How to get your Message Board Community up & running quickly

Your X5 message board is ready to use as soon as it is activated. You can launch your board immediately and start building categories and boards within minutes if you are familiar with how message boards function. However, if you want to go through the recommended system setup which insures you have chosen your preferences and desired settings we recommend you follow our X5 - 10 Step Quick Start System. Depending on how extensive your community is, the Quick Start System can take a minimum of 10 - 15 min.

1.    Change your password

To ensure your password is secure we recommend that you change your password after activation.

1. Login
   
2. Click Profile
   
3. Click on Account Related Settings
   
4. Scroll to fourth section on page
   
5. Enter in your new password
6. Click Save

2.    Choose your member registration type. 

This option determines what method of registration is used for people wishing to join your message board forum. You can select from:

• Registration Disabled:
  Disables the registration process, which means that no new members can register to join your forum.
   

• Immediate Registration
  New members can login and post immediately after registering on your forum.
   

• Member Activation
  When this option is enabled any members registering to the forum will have a activation link emailed to them which they must click before they can become full members
   

• Member Approval
  This option will make it so all new members registering to your forum will need to be approved by the admin before they become members.

How to choose registration type:

1. Click on Admin
2. Click on Edit Features and Options
3. Scroll down to fourth section  Method of registration employed for new members and choose registration type from drop down menu
4. Click Save

3.    Modify your registration agreement (optional)

This allows you to set the text for the registration agreement displayed when members sign up for your message board forum. You can add or remove anything from the default registration agreement, which is included in X5.  You can skip this step if you choose and use the X5 default registration agreement.

1. Click Admin
   
2. Click on  Edit Registration Agreement
   
3. Follow directions on page and click Save

4.   Setup your board preferences (time zone, calendar, karma, etc)

This option allows you to choose your desired preferences and settings to insure that your board is customized to your liking.

1. Click Admin
   
2. Click on  Edit Features and Options
   
3. Scroll down page and setup all your preferences, then click Save

5.   Setup groups  (optional)

By creating member groups you can control privileges/access levels of members. For example: Some groups can view certain boards while other can access all boards.  X5 comes with basic group’s setup already so you can skip this step and come back later after you have members if you choose.

1. Click Admin
   
2. Click on  Edit Member Groups
   
3. Follow instructions on page, then click  Save

6.   Setup permissions  (optional)

Permissions are how you either allow groups to, or deny groups from, doing specific things.  For example: You could give a group permission to vote on polls but not create polls.  X5 comes with basic permissions setup already so you can skip this step and come back later after you have members if you choose.

1. Click Admin
2. Click on  Edit Permissions
3. Follow instructions on page, then click  Save

7.   Chose your message board color

You have a choice of either going with the default colors (the one you have now), choosing one of the custom designed skins we have provided or you can create your own colors using HTML code. See below for instructions on choosing one of our skins or creating your own using HTML:

A. How to choose a new color/skin for your board using our pre-made designs.

1. Click Admin
2. Click Theme and Layout Settings
3. Scroll down to the fourth option (“Reset everyone to”) and choose one of the color combinations from the drop down menu.
4. Click Save

B. How to edit board colors & fonts using HTML

1. Click Admin
2. Click Theme and Layout Settings to edit any of the themes provided (except the default) that one cannot be edited.
   
3. Click on the desired theme under Theme Settings heading
4. Click on: Modify the style.css file. (colors, fonts, etc.)
5. Edit HTML code on page

8.   Edit news Section

X5 comes with two news sections (options) where you can post important information to grab your member's attention. You can choose to enable or disable both features and add the text that you wish.

A. Create News (text)