Placing a User Ban
Banning a user from your Forum is quite an easy task to handle of course if you are forced to do so. Usually the most common reason for banning a user is the violation of your Terms Of Use agreement which every user should agree upon sign up.
Further reading:
In this tutorial we will show you how to ban a user from your forum using the Ban Usernames feature of the phpBB Forum platform.
To ban a user in your phpBB3 forum, you will need to:
Step 1: Access the Ban Usernames feature
Step 2: Configure the Ban
Step 1 Access the Ban Usernames feature
In order to access the banning feature of your Forum you will need to know the username of the member you would like to ban. Then you will need to login into the Administration Control Panel of your Forum and navigate to Users and Groups>User Security>Ban Usernames.
Once you access the user ban interface you will notice a single section called “Ban one or more usernames” where the configuration for the ban will be performed.
Step 2 Configure the Ban
There are the following fields in the "Ban one or more usernames" section:
Username – The username you would like to place ban for. If you are not quite sure about what exactly is the username you can use the “Find a member” link at the bottom of the text field where you need to insert the username
Length of ban – The period you would like to place a ban for the concrete user
Exclude from banning – This option is to exclude the username you have specified from the current ban list
Reason for ban – The actual reason for the ban you are about to place
Reason shown to the banned – The reason for the ban which will be shown to the banned user once he/she login
As soon as you are ready with the configuration of these option you should simply use the submit button at the bottom of the interface to place the ban.
Once the ban has been placed you will receive a message related to that and with this the procedure of banning a member is completed.
How to Configure the Permissions of your Forum
Configuring the permissions a forum should provide to the users accessing it is quite an easy task to handle and in this tutorial we will describe in details how the entire process should be performed.
The permission configuration process in phpBB3 includes:
Step 1: Access the Forum Permissions page
Step 2: Edit Forum Permissions
Step 1 Access the Forum Permissions page
To begin you should login into the Administration Control Panel of your forum and then navigate to Permissions>Forum Permissions.
Now you will need to select a forum from the already existing forums you would like to edit the permissions for. Once you select the forum name from the list please use the Submit button so you can begin editing those permissions.
The page you will be redirected to is named respectively Forum permissions.
Step 2 Edit Forum Permissions
This page ontain 2 sections related to the management of the permissions for the allowed User or entirely for the allowed Groups of members.
As you can see in our case we do not have any added users/groups to our forum. Let‘s add the Administrators and Global Moderators groups of users to our Forum. This can be easily achived by selecting both of the groups from the Add Groups section and then pressing the Add permissions button.
The button will redirect you to the Setting permissions page where the two groups you have selected will be displayed as separate sections.
Under the Role dropdown you will find a list of the available permissions for these groups and you should select those which fit best to your needs. Once you are ready please use the Apply all permissions button in order to save the permmissions.
If you go back to the Forum permissions page once again you will notice that the two groups of members were assigned to the forum with the concrete permissions you gave them.
If you would like to edit the assigned permissions please do so by selecting the concrete group of members (or all of them) and using the Edit Permissions button simply edit the permissions the same way you add those.
Configure the Registration Settings
The configuration of the use registration option will provide you with more detailed settings on how the newly registered accounts can be created. In this tutorial we will show you how to perform such configuration but of course you will need to take care for the settings based on your personal needs.
To configure the registration settings in phpBB3, you will need to:
Step 1: Access the Registration Settings page
Step 2: Configure the Available Settings
Step 1 Access the Registration Settings page
To begin please login into the Administration control panel of your phpBB 3 board and navigate to General>Board Configuration>User Registration Settings.
There you will be able to see plenty of options which we will discuss in the next step of this tutorial.
Step 2 Configure the Available Settings
The options provided on the page you have just accessed are separated on 3 sections.
The first one is called General Settings and as the name suggest you will be able to configure the general settings for user registrations which are the following:
Account Activation – This option will allow you to set the event which will trigger the account activation
New Members post Limit – The amount of posts a new members can add to your forms. Once this amount is reached the member will be moved to the next users group
Set Newly Registered Users Group to Default – The Newly Registered Users group will become their default group
Username length – The length in symbols configured as Min and Max for the usernames of the newly registered members
Password length – The length in symbols configured as Min and Max for the password of the newly created user accounts on your Board
Limit Username Chars – Restriction regarding the type of characters used in the usernames
Password complexity – Configuration regarding how complex the passwords for the newly registered users should be
Force password change – A basic requirement for a user to change his/her password after certain amount of days since its registration or last password change have passed
The next section of settings is called General Options and is related to already created accounts and their usage.
