There are several reasons why this could occur. First, ensure your username and password are correct. If they are, contact the board owner to make sure you haven’t been banned. It is also possible the website owner has a configuration error on their end, and they would need to fix it.

You may not have to, it is up to the administrator of the board as to whether you need to register in order to post messages. However; registration will give you access to additional features not available to guest users such as definable avatar images, private messaging, emailing of fellow users, usergroup subscription, etc. It only takes a few moments to register so it is recommended you do so.

If you do not check the Log me in automatically box when you login the board will only keep you logged in for a preset time. This prevents misuse of your account by anyone else. To stay logged in check the box during login, this is not recommended if you access the board from a shared computer, e.g. library, internet cafe, university computer lab, etc. If you do not see this check box, it means your administrator has disabled this feature.

In your profile you will find an option Hide your online status, if you switch this on you’ll only appear to board administrators, moderators, or to yourself. You will be counted as a hidden user.

Don’t panic! While your password cannot be retrieved, it can be reset. To do this go to the login page and click I’ve forgotten my password, follow the instructions and you should be able to log in again in no time.

Firstly check your are entering the correct username and password. If they are okay then one of two things may have happened. If COPPA support is enabled and you clicked the I am under 13 years old link while registering then you will have to follow the instructions you received. If this is not the case then does your account need activating? Some boards will require all new registrations be activated, either by yourself or by the administrator before you can logon. When you registered it would have told you whether activation was required. If you were sent an email then follow the instructions, if you did not receive the email then are you sure your email address is valid? One reason activation is used is to reduce the possibility of rogue users abusing the board anonymously. If you are sure the email address you used is valid then try contacting the board administrator.

The most likely reasons for this are; you entered an incorrect username or password (check the email you were sent when you first registered) or the administrator has deleted your account for some reason. If it is the later case then perhaps you did not post anything? It is usual for boards to periodically remove users who have not posted anything so as to reduce the size of the database. Try registering again and get involved in discussions.

COPPA, or Child Online Privacy and Protection Act of 1998 is a law in the United States that requires website that can potentially collect information from minors under the age of 13 to have written parental consent, or some other method of the legal guardians acknowledging they are allowing the collection of personally identifiable information from a minor under the age of 13. If you are unsure if this applies to you as someone trying to register, or to the website you are trying to register on, contact legal counsel for assistance. Please note that the phpBB Team cannot provide legal advice and are not the point of contact for legal concerns of any kind, except as outlined below.

It is possible the website owner has banned your IP address or disallowed the username you are attempting to register. The website owner could have also disabled registration to prevent new visitors from signing up. Contact the board administrator for assistance.

Delete all board cookies deletes the cookies created by phpBB3 which keeps you authenticated and logged into the board, and also provides functions such as read tracking if set by the board owner.

All your settings (if you are registered) are stored in the database. To alter them click the UCP link (generally shown at the top of pages but this may not be the case). This will allow you to change all your settings and preferences.

Though there are rare occurrences of the website’s server having the wrong time, the times are probably correct. However; what you may be seeing are times displayed in a timezone different from the one you are in. If this is the case you should change your profile setting for the timezone to match your particular area, e.g. London, Paris, New York, Sydney, etc. Please note that changing the timezone, like most settings can only be done by registered users. So if you are not registered this is a good time to do so, if you pardon the pun!

If you are sure you have set the timezone correctly and the time is still different the most likely answer is daylight savings time (or summer time as it is known in the UK and other places). The board is not designed to handle the changeovers between standard and daylight time so during summer months the time may be an hour different from the real local time.

The most likely reasons for this are either the administrator did not install your language or someone has not translated this board into your language. Try asking the board administrator if they can install the language pack you need, if it does not exist then please feel free to create a new translation. More information can be found at the phpBB Group website (see link at bottom of pages).

There may be two images below a username when viewing posts. The first is an image associated with your rank, generally these take the form of stars or blocks indicating how many posts you have made or your status on the board. Below this may be a larger image known as an avatar, this is generally unique or personal to each user. It is up to the board administrator to enable avatars and they have a choice over the way in which avatars can be made available. If you are unable to use avatars then this is the decision of the board admin, you should ask them their reasons.

In general you cannot directly change the wording of any rank (ranks appear below your username in topics and on your profile depending on the style used). Most boards use ranks to indicate the number of posts you have made and to identify certain users, e.g. moderators and administrators may have a special rank. Please do not abuse the board by posting unnecessarily just to increase your rank, you will probably find the moderator or administrator will simply lower your post count.

Sorry but only registered users can send email to people via the built-in email form (if the admin has enabled this feature). This is to prevent malicious use of the email system by anonymous users.

To post a new topic in one of the forums, click the relevant button on either the forum or topic screens. You may need to register before you can post a message, the facilities available to you are listed at the bottom of the forum and topic screens (the You can post new topics, You can vote in polls, etc. list).

Unless you are the board admin or forum moderator you can only edit or delete your own posts. You can edit a post (sometimes for only a limited time after it was made) by clicking the edit button for the relevant post. If someone has already replied to the post you will find a small piece of text output below the post when you return to the topic, this lists the number of times you edited it. This will only appear if no one has replied, it also will not appear if moderators or administrators edit the post (they should leave a message saying what they altered and why). Please note that normal users cannot delete a post once someone has replied.

