Creating a new forum in phpBB 3.0

One of the basic features of a  board administrator is to create new forums for your users in your phpBB board. The ability to create forums is only found in the Administator Control Panel, so only those with access to that panel can do so. Forums are ‘containers’ that house the topics and replies. They are usually organized in some way. For example, if you have a ‘Sports’ category, you may want to have separate ‘Baseball’ and ‘Basketball’ forums. Inside each, the users will create different topics about their respecitve sport. The instructions below will demonstrate how to create a brand new forum for your site.

How to create a new forum in phpBB 3.0

  1. Log into your phpBB Administrator Control Panel (ACP).
  2. From there, click on the Forums tab located across the top of the page.
  3. This brings you to the Forums management screen. In the lower right corner of the screen, enter the name of the your new forum. Click on the Create New Forum button. In our example, the forum is named First New Forum.
    forum-manage-screen
  4. You will be taken to the forum settings page. The top section is the most important for new forums. There are several fields and settings to set up and customize when creating a new forum. Below is a table of the basic fields and their explanations. If you are unsure about the settings here, don’t worry. They can always be changed later on. There are other sections below with many more settings for customization, but they are not important to the forum’s creation and will be explained in later articles.
    new-forum-settings
    Forum TypeChoose your forum type from the dropdown (Category, Forum, Link). In this case, we want to choose Forum.
    Parent ForumSelect the parent of your new forum. You can have unlimited subfolders and place a new forum under a category, another forum, or have it be independent. In our example. we are going to place the forum under the category named Your First Category.
    Copy Permissions FromSelect a forum to copy your permissions from. If none, you will need to create permissions before it is active. Since we are provided with a default forum to select from, we will copy permissions from Your First Forum.
    Forum NameGive your forum a name.
    DescriptionA statement describing the forum and its purpose.
    Forum ImageInput the path for the forum’s image. This is not a required field, so if you do not have an image ready or do not want one, simply leave it blank.
    Forum PasswordIf you want to password protect your forum, enter the desired password here.
    Confirm Forum PasswordRe-enter the same password as above for confirmation.
    Forum StyleSelect your forum’s style from the dropdown. This is a cosmetic change and can be changed later, so if you are unsure, simply leave Default Style selected.
  5. Once you have configured your first forum, scroll to the bottom and click on the Submit button to save your new forum and it’s configuration. Your new forum will now appear in the forum list for its appropriate category. You will see it from the main screen when you click on the parent category.
    new forum display

    Now that you have learned to create a forum, you can either wait for visitors to register and create their own topics, or you may want to create a few topics of your own.

12 thoughts on “Creating a new forum in phpBB 3.0

  1. Hello Scott,

    Thank you for your reply which I recieved but I have a link please check it https://www.freeforums.org/ . It is working as I asked you before its appearing before the domain name. I have one more question regarding PHPBB is that How we can make a custom page as it is appearing in the url which I have provided.

     

    Thank you

    1. Hello Anup,

      What kind of custom page are you trying to create? Do you mean a custom page within your phpBB installation?

  2. Hello

    I want to integrate a new forum into url.

    for ex:yourdomain.com

    new forum name=anup

    This forum should appear in to the uRL format like

    anup.yourdomain.com

    1. Hello Anup,

      To our knowledge this is not something that can be done. The forum URLs use variable identifiers, which cannot be utilized in creating a subdomain.

      Kindest Regards,
      Scott M

  3. Hey… I created a forum, but it’s not showing it. I created a category and a forum parented by it, but it simply doesn’t show it.

  4. Hello Arn,

    The forum software is free but to enjoy a phpBB3 forum, you need to pay a server, a domain name and install it 🙂 ! Thanks for all the information, it will be really helpful for me.

     

    Best,

    1. Hello Calvin,

      InMotion Hosting is a hosting company that provides the hosting server, and domain name services. We also provide the server interface software (cPanel) that houses the Softaculous software that allows you to install the software (for free).

      Regards,
      Arnel C.

  5. Hi,

    I created a new forum in phpBB3 directly on https://www.forumotion.com. What do you think about this platform please ? Because it seems easier than phpbb. But I’m not sure there are the same options and features. It’s a really recent forums, if phpbb it’s better, I can change but it’s not free, right ?

     

    Thank you for your help Scott !

    1. Hello Calvin,

      Thanks for the question. I’m not sure what version of PHPBB that you’re referring to as the one we offer is PHPBB 3.0.12. I’m not aware of a paid version known as phpBB3. The software is free, to my knowledge. You can obtain it through Softaculous or you can go directly to their website.

      phpBB has been around for many years and is still in use by many users, so the platform definitely has some positive value for forum use. In regards to your question, I can’t really make a recommendation other than to say that the 3.x versions have many improvements and will be more secure.

      Hope that helps to answer your questions!

      Regards,
      Arnel C.

  6.  

    Dear sir, I can not open my PHPBB forum for a few days .. 

    Sir, PHPBB forum can’t be opened for 3 days .. by YanSteven
    need help .. thanks a lot  ..
     
    Forum address:
     my registration email address : [email protected] 
     
    Original Reg. to PHPBB on Oct. 2007 ]
     
     
    1. Hello YanSteven,

      When attempting to visit your domain, I get a message it cannot be located. When I look for the location of the site, there are no public DNS records showing. You may want to contact your host or registrar to see why the domain is not pointing anywhere at the moment.

      Kindest Regards,
      Scott M

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