[Edward]

Introduction:
This article is about InvisionFree, what to do and how to setup a invisionfree board. Don't know where to find the host InvisionFree? Please click http://www.invisionfree.com. This article is for people who are totally new to invisionfree.

Starting:
What you do first is create a board on the invisionfree main site. This is very quick and of course free. I recommend getting invisionfree if you're the person who would like to save some money for other features for your site such as domain name, competitions etc. Once your board has been created, click the Admin CP. This is found under the google ad to the left. Only the administrators and people who the administrators permit to see/use the Admin CP can see or/and use it.

Getting Used:
You will quickly get the know how the Admin CP for InvisionFree works. It is actually quite simple and provides your board with great features. Now then, let us get started creating a board. We have to get the board up and going before any advertising at all, so you should not advertising the board or at all show it to the world before you are done with everything. Now then instead of trying to spend a week figuring out the Admin CP, I will be telling you here the basics of creating a community with InvisionFree.

Boards & Categories:
Now, as you might know, the purpose of a board is to share your opinions with other people, so you need a category. In this case I'll just use Video Games as an example. We are going to create some boards and categories for people to share their opinions about video games with each other. Login to the Admin CP. Once you have done it, you'll have a "large" menu at the left.

You should see Forum Control. Under it, there are some links, click the New Category link (Another simple way is to scroll down to the buttom of the main page and you should find some quick links there). Once you have clicked New Category do this:

Category Name: Add a name of the category. For now I'll just take "Video Games".
Category State: Leave on visible, do not edit.

Then click Create this category, you're all done. You may create as many categories as you want. Note that categories with no boards in are not visible.

Now, we need some boards for the category, so let us find the Forum Control again and under it click New Forum (This you may also find if you scroll down the main page).

It might seem like a lot to do, but actually it takes less then 1 minute to do it. Now I'll be explaining everything here and also note everything in red that you need to do, rest is your choice.

Add to which parent? Select the category you want to place the board in. In this case as an example, I'll put it in the Video Games category I "Created" before.

Forum State: Do not edit it. This will tell you if this board is just a "read archieve" or an active board.

Forum Name: Here you put the name of your board. I'll as an example call the forum for "Game Discussion".

Forum Description: Describe your board. In this case I'll describe it as:

"Talk about Video games here and exchange tips & tricks aswell."

If to make letters bold, italic etc, you must use HTML not the standard forum edit thing (Eg, [ b ] )


Allow new topics and posts in this forum? Do not edit this. If you check yes, no discussions may apply in the forum, so keep it to no.

URL to redirect this forum to: Do not edit this. If you would like to re-direct a board to a certain page, you add a link here.

Target to redirect to? If you want to re-direct it, choose here if the link will open in a new window or the same window as your board is in.

Switch on the URL redirect? If you at all want to re-direc this board, you need to check yes. If you want to keep it normal, do not check yes.

Redirect clicks to date: When displaying a re-directed board, a number of how many has been re-directed will be displayed. It always starts at 0, but if you want to edit that number you may do it here and now. It may be any number from 1 to a billion.

Allow use of the [doHTML] tag? This will allow HTML to be posted and executed.

Allow IBF CODE to be posted? Keep this on yes, do not edit it. When posting you are allowed to post codes, if you check no, you will not be able to do so on your boards.

Turn on the Quick Reply Box? I strongly suggest you check yes for this. This will allow you and your members to skip a loading page in order to reply to a thread.

Allow Polls in this forum (when allowed)? If you do not want your members to post polls and only threads/topics check no on this. However I suggest you do not do it exept in special circumstances.

Allow votes to bump a topic? If someone has created a topic and you reply to it, it will "bump". Bumping is when members post, it puts the thread to the top of the first page, drawing all the attention. If you would not bumping when people vote check no.

Posts in this forum increase member's cumulative post count? When members post, they increase their post count. If you would like to disable the post amount they have to increase in that specific board, check no.

Moderate Postings: This requires a moderator in order to do so. I suggest you do not do it. However if you would like a moderator to moderate all new topics and replies, then edit this.

