Forum Functions

Edit Categories

From this menu you are able to edit "Categories". Categories are the upper-level topics for a forum. For example, if you had a wide-ranging site that offered information on "Sports", Cars" and "Music", these would be the top-level Categories you'd create. Under each of these categories you'd likely want to create hierarchal "sub-categories," or "Boards" for topics within each. Here's a small example:

• Sports - A "category"
  • Baseball - A board under the category of "Sports"
  • Football  - A board under the category of "Sports"

Categories allow you to break down the board into broad topics ("Cars, Sports"), and the "Boards" under them are the actual topics under which members can post. In the above example, a user interested in Pinto's would post a message under "Cars->Pinto". Categories allow people to quickly find what their interests are: Instead of a "Store" you have "Hardware" and "Clothing" stores you can go to. This simplifies your search for "joint compound" because you can go to the Hardware Store "category" instead of the Clothing Store (where you're unlikely to find pipe joint compound).

Edit Boards

In this menu you can create, reorder, or remove the boards under the categories discussed above. It's a simple hierarchy, with this structure:

• Category
  • Board1
  • Board2
  • ... etc ...

As noted above, a Board is a key topic underneath a broad category. If you want to discuss "Pintos" you'd go to the "Auto" category and jump into the "Pinto" board to post your thoughts in that board.
Administrative functions for this menu item are to create new boards under each category, to reorder them (put "Pinto" under "Chevy"), or to delete the board entirely.

Modifying The Template

This brings up a simple editor for the HTML of your template code. The "template" (in your "cgi-bin/yabb" directory, as you set it up), defines the look-and-feel for your pages. It is an HTML-only file. You can modify the template here, or use some other HTML editing software to edit template.html to put the look and feel of your site on your forum!

Modify Your YaBB Settings and Colors

This is one of the more "exciting" menu options. In here you are able to set the following parameters:

