Section A: Setting up your forum.

So, you’ve decided to become a former, have you? These hints and tricks should make your life just a bit easier.

FAQ for the newbs. (Just kidding)

I just made up the questions in this section because no one has actually asked me anything.

Q: What is forumer.com?
A: Forumer.com is an excellent free forum hosting company.

Q: I want to make a forum, but there are already (insert number here) other forums about it.
A: Well, if there are a lot of other forums you would be better off getting a new subject.

Q: What is the difference between PHPbb and IPB?
A: PHPbb has a simpler user interface and a less complex ADMIN CP than the IPB forums.

Q: You keep talking about an ADMIN CP. What is it?
A: The ADMIN CP is the main control panel where you can adjust nearly every aspect of your forum. Only an admin (administrator) can log into this in PHPBB.

Q: What does PHPbb stand for?
A: PHP bulletin board.

Q: What does PHP stand for?
A: Pitifully Heartless Program (just kidding)

Q: What does IPB stand for?
A: IPB stands for Invision Power Board. (Sorry, not getting into that in this help file)

Q: What is fhq.forumer.com?
A: fhq.forumer.com is the main support forum for forumer.com

Q: What is the common language there?
A: Well, look at the site and guess. If you can’t figure it out, it’s English.

Q: How come forumer says “free domain names” but they are 12 dollars?
A: This is a little misleading. Forumer gives free domain name transfers if you already have one.

1. Registering your forum.

To register your forum with forumer.com, use this link. This will bring you to the PHPBB registration area.

http://www.forumer.com

For the access name, this will be your URL, which should be something like http://www.forumer.com/forum
or http://forum.servernumber.forumer.com

Alternatively, your forum will also be accessible through these short urls:
yourforumname.999.org
yourforumname.tt.cx
yourforumname.x.am

The server number will be sent to you in your email address. In this box, you must type a legitimate email address to activate your account. In forum name, type in good name for your forum, like Gaming Forum, or Forum for Golfers, something that agrees with the access name. Your username is the name that shows up whenever you post on your forum. And your password is the password for your username. Forum category is just to help people locate your forum.

After typing in all of this information, click submit, and you just created a forum! An email will be send to you telling you your URL and server number, as well as your username and password.

    a. Forumer’s TOC

Like all sites, forumer has a very well written out Term of Conditions. You must agree to these reasonable terms to create your forum. Although it may seem very boring, if you can handle it, read through the TOC. This will help to keep your forum from getting deleted, which is bad.

Read these:
http://forumer.com/terms.php

    b. Will my forum be popular?

Well, this depends on a number of things. First, lets say you created a forum for a game, and there are already three other forums for that. That will make your forum unpopular. Also, having a good theme and banner (more on this later) will make your forum more popular.

    c. What to do before you make a forum:

First, search on the forumer.com forums at fhq.forumer.com for any forums that are made on the subject your planning. If there are none, look in a search engine for forums on your subject. If there are one or two, you’ll probably be okay; any more than that, chose a different subject.

2. Choosing a good look

    a. Themes

Themes for your forum are the base for making your forum look different. Themes, also known as skins, dictate which colors, shapes, and buttons your forum has. Each theme has different colors and buttons, but many share a shape or layout. For example, there is a theme called “Dookie”. There are variations called “space dookie” and things like that. They are the different themes and different colors, but basically the same layout. There are two types of themes; there are “safe” themes that come with the forum, and “custom” themes that you can create. I recommend using the “safe” themes for now.

    b. Banners

A banner is a small image usually displayed in the upper left area of your forum. You can created your own, but you can only user GIF (Graphic interchangeable format), or JPEG (Something Picture Engineering Group) files. The maximum size is 400x150.   Transparency allows you to see the forum’s background color/picture in the transparent areas. Transparency is a good thing to use, so I recommend GIF, because it is the only file that allows it. Say you have a picture of a tank, and the text “Tank Forum”. You would want to make everything but the tank and the text transparent. This allows you to see the forum’s background color/picture in the transparent area. Because every graphics program is different, consult your program’s directions manual.

