The overview panel provides access to content based features.

Your profile is what information about you is viewable to the public in your posts and your public profile page. Note that besides the account settings tab any information you add here is viewable by other forum members.

• Edit profile - Personal Information about yourself.
  • ICQ number, AOL Instant Messenger, WL/MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and Jabber address - Add you screenname/identification for these messenger services. Links to contact you through these services will appear in all posts you make and your public profile page.
  • Website - Your personal or business website.
  • Location - Where you live, no need to be specific. A very general location is fine.
  • Occupation - What you do for a living.
  • Interests - Interests and hobbies.
  • Birthday - You username and age will appear in the Birthday listings on the main index when its your birthday, this will also appear in your public profile.
• Edit signature - Your signature can be attached to the bottom of every post you make, see the rules for what is acceptable.
• Edit avatar - Avatars are images that appear under your username in any post you make.
• Edit account settings - Change the email address or password associated with your account.

Options for the default values of what is displayed and how your posts appear among other forum features

• Edit global settings - Adjust some of the standard forum features
  • Expose my email address to other members - Setting this to yes will expose your email address to other forum members. It will always be hidden from guests and is fairly safe from being harvested by spam bots however that is not guaranteed since anyone can register. Note that you cannot hide your email address from Administrators.
  • Subscribe to forum e-mail list - Recieve announcements of special events or promotions through email. Note anything sent through this list will strictly be related to the forum.
  • Allow users to send you private messages - Allow or disallow other forum members to send you messages with the internal private messaging system. The PM system is similar to email but is strictly for use by members. Note that administrators and moderators will always be able to send you messages.
  • Hide my online status this session - { HIDE_ME_FAQ }
  • Notify me on new private messages - You can be notified of new private messages via email if you set this to yes.
  • Pop up window on new private message - { POPUP_ON_PM_FAQ }
  • My timezone - The timezone you live in.
  • Summer Time/DST is in effect - Set the time to Daylight savings time, note that this is not an automatic feature. You must switch it yourself for it to take effect.
  • My date format - Use the drop down list to change the way dates and times are displayed, you can choose custom to create your own fomat. The syntax for custom date/time is identical to the PHP date() function.
• Edit posting defaults - These are the posting defaults for your own posts, they do not effect other members posts and are not retroactive. Changing them now will only have effect on new posts. These defaults can also be changed for individual posts in the posting panel without changing them here.
  • Enable BBCode by default - BBCode is short for Bulletin Board Code, it can be used to format text, links and images. Setting this to no will disable BBCode.
  • Enable smilies by default - Smilies or emotions are images that are used to express emotion, certain character combinations are automatically replaced with the images. Set this to no to display plain text in your posts.
  • Attach my signature by default - A signature is block of text added to the bottom of every post. Set this to no to not attach your signature automatically. A signature can be added under preferences > edit signature.
  • Notify me upon replies by default - The notification system will email you a notification when a reply is posted to any topic you have stated or posted in. Only one notification is sent even if there are multiple replies before you view the topic again, it is reset when you view the topic. You will not receive any new notifications until you view the topic and then only if new replies are posted.
• Edit display options - Change the default view options for the forum for every page load, you can use tools within the forum to do this temporarily if you want to keep the default settings.
  • Display images within posts - Setting this to no will make attached images be displayed as links. This setting only affects imsges that have been uploaded as attachments. Images hotlinked from other sites will still be shown.
  • Display smilies as images - Setting this to no will display smilies as text characters in posts.
  • Display signatures - Signatures are blocks of text or images that appear at the end of a post if the member has added a signature, setting this to no will hide them from view.
  • Display avatars - Avatars are the images that appear under a posters name, you can disable there display by setting this to no.
  • Enable word censoring - Words that typically considered vulgar by default are filtered out of posts and replaced with a censored tag. You can turn this filter off by setting this to no.
  • Display topics from previous days - This will limit the number of previous days topics will be displayed from in forums, e.g. if you select one week only topics made in the last week will displayed.
  • Display topics ordering by - This will change the default ordering of topics in forums, you can order topics by last post time(default), author, subject, replies or views.
  • Display topic order direction - You can choose descending or ascending for this option. Descending is default and will for example sort the last topics posted first. If you were sorting by author using descending posts made those with memeber names appearing at the end of the alphabet will be at the top of the list.
  • Display posts from previous days - This will limit the number of previous days posts will be displayed from in forums, e.g. if you select one week only posts made in the last week will displayed.
  • Display posts ordering by - This will change the default ordering of posts within topics, you can order topics by last post time(default), author, subject, replies or views.
  • Display post order direction - You can choose descending or ascending for this option. Descending is default and will for example sort the last post first. If you were sorting by author using descending posts made those with member names appearing at the end of the alphabet will be at the top of the list.

The private messaging system is very similar to email except it can only be utilized by forum members and has to be accessed from a browser.

• Compose message - Create a new private message also referred to as a PM.
• Manage PM drafts - You can save private messages as drafts to complete later.
• Inbox - Messages you have received.
• Outbox - Messages you have sent but have not been downloaded by the recipient.
• Sent messages - Messages you have sent but have been downloaded by the recipient.
• Custom Folders - Custom folders such as a "Saved Box" can be created under the Rules, folders and Settings.
• Rules, folders & settings - Create rules to manage your private messages.
  • Defined rules - Rules that you have already created.
  • Add new rule - Create rules to automatically handle messages based on sender, content etc.
  • Add folder - Create custom folders.
  • Rename folder - Rename a custom folder.
  • Remove folder - Remove a custom folder
  • If folder is full - You have a limited amount of space for private messages, this sets the deafult action when a folder gets full.

Usergroups enable board admins to better administer users. By default you will be placed in a specific group, this is your default group. This group defines how you may appear to other users, for example your username coloration, avatar, rank, etc. Depending on whether the administrator allows it you may be allowed to change your default group. You may also be placed in or allowed to join other groups. Some groups may give you additional permissions to view content or increase your capabilities in other areas.

• Edit memberships - This is a list of groups available. Joining a group depends on the type of group, some can be joined immediately and others require approval while others may require prerequisites and approval. Feel free to apply to any group.
  • Leaderships - This a group you are the leader of, leaderships give you privileges to allow or deny members access to your group.
  • Memberships - Groups you are currently a member of.
  • Pending memberships - If you requested access to group that require approval they will be listed here.
  • Non-memberships - This is list of groups that you are not a member of that are available.
• Manage groups - Manage groups that you have been designated the leader of

Friends & Foes allows you to group other members into either category.

• Manage friends - Friends will give you quick access to them in your control panel for sending messages, e.g it will act like an address book as you would have for email.
• Manage foes - You can add other forum members to the list to prevent seeing their posts, use this feature with caution as post can quickly go out of context.