Hi all, there will be some out there who have never used a PHPBB forum before, it's not as user-friendly as the old Facebook group interface, but equally you have far more control and can customize what you post much better. So this is a very quick guide to things people might want to post. I've just dashed this together, and it will be added to over time, but if you have questions on how to do something, please ask and I'll add it here. The software is highly customizable, so new features, sections, and such, can be added as people want.
If you want to get an email when someone sends you a PM, you have to tick the checkbox here;
UCP (User Control Panel) > Board Preferences > Edit Notification Options > Someone sends you a private message > TICK BOX
The forum is set up, so the contents of someone PM, is also displayed in the email, as I always like to be able to keep an email record of any PMs, but with many forums you just get a plain notification email.
Images/photos
Images/photo can be either hosted on an external service (your own webspace, or a photo hosting site which allows hotlinking), or attached, via the attachments tab at the bottom of the posting page. So for an external/hotlinked image, you hit the little picture button, and paste the full address between the IMG tags which will appear, so my text will look like this, and show the below image;
Linked images will vanish if the service you're using (like Photobucket for example) goes down or changes things. That's why Attaching images is better than linking to an external service. They're then on the same server as this forum, and will be here as long as this forum is.
Attached images are different to linked images. You add them to your post via the 'Attachments' tab and they'll appear tagged on the bottom of your post, or if you hit the 'Place Inline' button, you can insert the images within your text. Both methods will resize your image to 800px max width for display in the forum, and they can be clicked to view full/original size. Users need to be logged in to see attached images, so guests just viewing the forum won't see them.
You can have up to 99 images per post, and up to 16mb per image @ 5000px by 5000px maximum square dimensions (or a bit bigger if its not square, like 6000px by 4000px). Anything over these will give a HTTP error pop-up box, as it's past the limits of the forum software. This text, shows the below attached inline image;
Just a note; if you're attaching more than 40 images to a post in one go, you need to add the first 40, don't press anything and wait 2mins, then add the next 40, and so on. If you upload more than that, you'll get a pop-up error box as the forum works though uploading the queue and reaches past 40 (usually image 42). The site will become unreachable for those 2mins, and you'll need to delete the images which didn't upload from the queue (which don't have a tick next to them). This seemingly is due to a limitation in the software as it takes a little time for the site to process them, 40 is the limit in one go, but if you just hang on, you can add more images up to 99. Normally forums will set the single post image limit much lower so never have this issue, but I appreciate that there will be lots of pic-heavy postings on here!
Occasionally you might get one image which gives you a HTTP error pop-up regardless. This is because the server checks each item you upload to make sure it is what it's supposed to be, and sometimes it gets a false reading and refuses the image. In that event, just delete the failed upload from the queue, open the image up with an image editing program like GIMP/Photoshop, and re-save the image as a new file, and upload it again. That's fixed it for me the few times it's happened.
Videos
Videos can be embedded very simply, just paste the full website address in your post, and it will show up automatically without you doing anything further. This will work for most video sites, such as YouTube and Facebook. For example I paste this text, and the below video shows up automatically;
Embedding From Other Websites
Other things can also be embedded, such as twitter posts, again just paste the full website address in your post, and it will show up automatically and people can click to open it on the original site in a new window, so I post this link, and it's recognised and inserted as a Twitter window below in your post;
Over a hundred sites are supported linking/embedded with the address including; ABC News, Amazon Product, audioBoom, Audiomack, Bandcamp, BBC News, Blab, Bleacher Report videos, Break, Brightcove, CBS News Video, CNBC, CNN, CNNMoney, CollegeHumor, Comedy Central, Coub, Dailymotion, Democracy Now!, dumpert, 8tracks, ESPN, Facebook, Flickr, FORA.tv, Fox News, Funny or Die, Gamespot, GameTrailers, Getty Images, Gfycat, Gifs.com, GitHub Gist (via custom iframe), Global News, GoFundMe, Google Drive, Google+, Google Sheets, Healthguru, Hudl, Hulu, HumorTV, IGN, IMDb, Imgur, Indiegogo, Instagram, Internet Archive, İzlesene, JW Platform, Kontinental Hockey League (КХЛ), Kickstarter, Kiss Video, Libsyn, LiveCap, LiveLeak, Livestream, Mail.Ru, Medium, Metacafe, Mixcloud, MLB, MRCTV, MSNBC, National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Video, NBC News, NBC Sports, NHL Videos and Highlights, NPR, The New York Times Video, Oddshot, Pastebin, Pinterest, Plays.tv, Podbean, Prezi, Reddit threads and comments, Rutube, Scribd, SlideShare, SoundCloud, Sportsnet, Spotify, Steam store, Stitcher, Straw Poll, Streamable, Team Coco, TED Talks, The Atlantic Video, The Guardian, The Onion, TinyPic videos, TMZ, Trailer Addict, Tumblr, Twitch, Twitter, Ustream, VBOX7, Veoh, VEVO, Viagame, Video Detective, Videomega, vidme, Vimeo, Vine, VK, Vocaroo, Vox, Washington Post Video, WorldStarHipHop, The Wall Street Journal Online, XboxClips, Xbox DVR, Yahoo! Screen, Youku, YouTube, Zippyshare audio files
If you want to get an email when someone sends you a PM, you have to tick the checkbox here;
UCP (User Control Panel) > Board Preferences > Edit Notification Options > Someone sends you a private message > TICK BOX
The forum is set up, so the contents of someone PM, is also displayed in the email, as I always like to be able to keep an email record of any PMs, but with many forums you just get a plain notification email.
