KB 232

How do I moderate posts on my phpBB?

Article:229
Created:2003-05-27 16:59:23
Categories:
  phpBB - bulletin board

Question or Symptom

The phpBB bulletin board system is moderated in two ways, via the topic itself and also through a special web control panel appropriately named, the "Moderator CP" (or Mod CP for short).

Resolution

A bulletin board system is a collection of Forums, (topics of interest). These Forums can allow posting by anyone or can be moderated. A moderated forum has a person/group of people responsible for keeping the discussion on topic and civil.

Within your bulletin board you can have a single moderator for all Forums a group of moderators or different moderators for each Forum. The moderator may accept or reject a post, or edit it if required. A thread within a Forum is a series of posts that pertain to one topic. A moderator may more a thread from one Forum to another if it's in the incorrect Forum. Below are instructions for how to accomplish these tasks.

Administrators, have full access to the board and may add and remove moderators, they can also change any aspect of the board and moderate any forum. You do not have to be listed as a moderator, if you are an admin, (to moderate topics).

To moderate an individual topic make sure you are logged into an administrator account, or have moderator rights on the forum the topic resides in.

At the bottom left hand corner of the topic you will find a series of buttons that represent various moderative functions, in each reply you will also find an "X" button that can delete single replies. Moderators and administrators can also edit any post in the topic, by selecting the edit button of that post.

The large rounded "X" button located next to the other moderator links will delete the entire thread. Once the thread is deleted there is no way to recover it, so use this feature with caution.

To the right of the delete thread button, we also have a "move thread" tool. This tool will allow you to move a thread from one forum to another (i.e move "Cool Cars" to the Cars forum from the Books forum). If "Leave Shadow Topic" is checked, then a "redirect" will be placed in the old form. It will have the moved icon and will read, "Moved: Topic Name." When users click the topic it will redirect them to the real topic in its new forum. To continue moving the thread click Yes, and to abort click No.

Next to the move icon, we have a lock icon. When you click this option, the topic will become locked and non-administrators/moderators will no longer be able to add replies to the thread. After "locking" the lock icon is replaced with a lock icon with the shackle open, by clicking this option the topic can be unlocked; and normal users can resume posting. Administrators and moderators can still post in a "locked" topic, by clicking the "locked" button next to New Topic.

The final topic moderation option is, split topic. Split topic will provide you a screen that shows every reply with a checkbox by it. When you click the replies you want, choose a new topic title for the split thread, and a forum you would like the topic to be placed. When you're reading press the "Split selected posts." This will split the replies into a new topic. "Split from selected post" will remove the replies NOT selected and split them.

A final way to moderate forums is through the Mod CP or Moderator Control Panel. The Mod CP is a way to "mass moderate" topics, and will allow you to mass lock/unlock, move and delete topics. To access the Mod CP, go to the forum you wish to mass moderate, at the bottom right, there is a link that says "moderate this forum." Select this link to go to the CP. Once in the CP, you can select topics via their respective checkboxes and perform mod functions on them via the buttons below.

Related URLS

 http://www.phpbb.com/guide/phpBB_Users_Guide.html#section5