Hi,

Since I am so new to GForum, I have relied on the manual as my point of reference and learning.

However, when it comes to Groups, the description is non existent. It tells you how to add a group, modify, delete...etc. But it really does not explain what a group is and how groups function. How do you determine who is in a group?

For example, I am going to have a poetry forum (moving into it from a well established site now). There are many categories of poetry - but there are some categories that I only want certain registered members to be a part of. So I would make them a part of a group?

Then it would seem that I would have to establish this in the creation of the forum itself. If the forum is called "Erotica," and I want it to be open only to certain members, do I have to define that in the forum (under subscribers?) and do I have to add them to a group?

Uhhhhhh.......... ack. My head is spinning . Any wise ones out there to set me straight?

~Sophia
~§ophia~

Howdy!

The most common use of groups is for restricting access to forums. I too use groups to establish 'private' forums like you mentioned. Here's how you do it.

Admin Control:

1. In the admin panel, add a new group and add members to that group as noted in the panel. 'Erotica' as the group name, and member01, member03, member27 as group members.

2. Add a new forum (or use an existing forum) and change the forum permission (at the bottom of the forum add/moddify page) and change ALL groups to NO ACCESS except the 'Erotica' group (set to Read/Write/Post Access) and there you go. Admin in the forum still have visiblity.

Member Control:

This is the same as above, but you can let a non-admin member of your designation (refered to as the Group Moderator) actually add & delete group members, reducing the need for a back-end admin to do each change. This functionality is the GroupMod plugin. That will create a new field in the Group table label Group Moderator. That GroupMod will then have a icon in EDIT PROFILE called Moderate Groups which allows them ot add/delete group members without access to the admin panel. Paul recently made an additional plugin called GroupMod List that sets up a page that lists all you groups so that users can 'request' access to a private group/forum.

Sorry for the length.

Dave

Dave...

Thanks a lot. I got the first part done for now. When I have more courage, I'll tackle part 2.

-Sophia

(Pst.. thanks for the length! )
~§ophia~

Thanks for the feedback. I've added more details to the manual regarding groups and how they can be configured.
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