Well, some forums permit guests to read and post, some permit guests to read only and some are restricted to registered members. We'd recommend registering at any forum that you see yourself using regularly because many of the most useful features will only become available to you when you do so. Since SMF, however, is such a flexible system that few forums are likely to be identical, we will start by describing four key areas that we'd normally expect to be there for you:
The Main Menu
Supposing you've arrived here as a guest (or have registered but are currently logged out), the main menu (which appears on every page) should normally comprise five or six buttons (or text links):- Home, which takes you back to the board index.
- Help, which brings you to this guide.
- Search, which allows you to search the forums for whatever you're looking for.
- Calendar, which links to the forum calendar (if enabled).
- Login, which allows you to login if already registered.
- Register, which allows you to register (or sometimes apply for registration) when you wish to do so.
- Home (as before).
- Help (as before).
- Search (as before).
- Profile, which allows you to make changes to your profile settings.
- Calendar (as before).
- Logout, which allows you to logout again if desired.
The Board Index
While the board index (forum home page) is packed with all kinds of information and links, the core of the interface (at least in the SMF default theme) normally looks something like this:
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