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Basic Global and Forum Roles and Permissions [PHPBB3]

There are two different types of roles/permissions you deal with on your forum. There are Global Permissions that each group needs to have to see and use all non-forum (sub-forum, categories, and links). These give permissions to things like the User Control Panel, board email, private messages. The other roles/permissions are the Forum Permissions which gives access to each object (forum, sub-forum, categories, and links). Each of these objects have to have roles set or no one will have access, not even the admin, and they will not be able to see these objects in the forum.

To prevent permission overload you want to avoid giving duplicate permissions on each group, and the the users can be given each group that they need the roles/permissions from to access the board. This is why your will see that while members only have the registered users group applied to them while the moderators have the registered users group and the moderators group. This way moderators keep their basic forum and board access from the registered users group, and when you make then a moderator adding that group gives them the moderator access, without duplicating the forum permissions.

NOTE: The easiest way to apply permissions on a object (forum, sub-forum, categories, and links) is to copy the permissions from a forum you already have set up with roles and permissions and the new object you are making will also have the same roles and permissions.

GLOBAL PERMISSIONS

First, you will want to set Global Permissions for the Registered Users Group. Go to the Users and Groups Tab in your advanced ACP.

Select the "Group Permissions' link.
Choose Registered Users group from the drop down and click submit.
On the next forum select type 'users permission' from the drop down list and click Go.
In the Registered Users box under Users permissions select the role you want registered users to have. To review what permissions are set for each option you can choose it and then click advanced permissions and see what is set to yes for each permission. Usually basic permissions are set to Standard but this is up to you what permissions you want a member to have. You can also look at what level gives what permissions or change what permissions they give under the Permissions tab>permissions masks.

You have now set the global permissions for members (Registered users) and this is the basic permisisons for using the UCP and Private Messages and other permissions you see listed in the advanced permission. Do not apply any other permissions in the other select types. Those are not permission types for users.

Now to set Global Moderator permissions:

Select the "Group Permissions' link.
Choose Global Moderators group from the drop down and click submit.
On the next forum select type 'global moderators permissions' from the drop down list and click Go.
In the Global Moderators box under Global Moderators permissions select the role you want global moderators to have. To review what permissions are set for each option you can choose it and then click advanced permissions and see what is set to yes for each permission. Usually basic permissions are set to Standard moderator but this is up to you what permissions you want a member to have. You can also look at what level gives what permissions or change what permissions they give under the Permissions tab>permissions masks.
You do not have to give the global moderator users permissions as they get that from being in the registered users group.

The Administrator Global role is set the same way only choosing the administrative group and admin permissions:

Select the "Group Permissions' link.
Choose Administrative group from the drop down and click submit.
On the next forum select type 'administrative permissions' from the drop down list and click Go.
In the Administrator box under Administrator permissions select the role you want administrators to have. To review what permissions are set for each option you can choose it and then click advanced permissions and see what is set to yes for each permission. Usually basic permissions are set to Standard admin but this is up to you what permissions you want a member to have. You can also look at what level gives what permissions or change what permissions they give under the Permissions tab>permissions masks.
You do not have to give the Admin users permissions or global moderator permissions as they get that from being in the registered users group and the global moderator group..

Guests and Bots:

Their permissions are set up in the same manner as the registered group using the guest or bot group and only select the Users permissions type. Both should be set to Read Only. Guest posting is turned off across the net work so no matter what other setting you give a guest they cannot post on the board or any forum.

The above is how to set up basic global permissions for the usual members , admins and moderators. If you want some moderators or admins to have more or less access you can set that using "User Permissions" and setting a different role individually. As much as possible you want to stay with groups but, especially at the admin level you may want to set more individual roles.

NOTE: Even a Full Admin will not have some global and special permissions that the owner/founder admin has. The founder is set on the individual and is automatically applied to the forum creator. This additional security allows you to set things like locking groups so other admins cannot give other groups higher access; only the founder can edit the portal or create forums and other objects and set access levels and roles. Also the founder cannot be removed from founder owner access by anyone and can always get their access back therefore through the Recovery Console. It is strongly advised that you not share founder access with any other admin as then they could remove your founder access and remove you from the board.

FORUM PERMISSION (object permissions).

Each forum, subforum, category and link will need to have its own set of roles set on it. There are several ways to place these permissions - copy from a forum that already has permissions set the way you want them (or from the test forum) and copy them using copy permissions drop down to pick the forum to copy from when you create or edit a forum in the Forum Tab of the advanced ACP. Or when you create the object there will be a link in the green informational box telling you that the objects was created successfully that will link you to where you can set permissions or use Groups' Forum Permissions under the Users and Groups tab. Since both the link and picking the groups directly are about the same we will step through setting the Forum permissions using the Groups' Forum Permissions in the Users and Groups Tab.

Click the Groups' Forums Permission link under the Groups section in the Users and Groups tab.
Choose Global Moderators from the drop down list and click submit.
Highlight the forums you want to set these roles/permissions on using control click or check the all forums box. You can also just select one object, like a category and it will include the forums, subforums and links under that category to apply permissions to in the lower box. Click Submit.
From the drop down list choose Moderator Permissions and click Go.
If you choose multiple or all forums it could take a minute for all forums to load.
Once loaded set the role you want the Global Moderators to have on the object(s) and then click submit. You do not have to give the global moderator Forum Permissions as they get that from being in the registered users group.

You would do the same things for the global moderators group and give moderator permissions and not forum permissions role. They get forum permissions from sharing the Registered Groups. You do not have to set a role for admins on the forums as they share the Registered Users and Moderators group.

You should also set guests (if you want then to read forums) to have read only access on each forum you want them to see and give the bots group permissions on any forum you want the bots to index for the search engines.

NON- GLOBAL MODERATORS

This is the one time you would set an individual role. Use manage user and type in the users name. You then can select permissions from the overview drop down list and give the individual a role on the forums you want them to moderate. This way you can have individuals that only moderate selected forums and do not have global access.

This is the basic way to set up permissions. Once you do this and feel comfortable with permissions you can tweak individuals' roles instead of using the basic role set for the group to allow admins to have different roles, or moderators to have different roles.