Allow username Changes – This option will allow the users to modify their usernames
Allow email address re-use – This option will allow for an email address to be reused if it already exists in the registered users’ details
Enable spambot countermeasures for registrations – This option will force the users to pass an anti-spam verification when they are creating their accounts
Maximum number of login attempts per username – The maximum amount of failed login attempts a user can perform
Registration attempts – The amount of failed attempts of passing the spambot verification feature
The last section is called COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection) and it contains related settings for the privacy and registration of users under 13.
Enable COPPA – This option will enable COPPA which will basically ask the newly registering users if they are over 13
COPPA Mailing Address – The email address where the parents of the registered children will send the COPPA registration forms
COPPA Fax number – any fax number the parents can use for sending the COPPA related information
Please simply use the Submit button located at the bottom of the page once you are ready with the configurations on that page.
How to Manage User Ranks
Ranks in phpBB allows you to have your users ranked by the number of posts they have been writing on your Board. You will be easily able to specify the criteria via the “Manage Ranks” feature of your Board and in this tutorial we will shows you how you should configure that in few easy to follow steps.
To manage the ranks of your users in phpBB3, you need to:
Step 1: Access the Ranks Management page
Step 2: Add new Ranks
Step 3: Delete and Edit Ranks
Step 1 Access the Ranks Management page
In order to access the Manage Ranks feature you will need to login into the Administration Control Panel of your Board and then navigate to Users and Groups>Manage Ranks.
The Manage Ranks page is quite a simple page, providing you with some additional information on the ranks feature and also a table view with all of the currently existing ranks on your forum.
Step 2 Add new Ranks
In order to add a new rank you should use the button located bellow a table view - Add a new rank which will redirect you to another page where you will be able to configure the new rank you are about to add.
The configuration of a new rank is fairly simple and you will need to only input the Rank Title and the Minimum Posts which a user will get that rank based on.
Once you are ready with that configuration hit the Submit button in order to save the new rank and you will be able to notice the new rank appearing in the table view of the Manage Ranks home page.
Step 3 Delete and Edit Ranks
In order to delete already existing rank you will need to use the red icon on the Action column next to the rank you would like deleted.
Once you click you will need to confirm the deletion and the rank will be permanently removed.
Last but not least you are probably wondering how you should edit an existing rank. It is fairly easy using the green icon in the Action column next to the rank you would like to edit.
This icon will redirect you to the same page as the one you have seen when you were creating the rank, however this time the settings of the rank will be configured in order for you to edit these.
Once you are ready with the edits please use the Submit button to save those.
Managing permissions for groups
In order to control the access for the groups of users registered on your Board you will need to manage the permissions set applied for the concrete group. phpBB allows you to easily handle these settings with the use of the Administration Control Panel of the platform.
In this tutorial we will show you how easily and in few steps to manage the permissions for an existing group of members on your Board.
The group permission management in phpBB3 includes:
Step 1: Access the Group Permissions page
Step 2: Edit Group Permissions
Step 1 Access the Group Permissions page
First you should begin by logging into the Administration Control Panel of your board. Then you should navigate to Permissions>Group Permissions.
Then you will be redirected to the page called Group Permissions where under the Look up usergroup interface you will be able to select the group of members you would like to edit the permissions for:
Once you select the group of members you would like to edit the permissions for please use the Submit button in order for the Setting permissions page to be opened.
Step 2 Edit Group Permissions
Under the User permissions section of the Setting permissions page you should be able to notice the selected group previously.
The Role field is holding the values of the features the group has. If you would like to modify the permissions for the All Features Role please select it and then if you would like to apply full permissions simply choose the All yes or All no if you would like to remove all of the permissions of the concrete Role.
There is an additional option which will allow you to edit the permissions mannually and it is called Advanced Permissions .
If you choose this option you will be able to manually set the permissions per your personal needs.
No matter which from these ways you will follow at the end please make sure that you will use the Apply all Permissions button so you can have the permissions for the concrete group saved.
How to manage user permissions in phpBB 3
In our previous tutorials from our phpBB tutorial series we have discussed how to edit the permissions for specific forum and also for a group on your Board:
In this tutorial we will show you how to manage the permissions for specific users on your Board in few easy to follow steps.
To change user permissions in phpBB3, you need to:
Step 1: Access the User permissions page
Step 2: Find and Select a User
Step 3: Choose the role for the selected user
Step 4: Configure the Permissions
Step 1 Access the User permissions page
In order to access the feature which will allow you to manage the permissions for your users you will need to login into the Administration Control Panel of your board and navigate to Permissions>User Permissions.
There you will find detailed information on what exactly the user’s permissions are used for.
