[michael3185]

… and the folder the forum is in, come to that. (Mind you, an error there would perhaps stop anyone seeing anything at all..?)

[michael3185]

Looks like a missing or damaged stylesheet to me. Did you upload the entire theme folder into a folder called my-templates in bbPress? (ie., my-forum-path/my-templates). Also, where did you get the theme from? I tried this one too, but had a manky version from somewhere. I think the working one was from http://bbshowcase.org/forums/view/available-themes

[michael3185]

Yep, I’m only using my-views-started-participated-topics.php, and that’s version 0.1.2 I’ve been trying to break Private Forums, and am happy with its easy admin interface, so will go with that for now I think. I’ll remember to keep an eye on it any time I change anything in admin though.

[michael3185]

Yep, know what you mean. Do install Human Test too – the simple math question stops bots, which can’t answer.

[michael3185]

I’ve tried messing around in Admin in all sorts of ways, and cannot get Private Forums to reset again now. However, in case it might in future, I’ve installed Hidden Forums to test that. I got the impression it hid the forums from guests completely, but I may be wrong as it has a forum label (which I’ve changed to an asterix to keep things subtle). It fails though. I have the following set up in the php file;

$hidden_forums=array(2,3,4,5,7); // hide these forums, list by comma seperated number

$hidden_forums=array(‘keymaster’,’administrator’);

$hidden_forums[2]=array(‘administrator’,’moderator’, ‘member’);

$hidden_forums[3]=array(‘administrator’,’moderator’, ‘member’);

$hidden_forums[4]=array(‘administrator’,’moderator’, ‘member’);

$hidden_forums[5]=array(‘administrator’,’moderator’, ‘member’);

$hidden_forums[7]=array(‘administrator’,’moderator’, ‘member’);

$hidden_forums=”*”;

But on accessing the front page I get;

Warning: in_array() [function.in-array]: Wrong datatype for second argument in /home/letsdoo/public_html/MB/my-plugins/hidden-forums/hidden-forums.php on line 37

Have I misunderstood the instructions..?

[edit]

I disabled it, and re-enabled Private Forums, and the latter came back with all settings intact and works fine. Hmm…

[michael3185]

I’ve been interested in this myself, and have asked a few questions regarding spammers. One mostly private forum I’ve built will remain very small, perhaps 40 to 50 members max. Another, though, might grow quite large (though not in the thousands, I think). I’ve got the approve-user-registration plugin active on both, and caught one hand-spammer (sic!) with it, and just denied him.

I’m going to leave it active on the larger one too, and perhaps modify the register page so that ‘Website:’ becomes ‘Reason to apply’ (or similar). Then check for anything like a URL in any of the fields (even I can do that), and disallow if one is found. Saves me having to look at a stack waiting for approval. All I’ll need to do is read through those waiting, approve any that look fine, or email them to ask for validation of some kind if not. That’s my theory, anyway.

[michael3185]

I’ve turned Bad Behaviour off today, so that may explain why IE6 was ok..?

The plugins I have enabled now are (just in admin order);

Enhanced Registration

Moderation Suite

Auto Add Favorites

Terms of Service

Related Topics

bbPM

Tweaks (incl. _ck_’s IE8 fix)

Approve User Registration

Admin add user

Private Forums

Avatar Upload

Human Test for bbPress

Web Compression gzip

My Views module – Started/Participated Topics

Year Long Cookies

Post Notification

bb-chunk

Moderation Notify

I did have Akismet, Skip Akismet for admins, and Bad Behaviour too, but have now removed these. Interestingly enough, Private Forums now works perfectly, even when I disable and re-enable other plugins or change their settings.

These plugins give me the essential functionality I need (apart from user roles which would be neat) so I think I’ll go with Human Test and watch for spam. If things do get silly spam-wise then I’ll have to invest some more time in stopping it, but for now I have a lot of other things to do to get it all up and running. Many thanks for checking it for me.

[michael3185]

Thanks, though I did try Hidden Forums on my 0.9.0.4 bbPress. It didn’t work as expected, hiding the first forum when it shouldn’t have done. I’ll give it another look though, as Private Forums is going to have me demented within a week.

[edit]

From my other topic on Bad Behaviour just now: I did have Akismet, Skip Akismet for admins, and Bad Behaviour too, but have now removed these. Interestingly enough, Private Forums now works perfectly, even when I disable and re-enable other plugins or change their settings.

Private Forums looks and works exactly as my inexperienced forum users expect. A consistent interface is far less worrying to technophobes than various displays appearing when triggered by different plugins. Private forums are just marked with an asterix, and all not-logged-in ‘errors’ now go to the same page, which looks identical to the rest of the theme, asking the user to register/log-in.

You can see what I mean at http://letsdoo.org Select a private forum to see the display. Then go back, view the Important Information forum, view a topic, then select ‘Key Master’ (for profile) or ‘PM this user’; same display. (This is a more open forum than the other, but I set a few forums as private to keep community bods happy).

[michael3185]

I like the idea of roles, but am using the latest stable release 0.9.0.4 Nobody’s said here which version this attempt at role creation is for..?

[michael3185]

I’ve just created a basic page for my theme and modified plugins at http://getfiles.letsdoo.org

The posts here can be merged/deleted to neaten up as any admin prefers. Thanks.

[michael3185]

The URL (for one that’s not active yet) is http://letsdoo.org I’ve just switch Bad Behaviour back on, and IE7 is just sitting there ticking away. Chrome still loads it fine though. I haven’t had anything like this before, and am on Vista Home Premium with the default firewall active.

