Setting Global Forum Features

Use

Global settings affect the entire forums installation. You need to check these settings before you create categories and forums, but changes to global settings might also be necessary when the system is in use. Some of these settings can also be defined at category or forum level.

Procedure

During maintenance times, set the forums system to maintenance mode.

More information: Setting the System to Maintenance Mode

Defining Global Permissions

If planned in the overall permission concept, set the global administrative and content permissions for the entire forums application.

More information: Permission Concept for Forums , Managing Access to Forum Content

Defining Global Policies

• Decide whether the system should track messages to tell users which messages they have already read and which new messages are available.

  More information: Setting the Global Read Tracking Policy

• Define whether or not users are permitted to change the content of messages they have posted to a forum.

  More information: Setting the Posted Message Editing Policy

• Provide the permissions required by users to attach files to their messages.

  More information: Defining the Message Attachment Policy

Defining Global Content-Related Settings

• To control the way the system accepts, modifies, or rejects incoming messages, define the relevant global filters and interceptors. To do this, acquaint yourself with the ways of defining filters at different levels.

  More information: Reformatting Messages , Intercepting Messages

• Allow private messages between users.

  More information: Enabling Private Messages

• Restrict the number of useful answers for each thread (question) and decide whether the system should create new threads/questions by default.

  More information: Setting the Question Feature

• Set up specific e-mail addresses to be notified if a question has gone unanswered in the forums for a given period of time.

  More information: Setting Email Alerts

• Create and mange polls to enable voting for forums users.

  More information: Managing Voting Polls

• Enable and manage ratings to allow forum users to rate messages.

  More information: Managing Ratings

• Configure access to Knowledge Management (KM) to enable browsing in KM repositories and inserting links to KM recourses in forum messages.

  More information: Managing the KM Settings

• Choose the main dictionary and maintain the custom dictionary for spell-checking.

  More information: Setting Spell-Check Dictionaries

• Enable virus scanning in your forums system and configure the settings.

  More information: Enabling and Configuring Virus Scanning

• Allow users to watch categories, forums, or threads, and to receive notifications by e-mail if changes occur.

  More information: Setting Global Watch Options

• Enable users to search throughout the forums application for specific content.

  More information: Enabling and Setting Global Search for Forum Content

• Configure the system to periodically archive inactive content.

  More information: Enabling Content Archiving

• Set a sticky thread.

  More information: Setting a Sticky Thread

• Manage the image settings.

  More information: Managing Image Settings in the Forums

• Enable the insertion of YouTube videos.

  More information: Enabling the Insertion of YouTube Videos in the Forums

• Enable breadcrumbs navigation.

  More information: Enabling Breadcrumbs Navigation in the Forums

• Enable the use of avatars.

  More information: Enabling and Managing Avatars in the Forums

• Create or change emoticons in the wiki application.

  More information: Managing Emoticons in the Forums

Defining Communication with External Applications

To synchronize forums with data from external e-mail or newsgroup sources, define the relevant gateways:

More information: Defining Gateways for Forums Synchronization with E-Mail Sources