Step 2 Find and Select a User
On the same page you will find a search box called Find a member. As the name suggests you will need to find the member you would like to edit permissions for. You can either directly specify the member’s name or you can use the Find a member link right below the search box so you can more easily choose the member.
Once you have selected the member you will be editing permissions for please click on the Submit button so you can proceed to the next step.
Step 3 Choose the role for the selected user
No that you have selected the user you will be presented with the page where you should select the role of the users which you will be editing permissions for from the Role dropdown list.
Let’s say that you would like to apply all features for this user and apply all available permissions for that role. Then you will need to select the All features role and press the Apply all Permissions button.
You will be then presented with a message indicating that the permissions are correctly configured!
Step 4 Configure the Permissions
This is an additional step and you should take it if you would like to set some specific permissions for the features the user should have access to. In that case again select the All features Role, but this time instead of pressing the Apply all permissions button please click on the Advanced Permissions link so you can be presented with a list containing all of the available permissions for that role.
Once you are ready with the edit please use the Apply permissions button at the bottom of the newly appeared interface.
Creating moderators for board management
“Moderators” is user group with specific privileges mainly focused on managing the existing forums on your Board. If you are managing a lot of forums on your board you will probably need some additional administrative personal to help you with this task.
To add a moderator to your phpBB 3 Board, you will need to:
Step 1: Access the Manage Users page
Step 2: Select the user you will be promoting to moderator
Step 3: Add the user to the Global Moderators Groupt
Step 1 Access the Manage Users page
Since you will be managing your users you will need to login into the Administration Control Panel of your Board and then you will need to navigate to Users and Groups>Manage Users.
On that page you will notice a single field called “Enter Username” where you should simply put the username of the user you would like to make a moderator.
Step 2 Select the user you will be promoting to moderator
Once you enter the username of the user you will need to click the Submit button so you can move forward with the tweak.
On the next page you will be presented with all of the settings related to the user profile of the selected user. At the top right corner of that page you will notice a drop-down list of options named Select form. You will need to select the Groups option from that list.
Then you will need to click on the Go button so you can be presented with the information regarding the groups the selected user is part of.
Step 3 Add the user to the Global Moderators Group
On the next page you will see a table view related to the Pre-defined groups user is a member of. Bellow that table view there is a drop-down list named Add user to group. From that list you should choose the Global moderators option and finally you will need to click on the Submit button so you can save the change.
The page will then reload and you will notice the new item in the table view indicating that the user is part of the “Global Moderators” group:
How to Manage User Groups in phpBB 3
phpBB allows you to easily create, delete or edit user groups via the Administration Control Panel of your platform with few clicks. The reason why you would like to manage different groups of users is that you can more easily set permissions for those groups or manage the access of the concrete group of users to the features of your Board.
To manage the User Groups in phpBB3, you need to:
Step 1: Access the Manage Groups page
Step 2: Create a new Group
Step 3: Delete a Group
Step 4: Edit the Settings of a Group
Step 1 Access the Manage Groups page
First lest begin by logging into your Administration Control Panel. Once loged you should navigate to Users and Groups>Manage Groups.
This link will redirect you to the Groups Management page where the actual group management occurs.
Step 2 Create a new Group
In order to create a new group you should simply enter the group‘s name in the Create new group field and ht the Submit button.
This will redirect you to a new page where you will be presented with all of the fields you will need to set for your new group. These fields are quite self-explanatory and for this reason we will comment only the first section of fields called Group details.
The available fields you will need to fill in the Group Details section are:
Group Name – The name of the group you are creating. Note that it should be automatically filled from the previous step
Group Description – Description of the group you are creating
Group Type – The type of group you are creating. If you would like to allow the members to join the group on their own without requesting authorization you should check the Open radio button. The others are quite self-explanatory for their purpose
Copy Permissions from – Just in case you would like to copy permissions for the created group from other already existing group
Once you are ready with filling all the information you would like to for your new group please scroll down and click the Submit button located at the bottom of the page so the information can be saved.
Step 3 Delete a Group
Now that you have your new group created you will be able to see the group under the User defined groups section of the Manage groups page.
If you would like to delete the created group please use the Delete link under the“Action column of the tables view with your groups.
Step 4 Edit the Settings of a Group
The final step in this tutorial is for editing the settings for already existing groups. This can be easily achieved from the Settings button under the Options column of the groups table view.
Once clicked this link will lead you to basically the same page with settings you have used when you were creating the group and all of the settings on the page will be the same.
Most probably you are wondering how to assign users to the group. Well it is quite an easy taks using the Members link from the Options column from the groups table view:
This link will lead you to the home page for the members of this group. There you will be able to see the existing members into the group under the Group members section or to add a new user to the group from the Add User section.