To add a signature to a post you must first create one, this is done via your profile. Once created you can check the Add Signature box on the posting form to add your signature. You can also add a signature by default to all your posts by checking the appropriate radio box in your profile (you can still prevent a signature being added to individual posts by un-checking the add signature box on the posting form).

Creating a poll is easy, when you post a new topic (or edit the first post of a topic, if you have permission) you should see an Add Poll form below the main posting box (if you cannot see this then you probably do not have rights to create polls). You should enter a title for the poll and then at least two options (to set an option type in the poll question and click the Add option button. You can also set a time limit for the poll, 0 is an infinite poll. There will be a limit to the number of options you can list, this is set by the board administrator.

As with posts, polls can only be edited by the original poster, a moderator or board admin. To edit a poll click the first post in the topic (this always has the poll associated with it). If no one has cast a vote then users can delete the poll or edit any poll option, however if people have already placed votes only moderators or administrators can edit or delete it. This is to prevent people rigging polls by changing options mid-way through a poll

Some forums may be limited to certain users or groups. To view, read, post, etc. you may need special authorization, only the forum moderator and board admin can grant this access, you should contact them.

Only registered users can vote in polls (so as to prevent spoofing of results). If you have registered and still cannot vote then you probably do not have appropriate access rights.

The ability to add attachments can be done on a per forum, per group, or per user basis. The board administrator may not have allowed attachments to be added for the specific forum you are posting in, or perhaps only the administrator group can post attachments. Contact the board administrator if you are unsure about why you are unable to add attachments.

Each board administrator has their own set of rules for their site. If they feel you have broken one of your rules, they may issue you a warning. Please note that this is the board administrator’s decision, and the phpBB Group does not have anything to do with the warning on the given site.

If the board administrator has allowed it, go to the post you want to report and you should see a button that is for reporting posts. Clicking this will walk you through the steps necessary to report the post.

This allows you to save messages to be completed and submitted at a later date. To reload them, go to the User Control Panel and follow the self explanatory options there.

The board administrator may decide that the forum you are posting to needs to have posts reviewed first. It is also possible that the administrator has placed you in to a group of users whom he or she feels is a group that needs to have their posts reviewed before being submitted to the site. Please contact the board administrator for further details.

By clicking the “Bump topic” link when you are viewing it, you can “bump” the topic to the top of the forum on the first page. However, if you do not see this, then topic bumping is disabled. It is also possible to bump the topic simply by replying to it. However, be sure to follow the rules of the site you are visiting.

BBCode is a special implementation of HTML, whether you can use BBCode is determined by the administrator (you can also disable it on a per post basis from the posting form). BBCode itself is similar in style to HTML, tags are enclosed in square braces [ and ] rather than < and > and it offers greater control over what and how something is displayed. For more information on BBCode see the guide which can be accessed from the posting page.

No. It is not possible to post HTML on this board and have it rendered as HTML. Most formatting which can be carried out using HTML can also be applied using BBCode instead.

Smilies, or Emoticons are small graphical images which can be used to express some feeling using a short code, e.g. :) means happy, :( means sad. The full list of emoticons can be seen via the posting form. Try not to overuse smileys though, they can quickly render a post unreadable and a moderator may decide to edit them out or remove the post altogether.

Yes, images can be shown in your posts. However; if the administrator has allowed attachments, you may be able to upload the image to the board. Otherwise, you must link to an image stored on a publicly accessible web server, e.g. http://www.example.com/my-picture.gif. You cannot link to pictures stored on your own PC (unless it is a publicly accessible server) nor images stored behind authentication mechanisms, e.g. hotmail or yahoo mailboxes, password protected sites, etc. To display the image use the BBCode [img] tag.

Global announcements contain important information and you should read them as soon as possible. Global announcements will appear at the top of every forum and also within your User Control Panel. Whether or not you can post a gloabl announcement depends on the permissions required, these are set by the administrator.

Announcements often contain important information for the forum you are currently reading and you should read them as soon as possible. Announcements appear at the top of every page in the forum to which they are posted. As with global announcements, whether or not you can post an announcement depends on the permissions required, these are set by the administrator.

Sticky topics appear below any announcements in viewforum and only on the first page. They are often quite important so you should read them where possible. As with announcements the board administrator determines what permissions are required to post sticky topics in each forum.

Locked topics are set this way by either the forum moderator or board administrator. You cannot reply to locked topics and any poll it contained is automatically ended. Topics may be locked for many reasons.

Topic icons are images which can be assosciated with posts to indicate their content. The ability to use topic icons depends on the permissions set by the administrator.

Administrators are people assigned the highest level of control over the entire board. These people can control all facets of board operation which includes setting permissions, banning users, creating usergroups or moderators, etc, dependant on the board founder and what permissions he or she has given the other administrators. They can also have full moderator capabilities in all the forums, depending on what the board founder has allowed.

