Member Settings
The Forum ☛ Options ☛ Member Settings administration panel is where you can configure how the Forum handles Members (registered Users). You can choose whether or not to show a Members List on your Forum and control the visibility settings. You can also set whether or not a Member must be logged in to Post. Often a Member may visit, not be logged in and then leave a post as a Guest. By enabling this option, when a Member logs in, a cookie is created such that on subsequent visits, if they are not logged in, they are requested to log back in before they post. If you have multiple Members using the same machine, this may get confusing and you may be better off with it disabled.
Member Profiles
Display Membership Lists
Allows you to disable the Members List functionality of the forum.
Limit Membership Lists
If checked this option will limit the membership list display for a member to only display user groups and its members that the members is actually a member of. If the option is not set, a member will be able to see member lists and profiles for ALL members of the forum. Guests will never be able to see any membership list.
Disallow Members Not Logged In To Post As Guests
If a returning member (identified by their cookie) does not log in you can allow them to post as a Guest. Turning on this option stops them from making posts and presents them with the login button instead.
Allow Member to Hide their Online Status
Allows a member to keep their online status hidden from other members, if enabled they can set this option in the Profile View
Time Zone
Set the default time zone for new member registrations. This would normally be left at zero but you can assign a default that is +/- hours fromn your server. The new member will be able to change this setting in their profile record.
Guest Settings
Using the settings here, you can optionally require a guest to enter an email address before they can post. Also, you can choose whether to store a cookie containing the guest information when they post so it is auto filled the next time they visit your forum.
Inactive Members Account Auto Removal
Options are available here to automatically remove member accounts. It can be configured to remove members who have been inactive(ie. not visitied) or who haven’t posted with the time period specified.
User Memberships
Every user (except SPF Admins) has to be a member of a User Group or they will have no access to any of the forums. Some User Groups are pre-defined, but you can create others. These settings control the default User Group behaviour.
The two required settings in this section are the default user group for members and the default user group for guests. The user group for guests will control the permissions that guests visiting your forum will receive based on that user group. The user group for members is the default user group that all new users to your wp site will gain membership in when their user account is created. If these two user groups are invalid or in error, you will receive a warning message to that effect on every SPF admin page load.
Optionally, you may also have user group membership controlled by the WP role that users are designated as. When a user is created or their WP role is later modified, their current user group membership will be assigned based up on the dropdown select boxes for each currently defined WP Role. This is compatible with the Role Manager plugin and other user plugins that properly update users profiles.
If auto user group assignment via the WP roles (or forum ranks in the components section) is used, care needs to be taken. By default, the new user group membership will simply be added to any current user group memberships that the user has. With the Users are Limited to Single User Group Membershp option you can force any previous user group memberships to be removed when the new user group assignment is made. Users will only be allowed to have membership in the most recent user group specified, whether via auto assignment or manual assignment in the manage user groups admin panel. If you do not want to select this option, new user group memberships will be added to the current user group memberships and any adjustments will have to be made manually.
Auto Subscription
Using this option, you can make the default value for the user’s auto subscribe option when posting to topics be true. Selecting this option will only affect new users when their user account is created.
