We should create something on the wiki about getting the privacy settings correct. and how to authorize people, etc. Maybe someone who knows more than I do
Gimme a sec, I’ll write one.
First, please excuse all bad paint skillz.
Okay, first thing you wanna do is go to proboards and enter the url name you want like drainbead said. Next, bookmark it. There’s nothing more embarrassing than setting up a board and forgetting where you put it.
Your user name will always be admin, but you can change what name it displays.
Now, go to your board. First thing, look at the very top. The tools I circled are the ones you’re going to use a lot.
Admin, the most important one, will let you:
–Make categories and boards
–Set up privacy options for said boards, so you can keep your scum from wandering into the spoiler board
–And so on
Members lets you manage members, allowing you to delete them if you need to, send mass emails, etc. You can also click on anyone and change their details, such as post count, member/moderator/admin status, and even their Display name! Keep in mind that you cannot change their official name, so if you need to have two different groups on the same board, give them arbitrary names before they sign up. The register button (not shown for some reason) lets you do just that.
Anyway. More on admin:
The circled areas are where you create the boards you want. Technically speaking, you don’t have to use the categories, but they help organize your boards, along with giving you an extra layer of privacy, so I like to use ones. The options are pretty self explanatory. If you need to change any board, at any time you can click “modify board” to do so, so that’s handy.
Let’s walk through a board creation, as a tutorial.
First, click “admin” at the top, then click “create board”.
Now it’ll ask you which category you want to put your board in. You can use the generic one they provide, or you can create one beforehand if you want to be organized. Or, you can create one afterwords and move the board later. I’ll pick one from one of my old games. Then click continue.
Next, the specific settings.
First one allows you to make this board a sub-board of another board. That can be handy, but it’s mainly an organizational tool, again. Use if you want.
Next is board placement. More organizational tools.
Next is the board name, ID, and description. Name it whatever you want, but it should probably be somewhat clear as to what it’s for. The ID is part of the url. It’s rather unimportant, though. Description is another organizational tool.
Next, the view board option. If you’re working on a secret project, setting the board to “only staff” might be a good idea. I would advise NOT using this as a partition between scum and masons, as there are ways around it. For example, the reason I had to sub out of Marvel: Civil War.
Next is moderators. These are the people who have moderator powers in that board. Obviously, put yourself (admin). Put any co-mods you may have as well.
Next is the board password. This is very important. This is what keeps the various boards from intermingling. Use it.
Show announcements is only useful if you use announcements. Perhaps you could send announcements about game developments to everyone but the scum boards? Anyway, yes for show, no for no show. Disable post counts is unimportant.
Hide board will make it impossible to get to your board unless you have the url. This is beneficial if you want to keep different groups from seeing each other, but THERE ARE WORK-AROUNDS. Personally, I suggest keeping scum and masons on different websites (i.e., different proboards accounts.). It’s the easiest way of keeping them from accidentally intermingling.
Thread display order is pretty self-explanatory, and unimportant.
Lastly, there is the posting restrictions. Obviously, you probably don’t want guests posting anywhere, so you should set them to “members” or higher. If you want to screw around on something but don’t want others interjecting, you can go up to “only staff”.
That’s creating a board. There are a few other things you should be aware of, though. This section is important, especially General Settings.
I circled the important stuff:
–Always set Maintenance Mode to ‘no’, unless you need to get everyone else of the board while you change something (e.g. a spoiled watcher accidentally posted a spoiler in the scum board). Then turn it on. This will keep everyone but you from even accessing the boards.
–Turn all of Display # of Users, Display # of Boards, and Info Center off. They can spoil, and they do nothing beneficial.
–If you don’t want people picking their own user names, you should set Disable Signups to yes. Then you can register names and give them the name and password to them.
–Unless you have some reason to fear spambots, you should set Disable Account Activations to yes.
–If you didn’t turn on Disable Signups, then you should activate Limited Registration. Basically, this means that whenever someone registers, you need to go to “admin” and click “approve new members” before they can do anything as a member. This way, unspoiled players can’t accidentally get the link, create an account and get spoilers.
–Always set Guests Must Login to yes. It’s a basic security procedure.
That’s about it.
I usually put the Scum on a different board from the spoilers as well.
just for another way of avoiding intermingling.
Definitely want to keep Scum and Masons away from each other. I’ve had to bow out of a game because I saw the new members signing up and knew they weren’t masons.
This is good to know. I have a 25-30 player set up that will need this info. But, trust me, that game wont get started for a while.
And if Dirty Rotten Cheater is any indication, it will be later rather than earlier.
Meeko As a Mod?
:eek:
HEH.
Nah. It won’t be gastardly.
No Really, I don’t think my brain could take going Gastard.
if you need some help on administrative type of stuff i’ll help. and even give a 30k foot view on set up if requested. shit i’ve played enough and am ready to fill in the holes i have created.
meeko sign me up.
and if you want some help on getting your game going give me a shout. i’ve got some funky ideas that would probably mesh. kind of like if manson ever hooked up with hitler.
now that could be fun meeko and peek running a game.
neta: of course, the post count might suffer.
Peeks :
If you mean my 30-25 player game, I kinda already have NAF attached to it. I know it’s going to have / need a masonry so that is why I commented when I did.
However, I do kinda need some help on a proof of concept game over on the other board, if you care to help me there. Deets are over there. I basically need someone to serve as a witness to the game, and to cast a deciding vote if and when it is needed.
ok. i can so totally do that.
vote stoy and sis