[michael3185]

Thank _ck_. It does look, erm, somewhat non-minimalist with all the extra stuff going on though!

I guess I should make a web page for the theme and plugins I’ve modified to suit, post the URL here, then ask an admin to remove the previous posts. Off to play…

[michael3185]

Thanks _ck_. This thread can be dumped unless you think it’s of use to others.

[michael3185]

Not sure I grasp all that, but I’ll have a shot at it and see where it goes, so thanks for the advice. Hacking around in the files is as good a start as any. Not sure what you mean by ‘do a global’ though… (Never done any php programming, and am new to bbPress too).

A related question (for anyone); is there any simple documentation for how to hook things into bbPress via plugins, etc., that is, the correct way?

[michael3185]

Ouch. I’m pretty savvy at some computer stuff, but not php or css. I’ve been working on two forums for community groups, one of which may grow quite large if it works out as hoped. So, I tested just about every forum package out there. I settled on Vanilla, but had problems with plugins crashing it, and having to hack around for days to try and get something working. Their support is good from a few community members, but there isn’t enough and it often isn’t timely.

I’ve settled with bbPress because I found it very simple to install and set up. My problems were minor, forum members have helped me very quickly indeed, and in a non-geeky manner. I’ve read lots of other posts where people have had WP integration issues, and the help given has been quite extensive. One other thing that I like is the fact that they use it with 100,000 members and 500,000 posts, and it’s still zippy. Also, modifying themes isn’t so bad if you delve into just a few files and play around. I love simplicity as well as my user group, so I created a vanilla clone(ish), which you can get at https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/new-minimalist-theme-available. (Check the posts at the bottom).

If you have some spare time and a nice cup of tea/coffee, click ‘integration’ in the front page tag list and have a good read. I don’t use WP, but I get the impression that many haven’t found it too difficult with a little assistance. There’s an integration plugin too. PS. Read some of your blog; just a body? Nooo…

[michael3185]

Now even better – inspired by Vanilla 2. (Is there not somewhere to upload themes, as with plugins?)

[michael3185]

Thanks for that. I’ve had a look, and will get my head around it after some content work. (And you know, I do wonder why a corporation as large and ridiculously wealthy as MS can’t – or deliberately won’t – fix their own browser…)

[michael3185]

1. Fixed. Finally got to tags.php (duh) after trawling through core files. Moral: don’t work past 2am.

2. Not resolved. I’ve searched through CSS tutorials on various sites, but can’t find an easy test for the browser type without using php or javascript. Is there a way to set a font size in CSS at, say, 10pt for IE, and 11pt for any other browser?

Also – for moderators – I’m not bumping deliberately. I’ve noticed others editing posts now and then, as I have, to say they don’t require help any longer. Can’t the allowed edit time be changed to 24 hours or something like that? Maybe even let members delete their post if it has no replies? It’d keep things tidier.

[Edit]

For the font size issue, could a different stylesheet be selected by browser type, based on something like the code _ck_ gave to stop IE8 messing up the header?

function fix_ie8() {if (strpos($_SERVER,”MSIE 8″)) {header(“X-UA-Compatible: IE=7”);}}

add_action(‘bb_send_headers’,’fix_ie8′);

I can see how this works, but don’t know how to modify it to discover any IE browser version, and select style_ie.css, else select style.css – any ideas folks..?

[michael3185]

Ahem. Spoke too soon. I tested my forum in Firefox and IE7 after working in Chrome, my default browser. I got an error page in IE7 from Bad Behaviour;

Error 403

We’re sorry, but we could not fulfill your request for / on this server.

You do not have permission to access this server.

Your technical support key is: (blah blah).

You can use this key to fix this problem yourself.

If you are unable to fix the problem yourself, please contact badbots at ioerror.us and be sure to provide the technical support key shown above.

On the ‘fix it yourself’ page there are no useful details of how to, and the email I sent got returned as failed.

Any ideas?

[michael3185]

Thanks Ipstenu. Just installed it as you instructed, got no errors. I now have Akismet (with Skip Akismet for admins), Human Test, and Bad Behaviour. Hopefully I’ll see a spam once in a blue moon.

[michael3185]

Just updated the theme. Also added a couple of plugins with modified formatting to give a consistent interface on ‘errors’ (eg., user not logged in and can’t access functions like PM).

http://getfiles.letsdoo.org/bbVanilla.zip

http://getfiles.letsdoo.org/bbPM_for_bbVanilla.zip

http://getfiles.letsdoo.org/private-forums_for_bbVanilla.zip

[michael3185]

Just found this. Did MS management and development all graduate from special schools? (And in case someone’s overly pc and takes offence, I’ve worked in many special schools, and have always been delighted at pupils’ achievements).

[michael3185]

In case it helps, when I connect to my server with an FTP program, there are a stack of folders on there. The one I have to put my forum (and other website pages) in is named ‘public_html’. Of course, I can create a folder within that, and transfer bbPress into it, as cldnails says.

I think the public folder on a server I used a couple of years ago was ‘_html’, not ‘public_html’. You just need to be sure you’re uploading to the right place, or you may not be able to run the installer from your browser.

[michael3185]

If anyone’s using this, I’ve just added a modified version of bbPM (non-tabular) to the zip file.

[michael3185]

Sorry for the double post, but I can’t edit the original now, which sounds a bit apologetic on re-reading. Actually, the theme is pretty good!