Answers

By default, all NodeBB forums which use our hosting services are provided with a subdomain ending in "nodebb.com." However, you may wish to access your forum via your own custom URL. In this example, we'll set up a subdomain beginning with "forum", but you can also set up NodeBB to serve as your main website using "www" if you wish.

Go to your forum's administrative dashboard by clicking on the gear icon. Select Plugins > SaaS. Click on the text reading "update your domain's DNS records" to reveal the IP address for your forum. Highlight and copy this number.

URL Address

URLs are provisioned by domain registrars. In this example, we'll show the steps using the popular GoDaddy service, but the process would be very similar for other services.

From your GoDaddy domain list, select the "Manage DNS" option.  On this page, you will see a number of different domain records. Select the "Add" option to create a new record, and under "Type" select "A record". Under "Host", enter "forum" or your own preference for subdomain, and then paste the forum IP address under "Points To". Save your record, and return to your forum.

You will now be able to enter your new subdomain as the main URL for your forum. Be sure to leave "http://" and then replace the rest of the default URL with your new address. Note that saving the changes will restart your forum, so it will not be available to users for a short period.

After your custom domain is setup, it's highly recommended that you enable SSL/HTTPS to ensure maximum security for your forum. Contact us at [email protected] to set this up.

Once this is completed, your subdomain should point to your forum. Note that there is sometimes a lag in updating new DNS records, so your new subdomain might not work instantaneously. If the domain is not working after a period of time, consult with your domain provider. If you continue to have problems, please contact us at [email protected].

YouTube Setting up a custom domain for your NodeBB forum

For our hosted clients, we have web monitoring tools which will notify us immediately if there are any problems for all our hosted clients. Problems are rare and can usually be fixed quickly, but our team will reach out for any larger issues.

NodeBB version upgrades are free.

For self-hosted forums, please see:

301 Moved Permanently

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(docs.nodebb.org)

For our SaaS hosting and enterprise clients, all upgrades are performed by our team. Frequency varies but the majority of upgrades occur during off-peak hours. If you are self-hosting and do not have a monthly support plan, you would manage this yourself unless.

Downtime is usually just a few minutes at most and will be scheduled at off-peak hours whenever possible. We will contact you in advance if longer downtime is required.

For our hosting service, our technology stack is Node.js, MongoDB, Redis. We use Socket.IO for instant interactions.

PLEASE NOTE: this screenshot may not match your current NodeBB installation

1) Settings > Groups

Click SETTINGS on the top navigation to reveal the drop-down menu, then click Groups.

2) General Settings

Includes these toggles: Private Groups If enabled, joining of groups requires the approval of the group owner. This is enabled by default.  NOTE: If this option is disabled, any private groups will automatically become public. Allow Group Creation If enabled, users can create groups (Default: disabled)

3) Group Cover Images

Allows a default cover image to be defined for groups who do not upload their own.

4) Save changes

The ‘disk’ button at the bottom of the page saves any changes. Changes that are not saved will be discarded after leaving this page.

PLEASE NOTE: this screenshot may not match your current NodeBB installation

1) Group attributes page

These attributes can be edited for each Group:

Name

Description

Title of Members

Appears on the group badge for each member

Group Icon

Can be changed by clicking and selecting a new icon

Group Label Color

Can be changed by clicking and selecting from the color picker or entering a hex code

Checkboxes to:

Show member badge Make group private Disable join requests Hide group from listing

Add Users to Group

Users can be searched by username and added

Member list

Members can have group ownership added or rescinded, or be kicked (removed) from the group.

2) Group Control Panel

Controls for Saving changes made to group settings, or reverting to previous settings.

PLEASE NOTE: this screenshot may not match your current NodeBB installation

1) Manage > Groups

Click MANAGE on the top navigation to reveal the drop-down menu, then click Groups.

2) Groups List

The Groups List content area displays a scrolling list of all groups.

3) Edit Button

The EDIT opens the settings page for that group

4) Delete Button

The red ‘X’ deletes the group.