Moderators are individuals (or groups of individuals) whose job it is to look after the running of the forums from day to day. They have the power to edit or delete posts and lock, unlock, move, delete and split topics in the forum they moderate. Generally moderators are there to prevent people going off-topic or posting abusive or offensive material.

Usergroups are a way in which board administrators can group users. Each user can belong to several groups (this differs from most other boards) and each group can be assigned individual access rights. This makes it easy for administrators to set up several users as moderators of a forum, or to give them access to a private forum, etc.

To join a Usergroup click the Usergroup link within your User Control Panel, you can then view all usergroups. Not all groups are open access, some may require approval to join, some are closed and some may even have hidden memberships. If the group is open then you can join it by clicking the appropriate button. If a group requires approval to join you may request to join it by clicking the appropriate button. The user group moderator will need to approve your request, they may ask why you want to join the group. Please do not pester a group moderator if they turn your request down, they will have their reasons.

When Usergroups are initially created by the board administrator, they also assign a Usergroup moderator. If you are interested in creating a Usergroup then your first point of contact should be the administrator, try sending them a private message.

It is possible for the board administrator to assign a colour to the members of a usergroup to make it easy to identify the members of this group.

If you are a member of more than one usergroup, your default is used to determine which group colour and group rank should be shown for you by default. The board administrator may grant you permission to change your default usergroup via your User Control Panel.

This page provides you with a list of the board staff, including board administrators and moderators which includes details of which forums they moderate.

There are three reasons for this; you are not registered and/or not logged on, the board administrator has disabled private messaging for the entire board, or the board administrator has prevented you from sending messages. If it is the latter case you should try asking the administrator why.

You may block a user from sending you private messages by using message rules within your User Control Panel. If you are receiving abusive private messages from someone inform the board admin, they have the power to prevent a user from sending private messages at all.

We are sorry to hear that. The email form feature of this board includes safeguards to try and track users who send such posts. You should email the board administrator with a full copy of the email you received, it is very important this include the headers (these list details of the user that sent the email). They can then take action.

You can use these lists to organise other members of the forum. Members added to your friends list will be listed within your User Control Panel for quick access to see their online status and to send them private messages. Subject to template support, posts from these users may also be highlighted. If you add a user to your foes list them any posts made by them will be hidden by default.

You can add users to your list in two ways. Within each user’s profile, there is a link to add them to either your friend or foe list. Alternatively from your User Control Panel, you can directly add users by entering their member name. You may also remove users from your list using the same page.

By entering a search term in the search box located on the index view, forum view or topic view. Advanced search can be accessed by clicking the “Search” link which is available on all pages on the forum.

Your search was probably too vague and included many common terms which are not indexed by phpBB3. Be more specific and use the options available within Advanced search.

Your search returned too many results for the webserver to handle. Use Advanced search and be more specific in the terms used and forums that are to be searched.

Go to the “Members” page and click the “Find a member” link. Once there, fill out the self explanatory options.

Your own posts can be retrieved either by clicking the “Search user’s posts” within the User Control Panel or via your own profile page. To search for your topics, use the Advanced search page and fill in the various options appropiately.

Bookmarking in phpBB3 is much like bookmarking in your web browser. You aren’t necessarily alerted when there’s an update, but you can later come back to the topic. To contrast that with subscribing, subscribing will notify you when there is an update to the topic or forum on the board via your preferred method or methods.

To subscribe to a specific forum, once you enter the forum, you will see a “Subscribe to forum” link. This will subscribe you to the forum just like you would for a topic. To subscribe to a topic, you can either reply to the topic and check the checkbox to subscribe or you can click the link that says subscribe to topic from within the topic itself.

To remove your subscriptions, you simply go to your User Control Panel, or UCP for short, and follow the links to your subscriptions.

Each board administrator can allow or disallow certain attachment types. If you are unsure what is allowed to be uploaded, contact the board administrator for assistance.

To find your list of attachments that you have uploaded, go to your User Control Panel, or UCP, and follow the links to the attachments section.

This software (in its unmodified form) is produced, released and is copyright phpBB Group. It is made available under the GNU General Public Licence and may be freely distributed, see link for more details

This software was written by and licensed through phpBB Group. If you believe a feature needs to be added then please visit the phpbb.com website and see what phpBB Group have to say. Please do not post feature requests to the board at phpbb.com, the Group uses sourceforge to handle tasking of new features. Please read through the forums and see what, if any, our position may already be for a feature and then follow the procedure given there.

You should contact the administrator of this board. If you cannot find who this you should first contact one of the forum moderators and ask them who you should in turn contact. If still get no response you should contact the owner of the domain (do a whois lookup) or, if this is running on a free service (e.g. yahoo, free.fr, f2s.com, etc.), the management or abuse department of that service. Please note that phpBB Group has absolutely no control and cannot in any way be held liable over how, where or by whom this board is used. It is absolutely pointless contacting phpBB Group in relation to any legal (cease and desist, liable, defamatory comment, etc.) matter not directly related to the phpbb.com website or the discrete software of phpBB itself. If you do email phpBB Group about any third party use of this software then you should expect a terse response or no response at all.