Forums FAQ

Q. How long does it take to setup a forum?

A. Once you sign-up and start your subscription (est. 3 minutes), your forum will be immediately installed and configured. You may login and start posting right away.

Q. Do you run advertisements on my forum?

A. Never! Your site is just that... yours. We do not post ads or ad banners on your site.

Q. Is there a limit to the number of categories and forums I can have?

A. There is absolutely no limit. Organize your message board anyway you like. There is also no limit to the amount of members or threads (messages). Post like mad!

Q. I already have my own domain, is it possible to use it with my forum?

A. Absolutely. You will make this change with your domain registrar. Using your domain control panel, forward your domain to the URL of your forum (ex. username.madmooseforum.com). If you registered your domain with Mad Moose Hosting, open a service ticket and we'll forward it for you. The change will take a couple hours.

Q. Can I make my forum private for only personal friends I invite?

A. Yes, you may restrict new member registration by setting the "Enable account activation" to "Admin" in the General Admin/Configurations section of your control panel. This will require each new member to get the administrator's (you) approval before they may login or post. An email is sent to you notifying that a new member has registered.

Q. I want to have a general forum (available to public) and a private forum (available only to approved members - not just registered members). Is this possible?

A. This is very simple. You set forum permissions from the administration control panel -> Forum Admin -> Permissions. First set the permissions for the forum that you want to be private to "private" or "private [hidden]". Next lookup the user (User Admin -> Permissions) and assign his/her permissions to "allow access". Repeat this for each member that you want to be able to view the private forum.

Q. How much disc space is allowed in the forum. And also is there a pageview limitation?

A. There are NO disc space or page view limits with our forum or blog packages.

Q. I have my own template. May I use it with your service?

A. Absolutely! If you have your own phpbb skin, email it to us for installation. If you know of one that we don't currently have, email us the download link and we'll add it to our collection.

Q. Is there an option to change the language?

A. Several language packs are already installed. Change the default language setting with the General Admin/Configuration control panel. If you need a language that is not listed, just let us which which language you need and we'll install it.

Q. Am I able able to ban spammers?

A. You may ban members who have posted spam by blacklisting their member name and even their IP address. To reduce spam, you may also enable the verification code for the registration page. This helps prevent spambots from auto-registering. You may also create private forums so that only the users you want to may view or post.

Q. One of my new users is having trouble with registration.

A. Login to your admin control panel the open the User Admin/Management page. Type the member's username in the field and click the 'Look up user' button. The resulting page is the members profile. Scroll to the 'User is active' setting near the bottom and change it to 'Yes'. Submit the form and the member is now able to login and use the forum. Email the member notifying them that their account is active.

Q. I like the shadow topics that are left in a forum after I move a thread, but I don't know how to delete them. Are they automatically timed out?

A. When you select a thread to be moved, uncheck the "Leave shadow topic in old forum" option. No shadow topic will be left. To delete existing unwanted shadow topics, open the forum and click the "moderate this forum" link at the bottom right. On the resulting page, click the checkbox left of the shadow topic to be removed and click the delete button at the page bottom. Or open the shadow topic post, click the edit button, select "delete this post" and submit.

Q. How about that title 'My New Forum'? I don't see where to change that.

A. The forum title is changed using the General Admin/Configuration control panel. The title can be changed in the "Site name" line (4th line from the top). You may also add a subtitle in the line below the title.

Q. Where is my forum's FAQ?

A. The FAQ is linked at the top of each page of your forum.

Q. No matter how small I resize an avatar image from my computer (Less than 25 KB), I am told that it must be either less than 25KB or less than 80x80 pixels. Can I increase the avatar maximum size limit?

A. Go to the General Admin / Configuration page of your control panel and increase the "Maximum Avatar File Size" setting. You may also change the avatar size limit there. It is best to keep the file size small so that page loading is not slowed by unnecessarily large image files.

Q. I recently signed up for a forum, but now I can't find it. Can you help me?

A. The web address of your forum will look something like this: username.madmooseforum.com (substitute "username" with the username you used when signing up). Your domain will never change, but if you forget it, you can always find your site by using the Site Locator on each page of our website. Just type in your username and submit. You will be taken to your site.

Each new forum user should receive a welcome email shortly after signing up. This mail contains important information about your site and should be kept for future reference. If you have lost your welcome email (or never received it), contact us and we'll send it again.

Q. Is my forum already listed on the major search engines like Google? If not, what do I need to do to get listed?

A. In the case of any new website, it often takes weeks to months to be listed in search engines. One good way to get listed in Google is to submit your site to the Open Directory Project: http://dmoz.org/add.html.

Another way is to ask other webmasters to link their sites to yours. Are there other sites on a similar topic that will link to you? Other forums that you may post to and include your link? Consider writing an article on topics related to your website and ask friends, related sites, news sites etc. to post it with a link to your forum. Develop an active forum... ask your friends to join your forum and post. And remember to post yourself! The most important initial posts will come from you. Keep active and write often. Answer anyone who posts questions and welcome newcomers.

Getting traffic (and Google) to your site does not happen over night. It takes patience and effort. Try some of the suggestions above and expect to wait a short while before seeing results. Take a look at this article with great tips for creating a successful forum: http://www.madmoosehosting.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=6

Q. Can each member create the personal avatar / icon beside their comment?

A. Yes. They may choose from a gallery of pre-installed avatars or load their own. This is accomplished using their member profile control panel.

