Permission Profiles

SMF enables you to have separate permissions for each board, so that different membergroups can do different things on different boards. For example, this can be useful if you want users to be allowed to reply to posts, but not to create new topics in a certain board.

First you need to enable local permissions, by going to Admin > Permissions > Settings and selecting Enable advanced by-board permissions.

You can set the board to use local permissions under the Permissions by board tab. Click on the board name to add or change the permissions for each group. These permissions will only apply to this one particular board. For each board that requires custom permissions, you need to set them manually and apply them to each board.

SMF 2.0 uses a system of permission profiles which can be created and edited at Admin > Permissions > Edit Profiles. You can then assign a permission profile to a board when you edit the board. You can use a permission profile on multiple boards.

There are some pre-defined profiles available, which you can see in SMF 1.0 when you edit the boards permissions in the drop down "Apply Pre-Defined Permission Profile". In SMF 2.0, they are shown when you go to Admin > Permissions > Edit Profiles. You can not change these pre-defined permissions, though, as they are the default profiles. These pre-defined profiles do not include permissions for any mods that you may have installed, so you should verify that the mod permissions are correct. It may be easier to create a custom profile, instead of using a pre-defined one, because you can be more certain as to what permissions are given to your members.

One permission profile which administrators often like to create is one which limits which boards new members can post in until they reach a certain post count. The following steps give an example of how to create such a permission profile:

• A board needs to be created or an existing one can be used.

• Remove all posting and reply permissions from the "Regular members" group.

• Enable permissions for post count based groups, following the directions here

• Set up at least two post-count based groups, one for members with zero posts and another for members with more then one post.

• In the post-count based group for members with more then one post, assign permissions to this group to allow posting and replies. But, do not allow posting and replies in the zero post-count group

• Now is the time to create a permission profile for the board for which you want to restrict the users. Take a look at this for instructions on how to create the profile. In this profile be sure to allow the 0 post count group to be able to post and/or reply. If using SMF v2.*, remember to assign the profile to the proper board by editing the board.

After you have completed these steps, you will have set things up so that those in a post-count based group with more than one post can create new topics and reply to topics in all boards, but those that do not have one or more posts will not be able to post in any other board than the one with the profile assigned to it. It will be necessary to give posting permissions to the other post count based groups if more then two groups exist.