Require password access? If you want your members to post a password in order to at all enter the forum, type the password here.

Default date cut off for topic display: If you do not edit this, the topics after 30 days with no activity (posting) will suddenly disappear. Of course you may find them again, but they will not be visible unless you click many buttons I suggest putting this on Show all.

Default sort key: This sorts out the topics after what you want.

Default sort order:This sorts out the topics after what you want.

Now to something important. The permission masks. This allows you to choose who may post, reply, upload or at all view the board. This is all up to you, but is very important you. Check the area after you preference.

Now, once you have created your board click Create this Forum.

You've done it, you have created a forum. Now people may talk to each other and have fun yay! However, more boards are required. Aswell as one more very important thing.

The Layout:
You have created the forums and categories for your people to talk in, but now look at your board. It looks very dull doesn't it? Let us say you made a game forum, this skin doesn't fit it all. You would like maybe something dark themed. So we are going to get a skin as it is called. There are two ways of getting a skin. You may either:

• Go to a site which provides free skins such as the www.ifsz.net. However your board won't be super origional. If you want to be origional choose the next option, which is:

• Create your own skin from scratch. You need patience and experience in using photoshop and CSS. This takes time.

However, let us say we got this awesome skin from a site and you want to edit it. The creator has proberly placed a lot of coding called CSS. That is the code that actually makes the skin. Now, to place it to your board, find:

Skinning & Styles and under it click the link Manage Style Sheets. Once you have clicked it, you might find some similar coding. That is the CSS of the skin you currently have. Remove all of it (CTRL + A), and then copy/paste the CSS you want and place it in your Admin CP where the last code was. Once you have done that click Edit CSS.

Now you should be done, and have a really cool layout, however some have made advance skins and have additional coding to give you good effects. You might find some shorter codes such as the Board Header/Body and Footer. To place the new codes, find Skinning & Styles and under it click Board Wrappers. The codes for Header/Body go in the field where on the left it says: Header & Body. The codes that are for the Footer, go into the field where on the left it says Footer.

Here you may aswell place modifications and nice effects for your boards, but we'll do that some other time. Once you have added your codes click Edit Wrapper.

Links:
Here are some links you should have in great use if you run an InvisionFree Board. All these links are recommended.

www.Staff-Lounge.com [For great tips and documentation on how to run a board succesfully]
www.ifskinzone.net [Over 4000 skins for you to use on your board, free of course]
http://support.invisionfree.com/index.php? [And of course, the official support board for InvisionFree]


Ending:
We are now at the end of this article. I will be releasing another article in a couple days on how to:

• Edit Images
• Manage Boards
• Re-order the board
• Pips and Ranks.

Written by: Edward
Date: 14th October 2005
From: The Staff Lounge.
Comments: I hope you enjoyed this article. Oh and I just have to say that this took me quite some time... My fingers hurt T_T

[+ Zangoose]

good job edward
good job =)

[Edward]

Thanks a lot Zangoose ^^

[Michael]

WOW!!! Fantastic work, this is really a must manual for anyone considering starting an InvisionFree board, excellent attention to detail and lots of good content there.

[Edward]

Thank you very much Mike =)

[Hector]

A little TO detailed but you do provide links for assistance. Awesome job, and good luck in the competition!

[Edward]

A little TO detailed but you do provide links for assistance. Awesome job, and good luck in the competition!

Thank you. Yes, it is very detailed, as you said maybe too detailed, but it is ment to instruct people who have never used InvisionFree before.

[+ Ryan]

Very nice. Anyone thinking about IF for their board would use this as a quick reference.

[Michael]

Perhaps give them some reference links to the IF Support forum and SZ, helps them go on an endless search for support/skins

[Edward]

Thank you mike, I have updated now adding 3 useful links.

[//Aneurysm\\]

....Thank god my next article that hella sweet

Incredible work. I think you should elaborate a little more. Some of your topics are lacking details and such.

[Edward]

Thank you.

Could you please mention some topics that could need some more detail?

[brinneydee]

Thank you SO much for this EXCELLENT tutorial!! I was having such a hard time figuring out where to edit the skin/buttons for my board! You ROCK!

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