• Maintenance Mode?
  • Check the box to disable the boards while you change/update your BB. Users will be rejected while in maintenance mode.
• Your Language pack name
  • English is default, select the other available languages you want to support
• Message Board Name
  • Set this box to whatever you want to name your board.
• Board URL
  • Set this to the URL for the BB. Ex: http://www.myboard.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl
• Default Length for login cookies to last (in minutes & > 5)
  • Set this for a default time for cookies to last, in minutes (e.g., 360=6 hrs)
• Cookie Name - Username
  • Default: "YaBBusername" This is simply the name of the cookie that will be stored on user's pc when they log in (and contains their username).
• Cookie Name - Password
  • Default: "YaBBpassword" This is simply the name of the cookie that will be stored on user's pc when they log in (and contains their password).
• Location of Sendmail Program
  • Directory of host "sendmail" program. Default is: /usr/sbin/sendmail
• SMTP-Server
  • The name of your SMTP server (email send server). Only valid if the following is set to use SMTP.
• Send Mails using: sendmail | SMTP
  • Set to "sendmail" if your host uses sendmail, or use SMTP if your host uses this protocol.
• Webmaster Email Address
  • Email address for the webmaster of the BB.
• Minimum time between two postings from the same IP
  • The time in seconds to delay repeated postings from one user/IP address.
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• YaBB Directory
  • Default is "." This could also be the absolute server path to your YaBB folder (such as /usr/home/account/cgi-bin/yabb).
• Data Directory
  • Default is "./Messages". Contains messages sent from members in your YaBB board. Relative to YaBB default directory above.
• Members Directory
  • Default is "./Members". Contains the members for your YaBB board. Relative to YaBB default directory above.
• Boards Directory
  • Default is "./Members". Contains the boards created for YaBB. Relative to YaBB default directory above.
• Sources Directory
  • Default is "./Sources". Contains the source files for YaBB. Relative to YaBB default directory above.
• Variables Directory
  • Default is "./Members". Contains all updates to the structure of YaBB (new members, new boards). Relative to YaBB default directory above.
• Avatars URL
  • Default is: http://www.mysite.com/yabbimages/avatars. Set this to the URL you chose to place your avatar images. (I.e., replace "mysite.com" with your host name).
• Avatars Directory
  • This is an "absolute" or "relative". It is not a URL. Set it relative to your host directory (e.g., home/yabbimages/avatars)
• Images Directory
  • http://www.mysite.com/yabbimages. Again, set this to the directory you chose to set up "yabbimages", relative to your URL.
• Help File
  • The URL location of the help file. Default is: http://www.mysite.com/yabbhelp/index.html. Set this to the correct URL for your installation.
• ----- Note these colors are also reflected in the CSS tag of template.html (so change them to the SAME colors) -----
• Title BG Color
  • The background color of the title text. This color is used mostly on table header text.
• Title Text Color
  • The color of the title text.
• Window BG Color
  • The background color of one of the two alternating "panels" in yabb. A usage example is when yo view messages, they are colored row by row. This is the first "row" or message. It is used throughout YaBB.
• Window BG Color #2
  • The background color of the second "row".
• Category BG Color
  • The background color of category table rows on the Board Index and used in a few other places.
• Table Border Color
  • This color is actually used as a table "background" color, but the way the tables are rendered, this makes border lines between table rows and columns be this color.
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• Use text menu instead of images?
  • This option replaces graphics for certain menu items with text. E.g., the "Logoff" graphic is replaced by the more simple "Logoff" text string.
• Please choose your Timeformat-Settings
  • Set your preferred time-format settings
• Time Offset
  • This is the number of hours to add/subtract to make the time display in your local time. For example, if it is 8:52pm on your server (look at the displayed time on your board) and it is 7:52pm where you live, then set this number to -1. This will be for guests mainly, because users also have the option to set their own time offset.
• # of Top Posters
  • Set this to allow users to display the "Top 'n'" users, the number of users who have most posted to this forum.
• Members Per Page in Member List-All
  • Set this to the maximum number of member names to display in each page.
• Maximum Topics to Display
  • Set this to display the maximum numer of "Topics" for each page.
• Maximum Messages to Display
  • Set this to display the maximum number of private messages to display
• Remove entries from user logs after XX days
  • The user logs are files named username.log (where username is the name of one of your members). Each member has one of these files; it keeps track of what boards and messages they have visited and when. This is how *new* is determined for each user. Setting this number will clear their log after that many days, so that all posts and boards will show new for them (if they haven't visited that board/post for however many days you have set).
• Maximum Allowed Characters in a Posts (required <= 5000)
  • Set a limit on the size of a users post, in "characters".
• Insert Original Message in Replies?
  • When a user replies to a thread, provide the option to include the original posters text for reference.
• Enable Bulletin Board Code?
  • This is rarely ever turned off.... Setting this option to 0 will disable rendering YaBBC tags (such as [b] which creates bold.. etc.). It will affect ALL of YaBB, including Recent Posts, Search, Messages.. etc. All it does is leave the tags as text and not turn them into the code (if you turn this option OFF).
• Enable Normal News?
  • If you wish to display news on your board via the "news fader" or the <yabb news> tag (in the template), this option must be turned on!
• Enable Guest Posting?
  • Allow people who have not registered with the board to post comments.
• Allow Email Notification?
  • If this option is turned on, it will allow users to choose if they wish to be notified by email when a message has been replied to.
• Show Latest Member on Board Index?
  • Display the newest member to register on the Board Index.
• Show Recent Posts Bar on BoardIndex?
  • Show the most recentmember posts on the Board Index page
• Show Members List Bar on BoardIndex?
  • Show a link to display the Members of the board
• Show Modification Date on Modified Posts?
  • When users modify their posts, provide the option to display their modification time and date.
• Show User Pics in Message View?
  • Option to display members' profile pictures in the posts.
• Show User Text in Message View?
  • Option to display members' personal text in the posts.
• Show Gender Image in Message View?
  • Option to display the gender (male/female) image in the posts.
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• Show News Fader on Board Index?
  • When users first logon, show the sequenced "news" items. See the Admin functions for explanations on "news" items.
• News Fader Title Color
  • This is the News Fader Title color for the News Fader (if you have it turned on).
• News Fader News Color
  • This is the News color for the News Fader (if you have it turned on).
• Path to News Fader file (fader.js)
  • Default is
• URL to UBBC JavaScript file
  • Path to UBBC file (ubbc.js)
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• Userpic Width (0 = disable limit)
  • This sets a limit to the width of a user-supplied image. It is generally a good idea to ensure that user pictures are not overly large.
• Userpic Height (0 = disable limit)
  • This sets a limit to the height of a user-supplied image. It is generally a good idea to ensure that user pictures are not overly large.
• Text To Describe The Limits
  • Describe to your users what the limits are to their personal pics. e.g. Please use only gif images, your images will be resized.
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• Use File-Locking?
  • Whether to use it and what type of file-locking to use. This locks files while they are being written to (for safety). The options are:
    • No File-Locking - Use for systems that don't provide a file-locking mechanism.
    • Unix/Linux File-Locking - Use for this OS.
    • Windows File-Locking - Use for this OS.
• Lock EX:
• For advanced users. We suggest you leave this alone.
• Lock UN:
• For advanced users. We suggest you leave this alone.