To add a new forum to the bulletin board, click on the "Add" link under the "Forums and Moderators" section in the left hand menu. A form will then appear in the right hand pane of the admin control panel (below), where you will be able to input all the parameters for the new forum:
- Title - Type in the title of the forum. You are limited to 100 characters here.
- Display Order - Forums are displayed from lowest to highest and under their parents. Use 0 to not display a forum.
- Default view age - The number of days worth of threads to display by default in this forum.
- Forum Parent - If you wish this forum to act as a sub-forum, select that forum that you wish to use as the "parent" forum. A sub-forum will then display under the parent forum.
- Email addresses to notify when there is a new post - Specify any email addresses to notify when there is a new post in this forum.
- Emails addresses to notify when there is a new thread - Specify any email addresses to notify when there is a new thread in this forum.
- Moderator Queue - Turn on this option if you would like your moderators (or yourself) to validate all threads and posts before they appear publically on the forum. You can access the Moderator Queue through the Moderator Control Panel located at: https://yourdomain.com/mod/ or direct using the admin links at the end of the forum display page.
- Attachment Queue - Require moderator validation before new file attachments are displayed. You can access the Attachment Queue through the Moderator Control Panel located at: https://yourdomain.com/mod/ or direct using the admin links at the end of the forum display page.
Custom style set for this forum - If you wish to set a certain style/design for this forum, select the styleset from this list.
- Private forum - This allows you to create forums that are invisible to all users except moderators and administrators. These are good for those backstage areas needed to manage your forums!
- Act as forum? - If you select no for this option, this forum will act as a category - i.e. a forum that doesn't contain threads or posts, but can act as a parent for other forums.
- Is active? - If a forum is set as inactive, it will not be visible on the forum home page (even to administrators).
- Open for new posts? - selecting no for this option will effectively close a forum to everyone. No users will be able to post new threads or replies to existing threads. You can use this option if you wish to set up an "archive" forum - where posts can be viewed but not replied to.
- Allow HTML Code in posts - This will allow your members to use HTML code in their posts. We seriously recommend against turning this option on, as HTML may be used to break your page design, or insert malicious scripting into the page.
- Allow vB Code in posts - An safer alternative to HTML, vBCode allows your members to format their messages using several different codes... i.e. enclosing a word inbetween and will cause the word be be emboldened.
- Allow vB IMG Code in posts - One of the default vB Codes provided by vBulletin allows members to insert images into their posts. You can select this option for off if you would like to prevent users from including images in their posts.
- Allow Smilies in posts - Smilies are small graphical icons used to show emotions or used to spice up a post. If you don't want to allow these in this forum, you can disable them here.
- Allow Icons for posts - If this option is turned on, users can select an icon to display next to their post/thread. Icons associated with threads are displayed on the main forum browse page next to the title of the thread.
- Allow thread ratings in this forum? - By enabling this option, users can rate each thread between 1 and 5, where 5 is the best score. Ratings for each of the threads are displayed by default in the forum thread listing page.
- Count posts made in this forum towards user post counts? - By enabling this option, a user's post count will increase whenever he/she posts a thread or reply in this forum.