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Forum Functions

• Edit Categories
• Edit Boards
• Modifying The Template
• Modify Your YaBB Settings And Colors

Edit Categories

From this menu you are able to edit "Categories". Categories are the upper-level topics for a forum. For example, if you had a wide-ranging site that offered information on "Sports", Cars" and "Music", these would be the top-level Categories you'd create. Under each of these categories you'd likely want to create hierarchal "sub-categories," or "Boards" for topics within each. Here's a small example:

  • Sports - A "category"
    • Baseball - A board under the category of "Sports"
    • Football  - A board under the category of "Sports"

Categories allow you to break down the board into broad topics ("Cars, Sports"), and the "Boards" under them are the actual topics under which members can post. In the above example, a user interested in Pinto's would post a message under "Cars->Pinto". Categories allow people to quickly find what their interests are: Instead of a "Store" you have "Hardware" and "Clothing" stores you can go to. This simplifies your search for "joint compound" because you can go to the Hardware Store "category" instead of the Clothing Store (where you're unlikely to find pipe joint compound).

Edit Boards

In this menu you can create, reorder, or remove the boards under the categories discussed above. It's a simple hierarchy, with this structure:

  • Category
    • Board1
    • Board2
    • ... etc ...

As noted above, a Board is a key topic underneath a broad category. If you want to discuss "Pintos" you'd go to the "Auto" category and jump into the "Pinto" board to post your thoughts in that board.
Administrative functions for this menu item are to create new boards under each category, to reorder them (put "Pinto" under "Chevy"), or to delete the board entirely.

Modifying The Template

This brings up a simple editor for the HTML of your template code. The "template" (in your "cgi-bin/yabb" directory, as you set it up), defines the look-and-feel for your pages. It is an HTML-only file. You can modify the template here, or use some other HTML editing software to edit template.html to put the look and feel of your site on your forum!

Modify Your YaBB Settings and Colors

This is one of the more "exciting" menu options. In here you are able to set the following parameters:

  • Maintenance Mode?
    • Check the box to disable the boards while you change/update your BB. Users will be rejected while in maintenance mode.
  • Your Language pack name
    • English is default, select the other available languages you want to support
  • Message Board Name
    • Set this box to whatever you want to name your board.
  • Board URL
    • Set this to the URL for the BB. Ex: http://www.myboard.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl
  • Default Length for login cookies to last (in minutes & > 5)
    • Set this for a default time for cookies to last, in minutes (e.g., 360=6 hrs)
  • Cookie Name - Username
    • Default: "YaBBusername" This is simply the name of the cookie that will be stored on user's pc when they log in (and contains their username).
  • Cookie Name - Password
    • Default: "YaBBpassword" This is simply the name of the cookie that will be stored on user's pc when they log in (and contains their password).
  • Location of Sendmail Program
    • Directory of host "sendmail" program. Default is: /usr/sbin/sendmail
  • SMTP-Server
    • The name of your SMTP server (email send server). Only valid if the following is set to use SMTP.
  • Send Mails using: sendmail | SMTP
    • Set to "sendmail" if your host uses sendmail, or use SMTP if your host uses this protocol.
  • Webmaster Email Address
    • Email address for the webmaster of the BB.
  • Minimum time between two postings from the same IP
    • The time in seconds to delay repeated postings from one user/IP address.
    • --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  • YaBB Directory
    • Default is "." This could also be the absolute server path to your YaBB folder (such as /usr/home/account/cgi-bin/yabb).
  • Data Directory
    • Default is "./Messages". Contains messages sent from members in your YaBB board. Relative to YaBB default directory above.
  • Members Directory
    • Default is "./Members". Contains the members for your YaBB board. Relative to YaBB default directory above.
  • Boards Directory
    • Default is "./Members". Contains the boards created for YaBB. Relative to YaBB default directory above.
  • Sources Directory
    • Default is "./Sources". Contains the source files for YaBB. Relative to YaBB default directory above.
  • Variables Directory
    • Default is "./Members". Contains all updates to the structure of YaBB (new members, new boards). Relative to YaBB default directory above.
  • Avatars URL
    • Default is: http://www.mysite.com/yabbimages/avatars. Set this to the URL you chose to place your avatar images. (I.e., replace "mysite.com" with your host name).