Luigi Auriemma

I'm in doubt about some features of the forum to enable or disable:

1) guest access to profiles: at the moment any non-logged user can see info like the list of members and the instant messaging details (like the MSN or ICQ nickname), so disabling this option will keep these details visibile only to logged users

2) quick reply: a box at bottom of the page where placing your reply to a post, instead of using only the Post Reply button

3) a section open to any non-logged user, something like a guestbook.
the only problem here is the spamming but I could test it for some days or weeks.
I like the idea of having a zone where no logging is needed

Let me know what you think about enabling or disabling these options
Oh and let me know also if you have other suggestions

I think all those are very good ideas. As for the 3rd idea (guest area), you could probably add a captcha image to prevent spammers. It's not the most effective way since spammers will still just type in the word and post their spam... but it would cut back on at least 'some' spam.

I had forums in the past that ran phpbb2, and I was always getting spammed. I had so many modifications to prevent them too. But now I run phpbbv3 (RC5) and I get no spammers.. since there are many improvements. However it's still in RC5 so there's not a stable release yet.

But a good tip is to hide the memberlist and member profiles to guests.

Ok, I have disabled the "visible to anyone" memberlist and have opened the new free registration section with auto-pruning set to 7 days so any spam topic will be automatically removed in a week.
I activated also the quick reply option but it's not very useful so I have removed it

I have disabled the need of being registered for posting and replying in all the sections, I will test this setup for some days to see how it goes.
If goes bad I will disable the anonymous posting, and if this goes bad too I will resume the previous "registerd only" configuration.

I think that :
1 - disabled
2 - enabled - its a really good thing ...
3 - ..just one topic should be open for guests, usually if u open whole forum for guests then ppl start messing around.

Yea I'm already seeing bots spamming their links in threads. I would keep 1 section open for guests (like a section just for guests to post in), and then keep the rest of the forums read only for them.

I advance to the plane B described before

I'm moving some threads in the right sections so if you have problems to find an old thread don't worry, use the search function or just try in the section of the tool or the argument discussed in the old threads.

enabled remote avatars

nice :)

yup, kind a missed my avatar here :)

add the quick reply box :)
i use that on all the forums, u can still use that or just use a regular post

add signatures too :P... i like having my little images there... of course if i actually wanted a signature at the bottom of each of my posts i could just copy and paste the stuff i put in o_o

just like this:



________________________________

added quick reply, but the signatures will be never enabled because I hate them 8-)

yay for quick reply box (using right now!)


________________________________


why do u hate signatures?
(lol)

I hate signatures because the 99% of the times they contain stupid things or words of a stupid song so they are completely useless and take visual space on the forums.

well if ppl would be NORMAL then sigs r cool, but they aint...so ..
they always put some BIG pics or long text .. etc.
if sig would be simple text (1-2 lines) or just a simple nice pic it would be quite ok.
Luigi is right about space...it takes a lot of visual space if it's a pic.
lol Luigi and about stupid things ... 99% of ppl trying to be some dark pagans...so they use some dark names like ..dark lord, devil, demon hunter, killer...etc and also add some ''dark'' sig...which suppouse to scare ppl.
well my avatar is upside down Pentagram too, but at least i made it myself (didnt copy from some movie, game..) and i know exactly what it means...there's a reason y i use this.


i use this as sig usually. have to make it smaller...its too high

lol, then ill make a sig with my name Rainbow on it :P
eh? ur sig looks like the matrix's code but purple

I have made the periodical "cleaning" of the posts on the forum moving those located in wrong sections (for example discussions about multircon in Password Recover) in the correct ones.

don't worry if you see the style/layout of the forum which changes a lot, I'm finding a good style similar to the old one

blah, I preferred the old version... anyway for the moment I have found an acceptable mix of styles.
I will work on a better solution tomorrow

There should be a built in style called subsilver2 in the phpbb3 package that you can force as the default, and that is similar to the old style. It can be found in the official phpbb3 download in the following folder: ...\phpBB3\styles\subsilver2\

On a phpbb3 forum that I administrate, it came with 2 styles: the default (new look), and the classic subsilver2. I force the default style on my board, but allow users to choose the classic subsilver2 (in their global board preferences) if they wish to use that instead. I notice you don't allow users to change styles, but it may be pre-packaged in there as it was in mine.

If you can't find it, you can always get it from the official download. It may be what you want.

the problem of subsilver is the alternated color of the posts
then I don't understand why the final vision of the forum is different (bigger fonts and buttons) than the one showed for example here:

http://demo.phpbb3styles.net/fisubsilver2

my latest choices are between:
- macinscott3 (I hate Mac but this style is not so bad)
- GlossyIIBlue (it's a bit too much white but is good)
- MilkyWay (nice colors, the only problem is that it has a fixed width)

for the moment macinscott3 with the buttons of avalon blue and without the Mac banner is really very nice

Forums seem a lot faster now.

the only thing that I don't like of the current style is the background color (yes Sethioz I know that you love it ih ih ih) and the name of the forum showed in the main page (that additional blue line with "aluigi.org" in it), the second one can be solved choosing another template but I doubt to be so lucky finding a better one