4. Setting up ranks

Ranks are little titles each member has that changes when that member reaches a certain post count. For example, if you post ten times (example only), then your rank goes from “total newb” to “junior member” or whatever you set up. Usually, a good rank setup goes something like this:

Firstrank: 0 post required (starting rank)
Secondrank: 10 posts required
Thirdrank: 25 posts required
Fourthrank: 50 posts required
Fifthrank: 100 posts required
Sixthrank: 150 posts required:
Seventhrank: 250 posts required
Eighthrank: 500
Ninethrank: 1000
Tenthrank: 2000

That’s roughly how you should set up your first forum. You can use any name for a rank, for example, thirdrank could be senior member, Private First Class, Gaming Guru, Private Pilot (on my forum), or anything else you can think of. You can also have special ranks, which you can assign to members manually. Special ranks could be like Moderator, Site Admin, Admiral of Rusted Tanks (don’t ask, it’s a BZflag thing), Notepad and Calculator Wizard, AI unit 04, (Another Bzflag thing, are you reading this, JeffM2501?), or something else you can think of. For more information, see Admin CP: Ranks

5. Attracting Members.

There are many ways to attract members. Here are a few of them:

Choose a unique subject, theme, and banner.

Promote your forum. List it in the “Show Off” section of http://fhq.forumer.com or other forums that have a similar section. If you can’t find a show off section in someone’s forum, then ask them nicely in a PM if you can post it anywhere. Most forum Admins will let you post in the “chat” or the “off topic” sections, but ask first! Even submit your sites to search engine like Google. Try http://www.google.com/addurl

Don’t be a “hardball” type admin. Be fair and helpful, but firm as well.

Throw in some humor every now and then.

Work hard to keep your forum enjoyable.

Section B: Keeping your forum in good shape

1.Self-Moderation

Moderation is the examination of your forum and removing inappropriate images, links, topics or posts that break the rules, ect. For small forums, “self moderation” is sufficient. Self-moderation is when a forum has only one admin who acts as the admin and the moderator. Self-moderation is also the resistance of bragging to everyone you see and shouting “I AM A FORUMER!” to someone you don’t even know. Usually, you need a lot of time in front of the computer for either type.

2. Recommended rules

Every forum should have at least one rules post. I recommended at least the following rules:

No swearing, derogatory comments about age, gender, race, religion, or anything else.

No inappropriate links. State clearly what your link is.

No inappropriate images. Ask an admin first if you are unsure.

No posting to increase your rank count.

No spamming, advertising anywhere, and no chatting in non-chat sections.

Note that these are minimum rules, and you may want to have a much larger rules section.

a. What is spam?As said by Jakez at the forums at Forumer.com:
Spam includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Any content advertising or promoting your website or forum, or another forum host, or similar, in any area of the forum. The only place where you may advertise is in the Show Off section, and ONLY Forumer.com forums are permitted there. Sending multiple PMs to anyone on the forum is also prohibited.

Any content which is off-topic or doesn't suit the topic of the thread in which it was posted.

Chatting in the Support and Swap Meet areas. This is unwanted, and all posts in those areas should stay on the topic of the support issue or sale.

Another form of spam I have noticed is members posting their own questions in other member's support threads. This is often known as "hi-jacking". If you have a different support question, please start your own topic.

Back-seat moderating: members speaking on behalf of the staff, or posting things like, "Mods need to move this to such and such area" or "Don't bump this topic for another 30 days". This is not necessary and doesn't help one bit. It is up to the staff to enforce rules and move threads.

Any other posts that would usually be deemed as spam. Such posts may include posts that say only "I agree" or similar meaningless words, or posts that only include smilies.

