phpBB Weekly

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Episode Duration: 30:14
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples)

Some people say that moderation is overrated. Some people can be wrong, but nevertheless, this episode is dedicated to all of you moderators out there.

What’s new on phpBB.com? Well, the dev team has another new member: Kellanved, former MOD team member, has been promoted to a developer. Furthermore, the Knowledge Base appears to be finished and under way–we’re just waiting for the teams to populate the new Knowledge Base with articles. You can still find some of the old articles on this team member’s website. The new MOD and Style Databases are also starting to take form–but they’re not finished yet.

Douglas shows off the new Moderator Control Panel in phpBB3, including the ability to receive reports, warn users, ban users, and write notes about users, and much more. (Again, the number of panels your moderators see depends on how their permissions are set.) If you’re going to be a future moderator on a phpBB3 board, this episode will teach you about everything you’ll be able to do and how you do it.

Finally, the MOD of the Week is Simple Mod Resize Images by sancious, and the Style of the Week is What is Real? by Graphic.

There will be no phpBB Weekly on May 5th; episode #017 will be on May 12th at the same time.

I often have the sneaking suspicion that the phpBB teams are starting to post their announcements on Saturday afternoons intentionally so that I won’t cover it on the show. (Just kidding guys, I love you, really!) Anyway, SHS` posted today that the site will be going down to backup the posts table. I’m going to stir up the rumor mill a bit, but doesn’t that bring up a striking suspicion that a new release is on the way? It wouldn’t be the first time.

Anyway, keep an eye on the site. If there’s any announcements, I’ll be covering them in-depth during episode #017 on May 12th…

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Download MP3 Episode (16.5 MB)

Episode Duration: 41:18
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples)

Continuing our tour of the permissions system in phpBB3, Douglas talks about detailed management of users and groups. For users, this includes a guide through all of the features in the new User Administration panel, how to use the new Inactive Users panel, and the one or two updates to the Ranks admin panel. In addition, Douglas describes everything new for Groups in phpBB3, including the age-old question of the difference between Special Groups and User-Defined Groups.

Then, Douglas describes how to set Global Permissions for users and groups. This includes permissions for what users can and can’t do in their User Control Panel (including private messages permissions, etc.). Global Permissions also allows admins to grant users and groups full or limited access to the moderator or administration panels, with very detailed control over what users can and cannot access in these panels.

Finally wrapping up the tour of the Permissions tab, Douglas explains the layout of Permission Masks (a place to view current permissions set without editing them), and also goes through how administrators can create their own custom Permission Roles.

The MOD of the Week is Event Registration by NetizenKane, and the Style of the Week is Morpheus eXtreme by CyberAlien.

Sorry for the extended downtime. Somehow, something happened with my webhost where the admin login/pass got accidentally reset, and I had to try to get in touch with them to get the password to change it back! The site is back up now. I will be working to get phpBB Weekly #015 on the site ASAP.

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Download MP3 Episode (18 MB)

Episode Duration: 45:01
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples)

You do have permission to download this episode (pun intended). We’re still waiting for a new phpBB3 release, but team member Vic D’Elfant has joined the Development Team. Douglas gives a long tutorial on how to setup forums in phpBB3, and how to assign permissions for new forums to users on phpBB3 so that they can actually use those new forums! Included is a guide on how to navigate the new permissions system and also all the ways that it can be used to show as many (or as few) permissions as you need. Douglas also shows how you can now control how much (or how little) moderators can do on a board.

The MOD of the Week is Topic Description by Swizec, and the Style of the Week is phpBBXP2 by Vereor.

Next week we will continue talking about permissions, including how to set permissions for non-forum-related features on the board, and how to edit and configure your own permission roles beyond the default ones.

Correction: During the episode I recommended using the “On Moderation Queue” as the default role for Global Moderators. I was incorrect: Under the default settings, “On Moderation Queue” means that all posts that that user or group makes must be approved by a moderator before they appear on the board. Global Moderators should be assigned “Full Access” to the board, and control over whether or not they moderate that board is set under the Forum Moderators panel as I described. Thanks to Lastof for pointing this out!