SMF Tutorial

User Management in SMF

SMF (Simple Machines Forum) provides very advanced and extensive interface to manage your Forum users.

User Registration
A forum will require that you register as a member to be able to post. To register for an account, click on the Register button located on the top of the forum.

You should be able to register by finding one of the following on the forum:

-- Any page of the forum, in which you case you should select the Register link from the main menu.
-- A login screen headed by a warning about access being restricted to registered members.

 
User Profile
A member's Profile includes many key details about the Member and can help them manage their own personal Forum preferences and place their own Signature, Avatar, and Personal contact information. Usually, other members of the Board will be able to view your Profile unless the admin disallows this permission.

 
Starting a new topic
Browse to the Board where you wish to Post and click the New Topic button (positioned by default at both the top and the bottom of the board, as shown in the User Help Introduction), which should take you to the Start new Topic screen. While this presents a number of options, the two most important are the Subject field and main Message field (not labeled as such, but obvious by its size). So enter your subject and start to type (or paste) your message into the main text area, noting that a message missing either a subject or a body will not be accepted for posting until it has both. If you're happy with your plain text message, you can then Post it by clicking the Post button and/or preview it first by clicking the Preview button.

 
Searching
Assuming the Forum is running the SMF Default theme (or a derivative of it), there should be both a simple Search field (partnered by an Advanced search text link) in the collapsable top section and a Search option in the main menu. If not, the Main menu Search option should still lead straight to the advanced search screen.

While you can just type (and search for) any combination of characters, you should consider using quotes to make your search really work for you.

The simple search field located at the top of the default SMF theme will, when viewing topics filter search results to just that topic. The same thing goes for Boards as well, when viewing a Board the simple search field will filter what you searched to just results in that particular board.