--- Manage Options --- $LastChangedDate: 2009-03-29 02:21:31 +0100 (Sun, 29 Mar 2009) $ $Rev: 1662 $ [auto-update] Auto Update

If you turn on this option, Simple:Press Forum will automatically update the QuickLinks New and Unread Post List, the New Posts and Awaiting Moderation Counters on the Admin Bar and the count of unread items in the Inbox. If you are not using these items then leave this option unchecked.

You can set the frequency of the auto-updating (in seconds). The default for a new install is 300 (5 minute intervals). It is strongly recommended NOT to set the interval to under 120 seconds and indeed a longer interval is to be preferred. Depending on your site hosting and how busy your site is this feature could be considered as resource 'hungry'. [end] [lock-down-forum] Lock Down Forum

This option enables the Admin to completely lock the forum - in other words make it read only - although they will still be able to make posts and edits.

This option is useful for maintenance such as when the Admin wishes to 'prune' out old topics, re-arrange their forums or, perhaps, change their user group and permission settings.

Note that there is no need to lock the forum during an upgrade. [end] [forum-page-title] Page Title
By default, Simple:Press Forum will display the page title as it is set in the WordPress 'page' record which you can change any time by visiting 'Manage > Pages', selecting the forum page and loading it up for editing. However, the title can also be changed using these options.

Show Forum/Topic in Page Title
This option will append the name of the currently display forum or topic to the title of the page.

Remove Page Title Completely
As it implies, this option will remove the page title and leave the area blank.

Graphic Replacement URL
It is also possible to display a graphic banner instead of the textual title. By entering the URL of an image file this will be displayed instead. Simple:Press Forum attempts to centre any graphic used but this can be altered in the forum skin you are using where you can also define any other styling.

Please Note:
If an image URL is found in this field, it WILL be used regardless of the setting of the other two options. If it is empty but both alternate options are set, Simple:Press Forum will select to leave the title blank.

[end] [users-and-registration] Collect and Display Extended Profile
Simple:Press Forum makes use of the same user 'profile' data already set up in your site. However it optionally adds some extra fields to this data such as location, signature etc., depending upon this setting.

Limit Membership Display
If checked this option will limit the membership list display for a member to only display user groups and its members that the members is actually a member of. If the option is not set, a member will be able to see member lists and profiles for ALL members of the forum. Guests will never be able to see any membership list.

Disallow Members Not Logged In To Post As Guests
If a returning member (identified by their cookie) does not log in you can allow them to post as a Guest. Turning on this option stops them from making posts and presents them with the login button instead. [end] [time-zone] Set the Time Zone for New Member registrations
Set the default time zone for new member registrations. This would normally be left at zero but you can assign a default that is +/- hours fromn your server. The new member will be able to change this setting in their profile record. [end] [user-memberships] User Memberships

Every user (except SPF Admins) has to be a member of a User Group or they will have no access to any of the forums. Some User Groups are pre-defined, but you can create others. These settings control the default User Group behaviour.

The two required settings in this section are the default user group for members and the default user group for guests. The user group for guests will control the permissions that guests visiting your forum will receive based on that user group. The user group for members is the default user group that all new users to your wp site will gain membership in when their user account is created. If these two user groups are invalid or in error, you will receive a warning message to that effect on every SPF admin page load.

Optionally, you may also have user group membership controlled by the WP role that users are designated as. When a user is created or their WP role is later modified, their current user group membership will be assigned based up on the dropdown select boxes for each currently defined WP Role. This is compatible with the Role Manager plugin and other user plugins that properly update users profiles.

If auto user group assignment via the WP roles (or forum ranks in the components section) is used, care needs to be taken. By default, the new user group membership will simply be added to any current user group memberships that the user has. With the Users are Limited to Single User Group Membershp option you can force any previous user group memberships to be removed when the new user group assignment is made. Users will only be allowed to have membership in the most recent user group specified, whether via auto assignment or manual assignment in the manage user groups admin panel. If you do not want to select this option, new user group memberships will be added to the current user group memberships and any adjustments will have to be made manually. [end] [display-search-form] You can elect to display the Search Form. By default, the search bar is displayed at both the top and bottom of each forum page. You can remove either or both of these displays. [end] [breadcrumb-home-link] Show Breadcrumbs Links

This option determines whether you display the breadcrumbs link trail in the forum. You can also optionally display the breadcrumbs in tree style.

Breadcrumb 'Home' Link

If breadcrumbs are enabled, this option determines whether you display a link to a 'Home' page at the start of the forum 'breadcrumb' link trail. You may also define what that link should be if you prefer not to use the default front page of your site. [end] [display-forum-statistics] Display Forum Statistics
Statistics about the forum - number of posts, members etc., - can be displayed at the bottom of each page. However, if preferred you can turn the display off.

