that you will receive an email when your post is approved." If your forums are popular, the value of being able to assign moderator roles to other users will become obvious pretty quickly!

To moderate each forum, you will click the Moderate button on the Forum Home view. The next view will show you which moderated forums contain new posts that need to be checked:

 



In the Grand Canyon forum above, someone has recently posted to the thread. To view the new posting, click on the forum title, Grand Canyon Mission:

Now we can see the comment which the user posted to the thread. At this point, you may choose one of four actions as moderator: Approve, approve but also send a reply to the poster, approve but edit the posting before you publish it, or you may simply delete the posting.

 

Settings

The Settings button in the bottom right corner of the Forum Home view will take you to the module settings page. At the bottom of that page, you will find a section for Forums Settings. Use this setting to control which group of forums you wish to appear in the Forum Home view.