3. Enforcing these rules

For minor offense, I recommend verbal warnings, then suspension (temporary ban), and then a full out ban. There are several types of bans. For minor offenders, use the username banning or email banning. For people that keep coming back, ban their ip address. An IP address is a number assigned to every user when they connect to the internet.

4. Just because you are the admin doesn’t mean you should break the rules.

Okay, if you need help explaining this you should not be a forumer.

5. More on banning and suspension

Unfortunately, all forums probably have one or two troublemakers (or more). Fortunately, there are ways to take care of the problem. So lets say spamdude is coming onto your forum and swearing (or some other “minor” offense). What would you do? First, I would recommend sending spamdude a Private Message and giving him a warning. If this doesn’t work, then suspend him. Suspension is a temporary ban from the forum. (usually a week or so for the first time). If that doesn’t stop him, then permanently ban him, and try not to respond to emails from spamdude begging you to let him back on. For a major offense, or things like spamming, driving away members, violating Forumer’s, TOC, or repeated minor offense, just ban them and send them an email telling why. For information on how to ban and suspend, see the section under Admin CP: Bans and Suspensions.

Section C: Staff members

1. What is a moderator?

A moderator is a person who has the ability to add, delete, move, and modify topics/posts.

2. Moderators: Normal and global.

A normal moderator “moderates” a single forum. A Global moderator can “stick their nose anywhere”

3. Admins: Do so at your own risk.

Okay, first off, NO FORUM SHOULD HAVE MORE THAN TWO ADMINS! In fact, most forums should only have ONE admin! Many sites are stolen this way, because Admins can demote each other. If you have to have another admin, it is best if you know them personally. Better yet, just make the person a global mod. If you need more proof on stolen boards with too many Admins, go to fhq.forumer.com and search for “stolen board”. I can guarantee you will get a laugh from those.

4. Hints for choosing good members.

Okay, first, do not get more than one admin. And by one admin I mean you, and only you. Your site should not have to have more than one admin. My highest recommendation is to hire only people you know. One glaring exception are RPG and ducatiwannabe at http://my.bzflag.com/bb , they are very trustworthy people and have much experience. Even though, I recommend just making anyone, anyone you chose a global moderator at the highest. (have I said this enough?)

5. “Temporary” Admins.

If you have some inevitable problem with your forum, you will probably go to fhq.forumer.com. If the problem requires someone to have your password and username and log into the ADMIN CP, do not give your password to anyone except the forumer support personnel. And don’t just post it in the open, either. Yes, someone did do this. No, you’re not going to find out who. Send it to support personnel in a PM, but only after they ask you to. Support personnel don’t like to get PMs asking for support, so post your initial help in the main forum. (More on this in Fixing your Forum: Forumer procedures) Some support personnel are: Jakez, Isolice, Majicman, Aweeb, and the administrator is limez. I can guarantee they can fix almost any problem except for stolen boards. Only in a very rare case can this be fixed.

Section D:

1. Forum Procedures

Okay, so you’ve gone through all the obvious stuff, and you can’t seam to fix it. Here are some helpful rules about the support forums at forum.former.com

1. Registering a username

Register a username that is not overly lame and complex. Simple things like “jared” or “programer23” are fine, but not things like “bob36a46” or “zrdtgyheaesres”, which is useless because of its complexity. To register, go to http://fhq.forumer.com and click register. Enter your requested username and password, and all the other required fields. You’re a member of the former support forum!

2. Support Forum Etiquette

When requesting help, use sensible topics, not things like “HEEEEEEEEEELP!” or anything. Be clear, like, “I need help making skins” or something.

Post in the right area. Don’t post PHPbb stuff in IPB forums. Don’t post about skins in the news and announcements.

Always, always, always, always, ALWAYS include a link to your forum in your post. Not doing so wastes time and may keep people from helping.

Don’t spam.

Don’t swear or upload inapropirate images.

If I forgot anything, limez, feel free to tell me.

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