You can also turn on or off all of the various components of the statistcs box independently. [end] [unread-posts] Unread Posts Message
Select whether to show the Unread Posts count to logged in members. Secondly select whether to show the "Mark All As Read' icon when unread posts exist. Note the icon will ONLY display if the unread post count is also selected. [end] [quicklinks-dropdowns] QuickLinks Dropdowns

Show 'QuickLinks' dropdowns
The 'QuickLinks' dropdown lists can be optionally removed from display on the Search Bar at both, or either, the top or bottom. There are two lists. The first shows the most recent topics to receive new posts and the second offers links to all of the defined forums.

Number of New Posts to show
This number determines the number of most recent topics with new posts to make available in the 'QuickLinks' dropdown list.
Note that the Admin will also see their own new post queue and posts they have not read or posts that require moderation will be displayed in their respective colours. [end] [pagelinks] PageLinks Strip

You can optionally remove the top and/or the bottom page links strip. Please note removing a pagelinks strip removes the entire strip and its content. The top page links strip includes an icon legend and the bottom page links strip includes an add topic or reply button (which are duplicative from the same buttons shown elsewhere at the forum top). [end] [rss-feeds] RSS Feeds

Simple:Press Forum supports 4 separate RSS feed options: All forums, Group of Forums, Individual Forum and Individual Topic. Individual Forum feeds can be disable/enabled on the Manage Forum page. The following options are for enabled RSS feeds.

Number of Recent Posts to feed
Set the number of items that will be sent at any one time when a feed is requested. Note that if the user does not have permissions to view a specific forum, posts from that forum will not be included in their feed. Posts awaiting moderation are also excluded until approved.

Limit to Number of Words
Post content in an RSS feed can be limited to the number of words you specify. Leaving this value at zero allows the entire post to be sent.

Feedkeys for Private RSS
This options assigns each user a unique feedkey for reading RSS feeds. This allows for private rss feeds that follow the rest of the Forum permissions checking before a feed can be viewed. If the feedkey is not present, guest permissions are used. Feedkeys will work with RSS feed readers too. The private RSS feature is not compatible with external feed urls however since they can't provide the unique user feed key. [end] [first-and-last-post-display] Many forum views display the first and last post made in a forum or topic. You can elect whether to display the date, the time, and/or the user who made the post. [end] [spam-detection] Spam Detection

Simple:Press Forum can use the effective 'math question' query to prevent spam posts being made automatically. This option is set up in the User Group Permissions. However, the same tool can also be used on the user registration form to help counter bogus registrations which are a general nuisance. Please note that if this feature is invoked it applies to both Simple:Press Forum's registration form and the standard WordPress form. [end] [email-address-settings] Email Address Settings

By default, the term 'WordPress' is used as the sender of any email from within the system. These settings allow you to override that and enable you to use any email address preferred. These are the email address components that will be used in such forum emails as subscriptions and new private message.

Note: These settings, once made, are global in that they will be used by WordPress for non-forum emails as well. [end] [new-user-email] New User Email

These settings allow you to tailor emails sent to new users following registration to your site and forum. You have full control over both the Email Subject Line and the content of the Email Message

Note: If you prefer the standard WordPress email version - or are using another plugin that is capable of generating the new user email, then turn the forum option off and the alternative version will be used in it's place.

Placeholders
The following keywords can be used as placeholders within the email and will be replaced by their values when the email is sent. It is very important to to enter these into the message text exactly as shown and the very minimum that should be used are the User Name and Password:
Note the use of %NEWLINE% to end paragraphs. [end] [group-display-options] You can select not to display Group Descriptions. [end] [forum-display-options] You can elect not to display Forum Descriptions, the New Post in Forum Icon and inline Forum Page Links. [end] [forum-view-formatting] Forum View Formatting

Display recent Posts on Front Page
Recent Posts can be listed on the front page of the forum. Note that this setting is the view that will be seen by member and guests. The Admin will see the new posts that they have not yet read or approved.
It may be considered unnecessary to display both this list and the QuickLinks new post list as they virtually perform the same function.

Number of Recent Posts to Display
If posts below the forums listing on the front page are turned on, this setting determine how many will be displayed.

Display Recent Posts Above Groups
As an alternative to displaying this list at the bottom of the forum index you may choose to display it at the top.

Sort New Posts within Forums
This option will group topics with new posts into their home forum on new post views. [end] [single-forum-sites] Single Forum Sites

For sites that only have a sngle forum, checking this option will skip the initial forum 'front' page 'Group' view and will directly load the single forums topic listing. In a multi-forum site, this option can also be used to ensure that users with access to only one forum are also directed straight to the topic listing. [end] [forum-view-columns] Forum View Columns

Check the boxes to select which columns to display in the Forum index view. This can be useful if your page is tight for space. Possible options to turn or off are: [end] [topic-view-formatting] Topic View Formatting

Topics to Display Per Page
The topic index is paged to cater for large forums. You set here the number of topic rows to show per paged display.

