Useful Terms For This Message Board

Glossary

Administrator - Administrators or "Admin(s)" are the original creator and owner of a forum. They have absolute control over the forum.

Admin Panel - The area where all of the administrative functions can be found. Located in the forum top bar.

Announcement - This is a thread that is automatically placed at the top of the board (or multiple boards) that its on. The thread is immovable until the announcement is taken down.

Attachment - A uploaded file that displays along with a forum post.

Avatar - The image that represents a member on a forum. Avatars appear next to a users every post.

BBCode - The programming language of forum posts. BBCode tags are what give words bold, italics, underline, and many other "styles". BBCode also allows you to make links and generally beautify your text in a post.

Board - Boards (organized by categories) is how you keep different topics of discussion separate from one another.

Bookmarks - A system used to save threads of interest for later viewing.

Bump - An action that can be used on an older thread to temporarily bring it back up to the top of the topic listings in a board, without needing to make a post.

Bump - Posting in a thread to move the topic up to the top of a board.

Calendar Event - An event on the forum's calendar.

Category - Separators on the main page of the forum which divide the boards into a group.

Display Name - Display names can contain special characters and symbols. For this reason, people like having a display name so that they can use a space, or special character to make their name more interesting than their username.

Falling - When a thread has falling enabled, it won't be moved to the top of the thread list if it has a new reply.

Followers - Members who are following you. See "Following".

Following - Following a fellow member allows you to have a list of when they last posted, along with a link to the post. Following is a great way of "bookmarking" members who you like.

Forum - A forum is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.

Friends - Two members that follow each other on a forum are considered friends.

Global Moderator - Global Moderators are the next step up from Moderators. Normally, global moderators will have the moderator functions in all of the boards on the forum, plus, additional 'lower' admin options, such as 'fix a board', or ban member. By default, any global moderators you add will have no powers to use. This will mean that you will need to supply the global moderator group with the powers you want them to have.

Guest - Guests are forum visitors who do not have an account on the forum.

Header & Footer - A place for custom codes to be placed that affect the look or function of the forum.

Hot Thread - A discussion thread that is popular on the forum. A normal thread is turned into a hot thread after the set amount of replies have been made.

Locked - An action that can be used on threads to prevent further posting from members.

Member - Members are forum users who have a registered account on the forum.

Member Group - A way of categorizing and grouping members up. You can assign different powers (like the ability to delete other members posts) to a specific group.

Member Rank - Different ranks assigned to members based on the number of posts that the member has.

Moderator - Moderators are people who have control over a message forum. By default, any moderators you add will have no powers to use. This will mean that you will need to supply the moderator group with the powers you want them to have.

News Feed - The text scroller found toward the top of the main page of the forum, which generally cycles through different notable items.

Notification - A numbered bubble that appears in the menu bar of a forum, letting you know when something of not has taken place on the forum. A couple of examples would be when a bookmarked topic has been updated, or when you have been tagged in a post on the forum.

Plugins - A prepackaged code (either self-made or downloaded from the plugin library) that you can upload, and using the graphical interface, interact with to customize or perform an action on the forum.

Poll - A system that can be included in threads which allow members to vote on set options.

Post - The basis of the forum. A post is a comment, or reply, to a thread.

Post Count - The number of posts that an individual member has made on a forum.

Shoutbox - An integrated "box" or part of the forum where forum visitors and members can come to discuss anything in a live, instant messaging chat room.

Signature - Self-assigned text or images that are added to the bottom of every user post.

Skins - See "Theme".

Sticky - An action that can be used on topics to prevent them from falling down the threads list in a board, keeping the topic visible at the top of a topics listing.

Template - The raw CSS and HTML of the forum. The basic building language and form of the forum.

Theme - Themes are either self-made, or downloaded packages that contain information that gives the forum colors, and styles. Themes are what make the forum look unique. Themes can be made by using any of the built-in theme creators, or downloaded from the theme library.

Thread - Threads are how you break discussion up on the forum into various topics. A thread can be about anything. Threads are also known as "Topics".

Topic - See "Thread".

Username - The name that you log in to the forum with. Cannot contain spaces, special characters, or symbols.