Q. How can I add smileys?

A. If you have favorite emoticons you'd like to use in your forum, email them to us and we'll install them into the smilies gallery.

Q. Do you have function where they can load picture as well?

A. Only avatars at this point, but we are considering an image loading upgrade in the future. Until then, we suggest people use a free image storage site like photobucket.com and link the images in a forum post. The end result is that the image appears in the forum as if it were loaded directly.

Q. I've noticed there are some free forum hosts out there. Why would I pay for your service?

A. First of all, nothing is for free! Free forum hosts make their money from your forum guests by running advertisements of their choice on your site. For some, this may be alright, but for those who care about the look and feel of their site, having the top few inches of screen space dedicated to someone else's advertisement is not desirable.

Secondly, most free forum hosts are not actually hosting companies, but someone running a pay-per-click advertising business. They buy hosting space from someone else - most likely the lowest priced volume host or reseller. If something goes wrong with your site, your "host" likely has to pass your help ticket onto their host (or their reseller's host) to get the problem fixed. I won't bother getting into server quality here... you can imagine.

Some free forum hosts provide the option to remove their ads for a fee. I've seen this fee as high as $25 per month to remove all ads. Some even charge a one-time installation fee of up to $10. Most require a minimum of members or posts-per-month. Otherwise they remove your board.

How are we different? Mad Moose Hosting is first and foremost a hosting company. Our priority is our servers and our web services. We run new, fast, stable servers and are the first line of defense in case of trouble. We care about the speed, look and privacy of our member sites. We will NEVER place any advertisements on member forums or blogs!

We also employ experienced programmers who maintain our forum and blog systems and regularly install custom upgrades to make these packages more interesting and interactive. We take pride in the quality and performance of our services and enjoy working with our members who recommend improvements.

We backup the data and files every 12 hours, constantly monitor the service for signs of misuse, regularly upgrade the program scripts and provide free customer service. Not to mention, unlimited forums, unlimited posting, unlimited members, unlimited disc space and no minimum posting limit. Plus NO ads, NO setup fees, NO hidden charges.

For all this and more, we charge $5.95 per month and offer a 30 day money-back guarantee. Start a forum today and give us a try!

Q. What languages do you support?

A. Currently, we have loaded: English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and Arabic. Dozens more languages are available. If you desire one that is not on the list above, suggest it to us and we'll add it.

Q. It is not clear on how to customize the Forum Smiley library. How do I add smilies to the active list?

A. The forum comes with a large smiley library though only about 20-30 are activated. This is because not everyone will want to use all of the smilies and activating all at once will cause the post pages to load more slowly. It is best to activate just the smilies that you and your members want to use.

To activate a smiley, login as the administrator and go to the General Admin/Smilies page. Scroll to the bottom and click "Add A New Smiley". On the resulting form, locate a new smiley image from the "Smiley Image File" menu, then assign it a code and description. Example: highlight a sad looking smiley, type :sad: in the code field, type "I'm sad" in the description (or "Emoticon") field and submit. You will need to repeat this for each smiley you want activate.

We do not recommend activating smiley collections using the "Import Smiley Pack" feature as it may not produce the desired results and you may overwrite an existing collection in the process. Import pak files at your own risk.

Q. Is it possible to run Google ads or other banners? I'd like to be able to earn some advertising income from my forum.

A. Yes, you are able to run ad banners on your forum. Ads are displayed inline with the thread posts on each page.

To run Google ads, you will need to open a Google Adsense account. Once you have your Adsense or ad banner code, login to your forum and open the Ad Management/Ad Code page. Here you can paste in your code. You may setup multiple ads that will rotate throughout your forum.

Next open the Inline Ad Config page and configure how often your ads will be displayed and who may view them. The settings offer the admin a wide range of control.

Be sure to check your site using the Preview Forum link. If properly installed, your forum with ads will look like this: http://demoads.madmooseforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2

More on this topic: http://www.madmoosehosting.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=24

Q. I already have a website and wish to increase its value it with a forum. If you host my forum, is it required that you host my website too?

A. No, but we're happy to do so if you like. We provide superior hosting at a great price. Check here for details: http://www.madmoosehosting.com

Q. Is there a profanity filter?

A. Yes. Login to the control panel and open the General Admin/Word Censors page. In the resulting form, type in the word to be filtered with a suitable replacement ("bad word" = "Oops!") and submit. Filter out as many words as you like.

Q. What moderator features are available?

A. Moderators manage the forum members and threads. They may edit/delete/close/sticky any thread as required. Take care enabling moderators. Some may abuse the privilege and disrupt your forum. Only assign trusted people to moderate.

Q. Are my forum users going to be emailed with every entry?

A. No. All threads are displayed on the forum site. Take a look at our demo forum. You may register as a member and make test posts. It is only for demo and testing (database is reset each day): http://demobb2.madmooseforum.com

Q. I see that there is no limit on postings, members etc. I was just curious if there is a limit of how much bandwidth/resources are used a month?

A. Absolutely NO limits on disc space or bandwidth. Post away!

Help build this FAQ by posting your questions on our forum.