Number of Topics Paging Links to show The page links are shown in bars at the top and bottom of the topic index. Set the number to show. The first and last are always shown.

Sort Topics by Most recent Postings (newest first)
By default, topics are displayed in the order in which they were created. By turning on this option, when a topic receives a new post, it will then take the topmost position. Topics are therefore shown by those with the most recent postings. [end] [topic-row-display] You can turn on or off various elements of the topic row display. These elements are: [end] [topic-tag-formatting] Topic Tag Formatting

These options are valid when Tags are enabled for a Forum or Topic that is being viewed.

Maximum Number of Tags
This option allows admins to limit the number of tags that may be applied to a Topic when its created. For an unlimited number of tags, set this option to 0. [end] [topic-view-columns] Topic View Columns

Check the boxes to select which columns to display in the Topic index view. This can be useful if your page is tight for space. Possible options to turn or off are: [end] [topic-tags] These options are valid when Tags are enabled for a Forum or Topic that is being viewed.

Display Topic Tags Above Posts
When viewing a topic, this option will display the Topic Tags above the post list, below the page links.

Display Topic Tags Below Posts
When viewing a topic, this option will display the Topic Tags below the post list, above the page links.

[end] [topic-status] If using Topic Status you can choose to display the current status in the topic Heading and the Status Update Control which displays beneath al of the topic posts. [end] [the-post] Many aspects of each post display can be optionally turned off. These are: [end] [post-view-formatting] Post View Formatting

Posts to Display Per Page
Posts are paged so that a topic with many contributions does not have to scroll too far or take to long too load. Select the number of posts to show per page.

Display User Info Above Post
Simple:Press Forum defaults to displaying the details of the post author (name, avatar, date etc.,) to the left of the post content. If you have a narrow content area to display the forum in, then it is worth considering displaying those details above the post so that the post content itself can use the full width of the column.

Sort Posts Newest to Oldest
By default, the post that started the topic is displayed at the top with each subsequent post following - oldest to newest. This option sorts in the reverse order displaying the most recent post in the topic first.

Display Post-Edit Data
This option will display details about any editing made to the post after the initial post was made. The users name and the date of the edit(s) are displayed. You can optionally limit this to only display the very last edit. [end] [date-time-formatting] Date/Time Formatting

You can set the way that all dates and times are displayed within the forum. This uses standard php date/time formatting. There is a link at the bottom to a page that explains the various options available.

+/- Hours from Server
Dates and Times will be saved as the current date and time on the server at your host. This is not necessarily within the same time zone as you. To enable the date and time in the forum to be displayed in your local time, you can set the number of hours to either add or subtract to your host's server time. [end] [post-links-filtering] Post Links Filtering

You can set links within forum posts to include 'rel=noffolow' and/or 'target=_blank' which will force the link to open in a new browser windw or tab. You can use the URL shortening feature to limit the amount of characters shown in a URL. Any URLs that are over the limit, will be shortened. URLs under the limit will be unaffected. [end] [spam-links] Maxmimum Links Allowed in Posts

As we all know, most spammers like to fill their posts or emails with lots of links. This option allows you to set the maximum number of links permissable in a single post. If that maximum number is exceeded, the post is rejected.

To allow any number of links with no ceiling, leave the option set to zero. Duplicate Post Refusal

Duplicate Post detection can be turned on for Members and/or Guests. If enabled and a duplicate post is detected it will simply be refused. [end] [profanity-filter] Profanity Filter

You can set up 'profanity filters' if desired that will substitute a 'banned' word or phrase with an alternative of your choosing. Start each new word or phrase you wish to substitute on a new line in the top box. Place the alternative on a new line in the bottom box ensuring that each entry is in the same position in the list. When posts are displayed, any match found in the top list will be substituted with the word from the equivalent position in the bottom list. [end] [add-topic-tag] Using the 'Add Topic' Tag

The 'Add Topic' tag allow you to place a template tag on, for example, the sidebar that enables the user to click through directly to an Add Topic form on a desingated forum. That designated forum is selected here. [end] [forum-skin-icons] Forum Skin/Icons

These settings determine the forum skin (CSS and required image files) and the set of icons that will be used to render your forum pages. When first installed they are set to the default skins and icon set.

You can also check the option to update icons to their default settings for your selected Skin if a control template exists. This will ensure that icons with text on them will not also have the text label printed beside them. This can also be done manually on the 'Display Icon Text' section.

