Forum Name

[Forum Name]

So you've arrived at this Simple Machines Forum (SMF)! Perhaps you've been looking at the board index or a screen telling you that you need to register before you can read it and you're wondering what to do next?

Well, some forums permit guests to read and post, some permit guests to read only and some are restricted to registered members. We'd recommend registering at any forum that you see yourself using regularly because many of the most useful features will only become available to you when you do so. Since SMF, however, is such a flexible system that few forums are likely to be identical, we will start by describing four key areas that we'd normally expect to be there for you:

1. The Main Menu
2. The Board Index
3. The Message Index
4. The Topic

The Main Menu

Supposing you've arrived here as a guest (or have registered but are currently logged out), the main menu (which appears on every page) should normally comprise five or six buttons (or text links):

• Home, which takes you back to the board index.
• Help, which brings you to this guide.
• Search, which allows you to search the forums for whatever you're looking for.
• Calendar, which links to the forum calendar (if enabled).
• Login, which allows you to login if already registered.
• Register, which allows you to register (or sometimes apply for registration) when you wish to do so.

Once you've registered and logged in, however, the main menu should look a little different:

• Home (as before).
• Help (as before).
• Search (as before).
• Profile, which allows you to make changes to your profile settings.
• Calendar (as before).
• Logout, which allows you to logout again if desired.

Forum administrators should also note the presence of an additional Admin button.

The Board Index

While the board index (forum home page) is packed with all kinds of information and links, the core of the interface (at least in the SMF default theme) normally looks something like this:

Forum Name

Category Name
	Board Name Board Description	Number of topics and posts in this board	Date, time, subject and author of last post

New Posts  No New Posts

• The forum name links back to the top of the board index.
• If the category is collapsable (shown by the little arrow symbol), clicking the category name collapses or expands the category as appropriate.
• The board name links to the message index for that board.
• The board description describes the board's content, and may also include links to child boards and/or specify the board's moderator(s).
• The New Posts and No New Posts icons in the leftmost column show registered members whether there have been any new posts to the board since they last read it.
• The Mark as Read button enables registered members to mark all posts in the entire forum as 'read'.

The Message Index

Like the board index, the message index interface is quite straightforward when reduced to its essential components:

Forum Name   Category Name   Board Name

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