Manage Users



Users are the basis of your forum. As a forum administrator, it is very important to be able to manage your users. Managing your users and their information and specific options is easy, and can be done via the ACP.

To begin, log in and reach your ACP. Find and click on Users and Groups to reach the necessary page. If you do not see User Administration , simply find and click on Manage Users in the navigation menu on the left side of the page.

To continue and manage a user, you must know the username(s) that you want to manage. In the textbox for the "Find a member:" field, type in the username of the user whose information and settings you wish to manage. On the other hand, if you want to find a member, click on [ Find a Member ] (which is below the textbox) and follow all the steps appropriate to find and select a user. If you wiant to manage the information and settings for the Anonymous user (any visitor who is not logged in is set as the Anonymous user), check the checkbox labeled "Select Anonymous User". Once you have selected a user, click Submit.

There are many sections relating to a user's settings. The following are subsections that have more information on each form. Each form allows you to manage specific settings for the user you have selected. When you are done with editing the data on each form, click Submit (located at the bottom of each form) to submit your changes.

3.5.1.1. User Overview

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This is the first form that shows up when you first select a user to manage. Here, all of the general information and settings for each user is displayed.

Username

This is the name of the user you're currently managing. If you want to change the user's username, type in a new username between three and twenty characters long into the textbox labeled Username:

Registered

This is the complete date on which the user registered. You cannot edit this value.

Registered from IP

This is the IP address from which the user registered his or her account. If you want to determine the IP hostname, click on the IP address itself. The current page will reload and will display the appropriate information. If you want to perform a whois on the IP address, click on the Whois link. A new window will pop up with this data.

Last Active

This is the complete date on which the user was last active.

Posts

This number indicates how many posts the user has posted on the board.

Warnings

This is the number of warnings the user currently has.

For more information about warnings, see ???.

Founder

Founders are users who have all administrator permissions and can never be banned, deleted or altered by non-founder members. If you want to set this user as a founder, select the Yes radio button. To remove founder status from a user, select the No radio button.

Email

This is the user's currently set email address. To change the email address, fill in the Email: textbox with a valid email.

Confirm email address

This textbox should only be filled if you are changing the user's email address. If you are changing the email address, both the Email: textbox and this one should be filled with the same email address. If you do not fill this in, the user's email address will not be changed.

New password

As an administrator, you cannot see any of your users' password. However, it is possible to change passwords. To change the user's password, type in a new password in the New password: textbox. The new password has to be between six and thirty characters long.

Important

Before submitting any changes to the user, make sure this field is blank, unless you really want to change the user's password. If you accidentally change the user's password, the original password cannot be recovered!

Confirm new password

This textbox should only be filled if you are changing the user's password. If you are changing the user's password, the Confirm new password: textbox needs to be filled in with the same password you filled in in the above New password: textbox.

Quick Tools

The options in the Quick Tools drop-down selection box allow you to quickly and easily change one of the user's options. The available options are Delete Signature, Delete Avatar, Move all Posts, Delete all Posts, and Delete all attachments.

3.5.1.2. User Feedback

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Another aspect of managing a user is editing their feedback data. Feedback consists of any sort of user warning issued to the user by a forum administrator.

To customise the display of the user's existing log entries, select any criteria for your customisation by selecting your options in the drop-down selection boxes entitled Display entries from previous: and Sort by:. Display entries from previous: allows you to set a specific time period in which the feedback was issued. Sort by: allows you to sort the existing log entries by Username, Date, IP address, and Log Action. The log entries can then be sorted in ascending or descending order. When you are done setting these options, click the Go button to update the page with your customisations.

Another way of managing a user's feedback data is by adding feedback. Simply find the section entitled Add feedback and enter your message into the FEEDBACK text area. When you are done, click Submit to add the feedback.

3.5.1.3. User Profile

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Users may sometimes have content in their forum profile that requires that you either update it or delete it. If you don't want to change a field, leave it blank.The following are the profile fields that you can change:

  • ICQ Number has to be a number at least three digits long.

  • AOL Instant Messenger can have any alphanumeric characters and symbols.

