Guide to using Invisionfree forums

Table of contents:

Section I
-Adding a forum skin


Section II

-Making new forum categories\sections
--How to set your permission masks
---Ability to re-order forums
----Assigning moderators for specific categories

Section III

-Editing\banning\deleting members
--Creating new user ranks & user groups


Section IV

-Managing filters & emotions
--How to ban somebodies IP from your forum


Section I

Look for the skin that is most suitable to you. Personally I like dark-themed skins, but some people may prefer lighter skins. There are a few websites where users create skins for the community, here's a couple that I recommend:

1) Zues00's website

2) Inkdropstyles forums


Now go to one of those sites and look for a skin that you're interested in. Once you click on a thread you'll notice that the skin is broken up into 4 sections. The style sheet, the footer, the header & body and sometimes javascript. You really only need the style sheet, but sometimes the skin may come with a footer and header & body, it all depends.



Once you've pasted the code(s) in the right area, click "edit wrapper".



Now go to the left panel and towards the bottom you should see "Manage style sheets". Click it and paste the style sheet (CSS code) into there.

Once you've finished that, you're skin should look complete.


Section II

To create a new category, go to the left panel and click "New Category"



Enter the category name and click "create this category". Now click on "new forum" which is right under New Category. Towards the top there is a drop down box, so put what category you want your forum to be under. Once you've created the name of the forum, scroll down a bit and you'll see the option to turn on Quick reply, check the circle "Yes".

Scroll down a bit and you'll see the permissions section. Click off the boxes which you will allow in that forum.



Example: If it's an important section which has sensitive information you may want to make it so only admins are able to read\post in that forum.

Now if at any time you wish to re-order your categories\forums, go to the left panel and click on "Re-order forums"



If you want to assign a player or group to a specific forum, go to the left panel and click on Moderators, and set which forum you wanted to be moderated by whichever player\group you decide.




Section III

If you wish to edit somebodies profile (Post count, password, signature, etc) then click "Find\Edit\suspend user", and search for their name in the top box.



Once you've done that, click "edit details" and you'll be able to edit many things including:

- Their member group
- Profile info
- Post count
- Name
- And much more!

If you wish to add some user title\ranks, click "User Title/Ranks" on the left panel. You can make ranks here which correspond to how much postcount they have.



If you wish to add user groups, click "Manage User Groups" on the left panel, and decide which group to base them on (Admin, member, etc). Once you've chose that, you'll be able to create what name you want the group to have, and their permissions etc.



Section IV

If you desire to have some custom emotions, click on "Manage Emoticons" on the left panel. Go on google and google things such as "Forum emotions". Browse through the selection the website gives you, and whichever ones you like save to your computer.



At the bottom you'll see the option of uploading an emotion, click that and upload the emotes you downloaded from before.

For the box called "Before", input what you have to say in order for the emotion to appear (Example: :rofl: ). For "After" chose the emotion that you uploaded. If you want to have the option to just click the emotion from the side then put yes for clickable.

If you want to implement filters for words such as racial slurs, then click Manage Word Filters. You'll be able to chose what word you want filtered and the word which will replace it.

If you're having problems with a member and you need to ban a name\email\IP, then click on "ban settings". It also gives you the option of having wild cards. Example: You can ban all IP's starting with 212 by putting 212.**.**.*.


Special thanks to Zues00 and Inkdropstyles for having a wide assortment of free skins\forum accessories.

 

Very thorough guide. Pictures are also helpful. 8/10

 

Nice job, i've been thinking about setting up one of these for quite a while.