Images/photos
Images/photo can be either hosted on an external service (your own webspace, or a photo hosting site which allows hotlinking), or attached, via the attachments tab at the bottom of the posting page. So for an external/hotlinked image, you hit the little picture button, and paste the full address between the IMG tags which will appear, so my text will look like this, and show the below image;
Code: Select all
[img]http://www.bookofthedead.ws/website/images/ash_vs_evil_dead_title_text.png[/img]Linked images will vanish if the service you're using (like Photobucket for example) goes down or changes things. That's why Attaching images is better than linking to an external service. They're then on the same server as this forum, and will be here as long as this forum is.
Attached images are different to linked images. You add them to your post via the 'Attachments' tab and they'll appear tagged on the bottom of your post, or if you hit the 'Place Inline' button, you can insert the images within your text. Both methods will resize your image to 800px max width for display in the forum, and they can be clicked to view full/original size. Users need to be logged in to see attached images, so guests just viewing the forum won't see them.
You can have up to 99 images per post, and up to 16mb per image @ 5000px by 5000px maximum square dimensions (or a bit bigger if its not square, like 6000px by 4000px). Anything over these will give a HTTP error pop-up box, as it's past the limits of the forum software. This text, shows the below attached inline image;
Code: Select all
[attachment=0]carbon-logo.jpg[/attachment]Occasionally you might get one image which gives you a HTTP error pop-up regardless. This is because the server checks each item you upload to make sure it is what it's supposed to be, and sometimes it gets a false reading and refuses the image. In that event, just delete the failed upload from the queue, open the image up with an image editing program like GIMP/Photoshop, and re-save the image as a new file, and upload it again. That's fixed it for me the few times it's happened.
Videos
Videos can be embedded very simply, just paste the full website address in your post, and it will show up automatically without you doing anything further. This will work for most video sites, such as YouTube and Facebook. For example I paste this text, and the below video shows up automatically;
Code: Select all
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg_nCZ_ngYkEmbedding From Other Websites
Other things can also be embedded, such as twitter posts, again just paste the full website address in your post, and it will show up automatically and people can click to open it on the original site in a new window, so I post this link, and it's recognised and inserted as a Twitter window below in your post;
Code: Select all
https://twitter.com/BookOfTheDead/status/539696620162785280Over a hundred sites are supported linking/embedded with the address including; ABC News, Amazon Product, audioBoom, Audiomack, Bandcamp, BBC News, Blab, Bleacher Report videos, Break, Brightcove, CBS News Video, CNBC, CNN, CNNMoney, CollegeHumor, Comedy Central, Coub, Dailymotion, Democracy Now!, dumpert, 8tracks, ESPN, Facebook, Flickr, FORA.tv, Fox News, Funny or Die, Gamespot, GameTrailers, Getty Images, Gfycat, Gifs.com, GitHub Gist (via custom iframe), Global News, GoFundMe, Google Drive, Google+, Google Sheets, Healthguru, Hudl, Hulu, HumorTV, IGN, IMDb, Imgur, Indiegogo, Instagram, Internet Archive, İzlesene, JW Platform, Kontinental Hockey League (КХЛ), Kickstarter, Kiss Video, Libsyn, LiveCap, LiveLeak, Livestream, Mail.Ru, Medium, Metacafe, Mixcloud, MLB, MRCTV, MSNBC, National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Video, NBC News, NBC Sports, NHL Videos and Highlights, NPR, The New York Times Video, Oddshot, Pastebin, Pinterest, Plays.tv, Podbean, Prezi, Reddit threads and comments, Rutube, Scribd, SlideShare, SoundCloud, Sportsnet, Spotify, Steam store, Stitcher, Straw Poll, Streamable, Team Coco, TED Talks, The Atlantic Video, The Guardian, The Onion, TinyPic videos, TMZ, Trailer Addict, Tumblr, Twitch, Twitter, Ustream, VBOX7, Veoh, VEVO, Viagame, Video Detective, Videomega, vidme, Vimeo, Vine, VK, Vocaroo, Vox, Washington Post Video, WorldStarHipHop, The Wall Street Journal Online, XboxClips, Xbox DVR, Yahoo! Screen, Youku, YouTube, Zippyshare audio files