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Section Management ​

ForumSpark gives you fine-grained control over your board structure by letting you create and manage individual sections. Sections can be either categories (containers) or forums (postable areas), depending on how you configure them.

Watch: Setting Up a Basic Forum Structure ​

If you're just getting started, this short video walks through the basics of creating categories and forums using the Admin CP.

Accessing the Admin Panel ​

To begin managing sections, access your Admin Control Panel through the User menu in the top-right navigation bar. Select "Admin CP" from the dropdown.

Once inside, look under the Forum Sections menu and click "Create Sections".

Creating a New Section ​

When creating a new section, start by providing the basic information:

  • Location: Select where this section should appear in the forum hierarchy. You can create a top-level category or place this forum under an existing section.
  • Name: The title of the section. This will be shown in the forum index.
  • Description: A short summary explaining the section's purpose. BBCode is supported here.

Create Forum View

Posting Controls ​

These options determine how users can interact with the section:

  • Allow posting: If disabled, the section becomes a container and cannot contain topics.
  • Post count enabled: Determines whether posts in this section contribute to the user’s post count.
  • Allow users to create polls: Enables poll creation inside topics.
  • Enable best answer: Lets topic authors select a best answer, useful for Q&A-style sections.
  • Users can only see topics made by themselves: Useful for support areas or private submissions. Admins and moderators can still see all topics.

Templates ​

You can select a template to be prefilled when users create a new topic in this section. This is helpful for guiding users in structured posts like bug reports, feedback, or applications.

Topic Sorting & Redirection ​

  • Sort topics by: Choose the default topic order (e.g., latest reply time, creation date).
  • Sort direction: Ascending or descending.
  • Redirect forum: Turn this section into a redirect link to another URL.

Forum Access ​

Permissions are assigned per user group for the following actions:

  • View: Whether users can see the section exists
  • Read: Whether they can read individual topics
  • Reply: Whether they can post replies
  • Start: Whether they can start new topics

These settings let you define public, private, or restricted-access sections depending on your needs.

Forum Moderators ​

You can assign moderators to a section by selecting one or more user groups. Any users within these groups will receive elevated privileges in this section, regardless of their global role.

At this time, individual users cannot be assigned as section moderators directly. This is an intentional design choice to keep moderation roles easier to manage and consistent at the group level.

Tips ​

  • Use containers for grouping related forums without allowing posting.
  • Support-style sections often benefit from enabling the "users can only see their own topics" option.
  • You can update or reorganize sections at any time by editing them in the Section Manager.