Forums
All forum-related administration tasks can be accessed using the 'Forums' link in the Appliations section of the main menu.
How to link the forums into the website content.
- Go to the properties of the page that will link to the forums. This needs to be a page without any content.
- In the first section, under "content source" select the option:
"No content, redirect to website or ASP script". - Enter into the URL box:
/forums/ - Save the properties.
If you want to create a link to a specific forum, just go to it and copy the last part of the URL shown in the browser. For example:
If the full URL in the browser is this:
http://www.yourwebsite.com/forums/forum.asp?SubjectID=1
Enter this as the link:
/forums/forum.asp?SubjectID=1
This works in the content source field or as a normal link URL in the content editor.
How to remove or hide unacceptable messages
To edit or delete the message, follow these steps:
- Click on 'forums' in the main menu.
- Click on the "messages" link for the forum subject where the message is displayed.
- Find the message in the list.
- Click "delete" to permanently remove it.
- To hide the message, click on the subject line and tick the "awaiting moderation" option in the message details.
- To edit the message content, click on the subject line and edit the message content, subject or URL as required. Any HTML within the message content is shown in source format, therefore a basic knowledge of HTML is required.
How to remove old messages from the forums
To remove old messages, follow these steps:
- Click on 'forums' in the main menu.
- Click on the "purge" link for the forum subject you want to clear.
- Enter the earliest date you want to retain messages for ( see warning below). The date defaults to 365 days before the current date.
- Press the preview button.
- If you are happy that the messages displayed should be deleted, press 'Yes'.
Note that if a message is deleted during this process, all the replies to it are also deleted, even if they are newer than the date entered.
How to stop a user from posting messages
If a user is abusing the forums facility, there are several options available to you:
- Delete the user (note: the user will be able to re-register):
- Click on 'List site users' in the main menu.
- Click on the users name in the list.
- Click on the 'Delete User' button.
- Disable the users login (the user will be unable to re-register):
- Click on 'List site users' in the main menu.
- Click on the users name in the list.
- Tick the 'Disable login' checkbox.
- Click the 'Submit' button.
- Make the forum moderated. You will have to manually approve all messages posted to the forum.
- Click on 'Forums' in the main menu.
- Click on the subject name (do each in turn if you want to change all subjects).
- Tick the 'Moderated' checkbox.
- Click the 'Submit' button.
When a new message is posted, a message will be sent to the forums email address to remind you to approve or delete the message. If subsequent messages are posted before the moderator takes action, no further emails will be sent.
How to accept or delete moderated messages
To review all messages awaiting moderation, follow these steps:
- Click on 'forums' in the main menu.
- Click on the "messages" link for the forum subject where the messages are displayed.
- Click on 'Review messages awaiting moderation'.
- Each message awaiting moderation is show in turn:
- Press the 'Accept' button to make the message visible in the forum.
- Press the 'Delete' button to permanently remove the message. This also removes any replies to the message (applies only if the message was previously visible and re-moderated).
- Press the 'Skip' button if you want to come back to the message later. The message remains hidden.