Please note, that if you change Icon set, your custom icon storage location may still point to the old icon set if you never changed it from the default value. If you are using custom icons, you might want to consider relocating the custom icon storage location to the wp-content directory so as not to be tied to an icon set itself. [end] [display-icon-text] Display Icon Text

There are two styles of icons that can be used with Simple:Press Forum. The first (and this applies to the default set), require a textual label to be displayed beside the icons. Other sets may have the text graphically contained on the icon itself. These settings allow to to select which icon label text should or should not be displayed. Checked labels will display the text alongside the equivalent icon. [end] [adjust-font-size] Adjust the Font Size

The base font size used by the forum is set in the forum skin CSS file. If you do not wish to edit the skin bit do wish to adjust the size of text display you can adjust it here. Start with a value of 100 and check the results. Adjust up or down to suit your preference.
To leave the sizes as supplied in the skin - leave this field empty. [end] [sig-images] Signature Image Sizes

If you have enabled signature images for users via permissions, this option will allow you to limit the size of the signature image. Enter the maximimum width and height into the input fields. If youd do not wish to limit the size of image signatures, enter a value of zero for width and height. You can limit the width or height independantly of each other. [end] [block-admin] Block WP Admin Access

This option allows you to block User access to the WP Admin pages.

It is also possible to block access to the WP admin based on a minimum role. When setting the minimum role, any user having that role or greater (based on cap level assigned to the role) will still be given access to the WP admin. Please note, if you set the min role to subscriber, this will effectively disable block admin.

When blocking users access to the wp admin pages, you can also specify the url that you want to redirect to such as the site home page, the forum home page, the forum profile page, other 3rd party plugin url, etc. [end] [guest-settings] Guest Settings

Using the settings here, you can optionally require a guest to enter an email address before they can post. Also, you can choose whether to store a cookie containing the guest information when they post so it is auto filled the next time they visit your forum. [end]] [additional-filters] Additional Filters

[end]] [image-enlarging] Image Enlargement

When users include images in their forum posts you have no control over the size of the images and this can sometimes cause display problems - especially with themes that have narrow columns. Turning on this option can help resolve that by showing images as a thumbnail which will expand in a popup window to their full size when clicked on. A small mouse icon is also placed beside the thumbnail.

You set the size of the thumbnail (it's width in pixels) here. [end] [post-ratings] Post Ratings Support

Simple:Press Forum supports the ability to allow users to rate posts. The posts can be rated by users with proper permissions. The ratings engine does record the IP for guests and USER ID for members when a rating is made in an effort to prevent multiple ratins by the same person. It should be noted that this is not a fail safe method for guests as many ISPs assign users different IPs at different times.

To enable post ratings, check the "Enable Post Ratins" box. Permission for members/guests to rate posts is provided with the "Can rate posts" permission that can be applied to permissions set and then user groups. When enabling post ratings, you have two methods of ratings that may be used to rate posts.

Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down

When utilizing the Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down rating method, a forum visitor with post rating permission can either vote up (Thumbs Up) or vote down (Thumbs Down) the post. A Thumbs Up vote adds +1 to the post rating score displayed. A Thumbs Down vote adds -1 to the post rating score displayed. This rating system is consistent with the reddit voting system.

Stars

When utilizing the Stars rating method, a forum visitor with post rating permission can rate a post with a score of 1 - 5 stars. Each star rating is added to the current star sum. The post rating score displaye is then the star sum divided by the number of votes. The number of stars displayed for a score is displayed in integer stars rounded down, but the score itself is shown to 1 decimal place.

*** WARNING ***

The desired rating system is selected via the "Select Post Rating Style" radio button. However, once you select a rating system and you have started accumlating votes, you cannot change post ratings style without a complete reset of the post rating data system. When attempting to change the post ratings style, you will be prompted to confirm the changed setting and your database will be purged of post rating data. This is because of the inherent difference in post rating score between the two systems. [end] [auto-subs] Auto Subscription

Using this option, you can make the default value for the user's auto subscribe option when posting to topics be true. Selecting this option will only affect new users when their user account is created.

Warning: Auto subscribing members is the same as Opt Out (vs Opt In) and is considered bad practice. If you enable this option, be sure of what you are doing and consider a disclaimer or notice to your users so they know their options. [end] [shortcode-filters] Shortcodes Filtering

Here you can choose to have SPF filter shortcodes out of your post content.

If you choose not to filter out shortcodes, ANY shortcodes that can be used on your site in WP posts or pages, can be used by any user with posting privileges on the forum. This may not be desireable depending upon what shortcodes are defined on your site.

If you choose to filter out shortcodes, you can also optionally specify a set of shortcodes to allow. This is useful if you want to allow gallerys, polls or other shortcodes in your post content.

To enter a list of allowed shortcodes, enter one shortcode per line without the brackets [ ]. That is, to allow [gallery] shortcode, you would just enter gallery. [end] [forum-clear-floats] Float Style Clearing

Normally, this option should be left unchecked. If your forum is displaying incorrectly due to theme floats (ie forum displaying below sidebar or other content), checking this option will issue a style of clear:both before the forum display is initiated. [end]