5) Add Group

The ‘plus sign’ button at the bottom of the page is used to create a new group.

PLEASE NOTE: this screenshot may not match your current NodeBB installation

1) Settings > Chat

Click on SETTINGS on the top navigation menu and then click on CHAT

2) Chat Settings

This section includes these toggles: Disable chat function Toggle this setting to on to turn off the chat function. Disable chat message editing/deletion Toggle this setting to on to prevent users from editing and deleting their chat messages.

3) Additional Chat Settings

This section includes these options: Maximum Length of Chat Messages This section allows a maximum character limit to be specified for chat messages. The default is 1000 characters. Maximum Number of Users in Chat Rooms Specifying a maximum number of users will prevent chats from exceeding this amount. Time Between Chat Messages in Milliseconds Specifying a time between messages (in milliseconds) will ensure that there is a minimum wait time between chat messages.

4) Save

Click the save icon to ensure that all of your changes remain once you leave this page.

NodeBB does not have built-in polls, but these are available via a free plugin.

You can allow forum members to embed images in their posts and upload other media as attachments. Several plugins exist that allow users to embed most media directly into the post itself, from video services such as YouTube, Daily Motion, Vimeo, etc., music streaming services such as SoundCloud, and even snippets of web content from sites such as Wikipedia.

NodeBB is currently being translated into 65 languages, including English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and many others.

Open the administrative dashboard using the 'gear' icon on your forum. Go to the General > Language. Select language in the dropdwn menu under Default Language. Click the Save settings button at the bottom of the screen.

NOTE: screenshots may not precisely match your current NodeBB installation

NodeBB allows for an unlimited number of accounts to be designated as one of the following:

Administrators have full access to the Admin Control Panel (ACP) as well as all moderation tool CAUTION any user designated as an Administrator has full power, including the ability to remove other admins Global Moderators have access to moderation tools within all categories of the forum Category Moderators have access to moderation tools only within their assigned category or categories

Note that a user must first have a forum account to be an Admin or Moderator. They can then be designated using the Manage > Admins & Mods menu in the ACP.

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To designate an Admin or Mod, simply begin to type their user name in the appropriate "Add..." line. The user should pop up automatically as you begin to type, and can then be selected.

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Admin or Mod privileges can be removed via this page by clicking on the X next to the appropriate name, then confirming.

Note that to designate a Category Mod, you must first select the appropriate category from the selection pulldown menu.

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NOTE: screenshots may not precisely match your current NodeBB installation

Within a NodeBB forum, users are able to flag content for moderation. Users are able to specify why they believe a particular post should be flagged.

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Once flagged, a post will appear within the Flagged Content control panel, which is accessible to Administrators and Moderators. Flagged Content can be opened for these users by clicking on their profile image, which typically appears in the top right corner of the screen on most forums.

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The Flagged Content defaults to showing most recently flagged content, but may be sorted and filtered via the options on the left of the screen.

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Individual posts include information and a number of possible actions that may be taken.

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A flag's State may be used to filter flagged content, and allows other Mods to see the current state of action. Possible flag States include:

New/Open Work in Progress Resolved Rejected

Flags may be assigned to a individual Mod, who will receive a notification. Notes can view by other Mods. Mods can also see a history of the actions taken with regard to this flag.

Moderation actions include:

Delete Post Message the poster via chat Ban the account temporarily, in a time period set in either hours or days Ban the account permanently Mute the account temporarily (muted users can view forum content but not post or communicate via chat) Permanently remove the user's content but leave the user account in place Permanently remove the user Permanently remove the user and their content

Categories are major topic areas for your forum. New NodeBB sites come with a few default categories, but these can easily be changed or deleted in the Admin panel, under the menu Manage > Categories.

You can add sub-categories to any category. In most NodeBB themes, sub-categories will appear to members as smaller listings in the main category listing, and on the top of the category page.

PLEASE NOTE: this screenshot may not match your current NodeBB installation

1) Category Privileges

Clicking on ‘Edit’ on the previous screen will show the individual category settings page.

