phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

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digitaldingus
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phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by digitaldingus »

Ok, I've been fan of phpbb, but this is just ridiculous. Permissions are all over the place. It's been taking me 10 frickin' minutes PER MODERATOR to allow forums for them moderate. Not to mention creating a new forum and now users can't view them even after several minutes of allowing "registered users" to view the forums.

I allow users to view a forum here, but then I have to figure out there's yet another secret place on the ACP where I need to enable, and then another, and then another, and it's just way too confusing.

You guys need to totally revamp this. It needs to be easier. The drop-down menus take way too long, and the redundancy is too much. I mean seriously, a person needs to have wordpad to write down what and where you enable certain users. And I'm at the point now where phpBB3 may not be my choice because if I have to go back and try to unfigure out settings for users, it will take way too long.

I'm a seasoned website designer, webmaster, and I've never been so frustrated with so many redundant options. Please reconsider the ACP permissions because I'm afraid a lot of users just will ditch phpBB3 and go back to 2.0 until something better comes along from someone else.
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Re: phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by ckwalsh »

Actually, the permissions may be intimidating at first, but are actually rather simple.

The permissions priority is Never > Yes > No, wherever they are set. You can give user's and groups roles, giving them a default set of permissions you decide. Have moderators? Add them to a moderators group, then give that group a moderator role for the forums they will moderate.

If you need help with permissions, Feel free to post and I'm sure someone will help you.
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digitaldingus
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Re: phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by digitaldingus »

I appreciate the help from this forum as this is a great group of knowledgable people, but unfortunately I'm going to revert back to phpBB2 and just call it good for now. Hopefully some of the issues I've raised can be solved as I foresee phpBB3 being a nice forum which has the benefit of being free to anyone. I will check-in to see if any updates and issues have been resolved.
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MartinWh
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Re: phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by MartinWh »

I have to agree with digitaldingus on permission setting.

Some may find it easy but having used phpBB for many years I have to say I came very close to going elsewhere.

The CP in general is way too complicated and some features, in particular cache, don't need to be so difficult -- why is it not possible to turn this feature off for instance.

However to end on a positive note this is a great board.
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Re: phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by jazzmonger »

I could not agree more. My head is already spinning and I'm an "expert". The permissions section is completely out of control. Lets get real here - these are discussion forums. Set things that people can read, set what moderators can do and get over it.

Unfortunately, this feature alone is going to turn off a huge number of people. The real problem is that hyper-granular user permissions should be used in file systems, not in forum software.

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Re: phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by Rotsblok »

sorry to say but i find it rather easy going. Just put up a test board for your pleasure only and play with it. See what things do. You cannot except to know everything that there is.
Its like getting ride of your old Lada and getting in a Ferrari. Nothing is the same, the speed is totally different and it handles different. You just have to test-drive it to get used to it.
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Re: phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by darcie »

I'm not an "expert" and I find them quite accommodating. Yes, you will have to think outside the phpBB2 box. They are different from the old version, but they give you so much more control than before. I had the Categories Hierarchy mod installed on my phpBB2, and that uses a similar permission system. It seems to me that those getting overwhelmed might possibly be making things too difficult.

Give them another chance. Read the Documentation if you have trouble. It's going to be a change, but so is most of this new release! You might just learn to like these new ways. :D
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sharpo
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Re: phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by sharpo »

I agree, it is confusing, but no doubt like everything else new, you soon learn how to use it.

Last week I tried RC1 by setting up a test board, it took me hours before I started to make any real progress, as the control panel was so different from 2.0.22. I did convert my board a few days ago & hopefully set all the permissions correctly, and it seems to work fine.

I've already passed comment on the documentation elsewhere, as that isn't always too easy to use, but I'm sure it will all become easier in time.

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Re: phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by hewmac06 »

Hey people, This simple Forum Based Permissions tutorial by "Highway of Life" is a great starting place - I'm nearing 70 and it got me into a basic understanding of how permissions work. Perhaps something similar should be in the phpbb3 Knowledge Base. :)
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Re: phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by sharpo »

hewmac06 wrote:Hey people, This simple Forum Based Permissions tutorial by "Highway of Life" is a great starting place - I'm nearing 70 and it got me into a basic understanding of how permissions work. Perhaps something similar should be in the phpbb3 Knowledge Base. :)
Now that looks nice & easy to follow - will study it later.

Sharpo
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Re: phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by KN4995 »

Just wanted to say I've been installing PHPBB for donkeys years and last year eff'd off to vBulletin.
Can't afford yet another license so installed PHPBB3 this morning.
After about 30 mins it's all up and running, forums installed/configured and moderators/admins all in place with permissions correct.
it's an absolute doddle.
Just configure group permissions and add the relevant people to the groups.
What could be easier.

Cheers to the team - awesome bit of kit
Love the editor too, saves me kicking up the ftp.
8-)
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Re: phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by KevC »

When you first try it out the permissions do look complicated but you do have some standard presets to give to users and moderators which should accommodate most of your day to day running needs.

The advanced permissions can look a bit confusing but as long as you keep in mind whether you are dealing with a user, a forum or a group they're no too bad.

Like anything, it just takes a bit of practice and a little reading of what's in front of you.
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Re: phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by depablo »

Kevin Clark wrote:you do have some standard presets to give to users and moderators which should accommodate most of your day to day running needs.
I prefered the simple drop down box in phpbb2, these are difficult to follow and take time to get right.

Is there a button to press to setup these standard presets? :oops:
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Re: phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by KevC »

They are the roles which are already there by default.

For example
Group permissions> global moderators> moderator permissions
You then have a dropbox of 4 presets. Standard, simple, full and queue moderator.
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Re: phpbb3 Permissions are WAY TOO CONFUSING

Post by Brf »

Even simpler... When you create a forum, let it copy the permissions from a forum you already have set the way you want. The default is to copy from its parent, which is usually some Category, so once your categories are set properly, you can just let their forums copy permissions from them.
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