Making a Free Forum on SMF Without ADS.

fail3d · Aug 26, 2009

This guide will teach you the basics of how to set up a SMF forum - no ads&free.

Step 1

-You need to make an account on www.smfnew.com

Step 2

- Now your forums are created, however they are blank.
First off, you want to add more categories, to do this, Sign into the Admin CP(the username and password you registered with).

Step 3

- Now go down to Forum>boards on the admin CP
- In here you can add new categories and boards.

How to add new categories:
Click add new category at the top of admin>forum>boards

And fill in the details.

To add new boards:
You first need to have a category.
When you make a category, click the button, "add board"

Then fill out the form.

Step 4

-When your happy with your categories and boards, It's time to start Modifying Member groups and member group permissions.

for this, go to your admin cp > Membergroups

you can click "add membergroup" to add your own.
You should put "stars" or "buttons" for the ranks instead of the normal icons. The stars/buttons can be found at http://YOURFORUMNAME.smfnew.com/ranks

To use one from here, copy and paste the excat name of the file into the "stars" box.

If you are using a button, put in the buttons name, and set it so that the stars shown are 1.

Permissions

To modify these, go to admin cp> members > permissions.

Then all the membergroups you have appear.
Select the one you want to edit and click on, "modify"
Then there is a whole list for things that you can edit.

Step 5

The theme

The original theme looks rather plain doesn't it, To change it, go to admin>configuration>themes and layout

Then look through the different themes, find the perfect one, then select save.

Thank you for reading my guide and Good luck with your forums.
If you require any help feel free to pm me with your question.

Rate/comment please