  • MSN Messenger can have any alphanumeric characters, but should look similar to an email address ([email protected]).

  • Yahoo Messenger can have any alphanumeric characters and symbols.

  • Jabber address can have any alphanumeric characters, but needs to look like an email address would ([email protected]).

  • Website can have any alphanumeric characters and symbols, but must have the protocol included (ex. http://www.example.com).

  • Location can have any alphanumeric characters and symbols.

  • Occupation can have any alphanumeric characters and symbols.

  • Interests can have any alphanumeric characters and symbols.

  • Birthday can be set with three different drop-down selection boxes: Day:, Month:, and Year:, respectively. Setting a year will list the user's age when it is his or her birthday.

3.5.1.4. User Preferences

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Users have many settings they can use for their account. As an administrator, you can change any of these settings. The user settings (also known as preferences) are grouped into three main categories: Global Settings, Posting Defaults, and Display Options.

3.5.1.5. User Avatar

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Here you can manage the user's avatar. If the user has already set an avatar for himself/herself, then you are able to see the avatar image.

Depending on your avatar settings (for more information on avatar settings, see Avatar Settings), you can choose any option available to change the user's avatar: Upload from your machine, Upload from a URL, or Link off-site. You can also select an avatar from your board's avatar gallery by clicking the Display gallery button next to Local gallery:.

Note

The changes you make to the user's avatar still has to comply with the limitations you've set in the avatar settings.

To delete the avatar image, simply check the Delete image checkbox underneath the avatar image.

When you are done choosing what avatar the user will have, click Submit to update the user's avatar.

3.5.1.6. User Rank

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Here you can set the user's rank. You can set the user's rank by selecting the rank from the User Rank: drop-down selection box. After you've picked the rank, click Submit to update the user's rank.

For more information about ranks, see Section 3.5.6, “Managing ranks”.

3.5.1.7. User Signature

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Here you can add, edit, or delete the user's signature.

The user's current signature should be displayed in the Signature form. Just edit the signature by typing whatever you want into the text area. You can use BBCode and any other special formatting with what's provided. When you are done editing the user's signature, click Submit to update the user's signature.

Note

The signature that you set has to obey the board's signature limitations that you currently have set.

3.5.1.8. Groups

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Here you can see all of the usergroups that the user is in. From this page you can easily remove the user from any usergroup, or add the user to an existing group. The table entitled Special groups user is a member of lists out the usergroups the user is currently a member of.

Adding the user to a new usergroup is very easy. To do so, find the pull-down menu labeled Add user to group: and select a usergroup from that menu. Once the usergroup is selected, click Submit. Your addition will immediately take effect.

To delete the user from a group he/she is currently a member of, find the row that the usergroup is in, and click Delete. You will be greeted with a confirmation screen; if you want to go ahead and do so, click Yes.

3.5.1.9. Permissions

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Here you can see all of the permissions currently set for the user. For each group the user is in, there is a separate section on the page for the permissions that relates to that category. To actually set the user's permissions, see Section 3.7, “Permissions”.

3.5.1.10. Attachments

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Depending on the current attachments settings, your users may already have attachments posted. If the user has already uploaded at least one attachment, you can see the listing of the attachment(s) in the table. The data available for each attachment consist of: Filename, Topic title, Post time, Filesize, and Downloads.

To help you in managing the user's attachment(s), you can choose the sorting order of the attachments list. Find the Sort by: pull-down menu and pick the category you want to use the sort the list (the possible options are Filename, Extension, Filesize, Downloads, Post time, and Topic title. To choose the sorting order, choose either Descending or Ascending from the pull-down menu besides the sorting category. Once you are done, click Go.

To view the attachment, click on the attachment's filename. The attachment will open in the same browser window. You can also view the topic in which the attachment was posted by clicking on the link besides the Topic: label, which is below the filename. Deleting the user's attachment(s) is very easy. In the attachments listing, check the checkboxes that are next to the attachment(s) you want to delete. When everything you want has been selected, click Delete marked, which is located below the attachments listing.

Tip

To select all of the attachments shown on the page, click the Mark all link, which is below the attachments listing. This helps especially if you want to delete all of the attachments shown on the page at once.