2) User Privileges

Allows viewing and posting privileges to be defined for an individual users. This will be in addition to any group privileges they may have. Existing users may be added to this list using the “Add User” button.

3) Group Privileges

Allows viewing and posting privileges to be defined for groups. Existing groups may be added to this list using the “Add Group” button.

4) Copy from Category

Copies privileges from another category.

5) Copy to Children

Copies privileges from this category to any child categories, overwriting the privileges for the children.

6) Save changes

The ‘disk’ button at the bottom of the page saves any changes made to category settings. Changes not saved will be discarded.

PLEASE NOTE: this screenshot may not match your current NodeBB installation

1) Category Settings

Clicking on ‘Edit’ on the Categories page will reveal the individual category settings page.

2) Category Name & Description

Can be edited by clicking on the text.

3) Background & Text Colors

Can be changed by clicking and either entering a hex color code or selecting from a color picker.

4) Background Image Size

(Not supported by all themes.) For sizing theme background image.

5) Custom Class

Allows custom CSS attributes to be entered.

6) # of Recent Replies

Controls the number of recent replies to be displayed.

7) External Link

Allows the category link to open an external website in a new browser window.

8 ) Upload Image

Allows a new category image to be uploaded from a local computer.

9) Category Image

Allows a URL reference to be used in place of the uploaded category image.

10) Parent Category

Allows a category to be placed under another as a sub-category.

11) Copy settings from

Allows copying settings and privileges from another category.

12) Purge Category

Allows all topics and posts in category to be deleted.

13) Save changes

The ‘disk’ button at the bottom of the page saves any changes made to category settings. Changes that are not saved will be discarded after leaving this page.

PLEASE NOTE: this screenshot may not match your current NodeBB installation

1) Manage > Categories

Click MANAGE on the top navigation to reveal the drop-down menu, then click Categories.

2) Enable/Disable

The first button to the right of each category allows it to be togged between “Disabled” or “Enabled.”

3) Category analytics

The ‘chart’ button shows analytics for that category, including numbers of views and posts.

4) Edit category

Gives access to settings and privileges for that category (more on next page.)

5) Add category

The ‘plus sign’ button at the bottom of the page is used to create a new category.

Members will see all categories that they have permission to see, but they do have the ability to watch/unwatch individual categories. This will determine if new posts/topics show up in their unread listing.

You can create private groups for your forum, as well as categories that are only available to those within a particular group.

A category can be hidden to those who are not in a particular group. Access and visibility can be customized for each category, for example some categories could be readable by general users but only those in a particular group could post to it.

Categories that are hidden from a particular user simply do not show up in their view of the forum.

To begin, open the administrative dashboard using the 'gear' icon on your forum, and click the 'Appearance' menu.

NodeBB uses two main design concepts: the 'Theme', which defines the overall layout of forum topics and messages, and the 'Skin', which defines fonts and colors. Themes and Skins may be applied in different combinations to give your forum a unique look.

Themes

This forum is currently using the theme known as Persona. Here's a quick look at what the homepage, topic pages and messages look like using this particular theme.

By applying a different theme such as Vanilla, these different layout elements can be changed immediately. Note that selecting a different theme will require a restart of your forum, which can be done by going to the Dashboard menu, and Selecting Restart on the right.

After restarting, the forum homepage, topic view and messages are now all changed to match the Vanilla theme.

Skins

In addition to changing the layout with a different Theme, different colors and fonts can also be changed by applying a different Skin. NodeBB has a number of built in Skins, and unlike changing Themes, switching Skins does not require a forum restart: simply select the Skin you like, and view your forum to see how it looks. If you don't see the change right away, try refreshing your browser.

Custom CSS and HTML

Individual elements in NodeBB can be further styled by using the 'Custom CSS and HTML' menu. This requires some coding expertise, but it does provide a way to customize your forum even further.

YouTube Changing the appearance of your NodeBB forum