Securing a forum

[George1985]

I amke sure all my forum has SSL security enabled, especially for the members log-ins as well.

[fluver]

Excellent tip thanks

Lisa

fluver.com

[Mars Guitars]

Thanks Temi & Meti (hmmm... are you two related?) - some very useful tips.

[exn]

anybody tried a spam block programs for forum ? which one and which database of the banned spammers it uses ?
it's related to the security too, because some bots trying to use a common exploits for the popular forums automatically.. of course it does not work for a many cases, anyway it will be good do not give him to try.

[realestates010]

1. You might want to have staff selected from other sites before you open your board. It's ok if a guest comes by and finds the forum and registers - all that means is that your forum is inviting. Have you staff to start threads to make it more "welcoming" to guests with more chances to post in topics they like.
2. Keep your board open to suggestions! If the board not open to suggestions that what is a guest going to think? They don't have any suggestions? It's a forum for the people and should be built by the people over time. Do some of the suggestions but don't do too many at one time: It could cause members to get confused and get lost.
3. Have rules set up. Rules need to be set up to keep a forum orderly and get better rankings on search engines like google. Don't have your moderators be harsh about telling a member to follow the rules. Don't tell them that they'll get banned after they do something because this could intimate guests to not want to register because of a wrong move they might make.

[clcheapshoes520]

that is so important

[serena85]

I think some people are already mad with you because of this post you have revealed many secrets there...)

[logoonlinepros]

Some great tips you have posted above. I would like to thanks for this precious and useful stuff, i think you have described some vital and fundamental thing about forums. Great thinking!

[eUKhost]

You may also protect the admin directories (does not imply only for the forum but for other applications as well) using .htaccess/.htpasswd. Though the server would parse .php files normally, there are instances in which the httpd.conf file could get messed up so that the server returns the .php file unparsed.