Groups & Permissions
User groups are the foundation of ForumSpark's permission system. Every user belongs to a primary group, and can optionally belong to one or more secondary groups. Groups determine what a user can see and do across your board.
You can manage groups from the Users & Groups section in the Admin Control Panel.
Creating a Group
To create a new group, go to Users & Groups > Groups and click Create Group.
Fill in the following fields:
- Name: The name of the group (max 255 characters). For example, "Moderators" or "VIP Members".
- Title Format: Controls how the group name is displayed alongside the username. Use
%sas a placeholder for the username. For example,<strong>%s</strong>would bold the username for members of this group. - Custom CSS Classes: Optional CSS classes applied to the username when displayed (max 255 characters). This lets you colour-code groups in post listings.
- Sort Order: Controls the display order in group listings. Lower numbers appear first.
- Show on Staff Page: If enabled, members of this group will appear on the public Staff page.
Forum Permissions
Each group can be assigned specific permissions on a per-forum basis. This gives you fine-grained control over which groups can access which forums.
The available permission types are:
| Permission | Description |
|---|---|
| View | Whether the group can see the forum exists in the forum listing. |
| Read | Whether the group can open and read topics within the forum. |
| Reply | Whether the group can post replies to existing topics. |
| Start | Whether the group can create new topics in the forum. |
Permissions are managed from the forum edit page in Section Management.
Default Groups
Two groups have special roles:
- Guest User Group: Applied to all unauthenticated visitors. Controls what non-logged-in users can see.
- Default User Group: Automatically assigned to users when they register.
These groups can be changed in Board Settings under Default user groups. Groups currently assigned as a default cannot be deleted.
Secondary Groups
Users can belong to multiple groups at the same time. Every user has one primary group, and can be assigned to additional secondary groups.
When determining permissions, ForumSpark checks all of a user's groups (primary and secondary). If any group grants a permission, the user has that permission.
Secondary groups are assigned from the user edit page in the Admin CP.
Auto-Promotion
Groups can be configured to automatically promote users to a higher group based on their post count.
To set up auto-promotion:
- Edit the group you want to promote from.
- Set Promotes to Group to the target group.
- Set Minimum Posts to the number of posts required to trigger the promotion.
When a user's post count reaches the threshold, they are automatically moved to the target group. This is useful for creating tiered membership levels (e.g., "New Member" → "Regular" → "Senior").
Staff Page
Groups with Show on Staff Page enabled will have their members listed on the public Staff page. This is typically used for administrators, moderators, and other staff-level groups.
Members are displayed grouped by their group, in the order defined by the group's sort order.
Notes
- Groups cannot be deleted while they are assigned as the default or guest group.
- The title format field must contain exactly one
%splaceholder. - Permissions are additive — if a user belongs to multiple groups, they receive the combined permissions of all their groups.
- Changes to group permissions take effect immediately for all members of the group.