Organization of content is key

IP.Board supports categories, forums and sub-forums in whatever hierarchy makes sense for your community. Each category and forum has individual permissions and settings, allowing you to precisely determine who can access what, and what they can do with it. There's also Redirect Forums, which appear in your forum listing as normal, but link to a URL you define - great for directing users to documentation or other important pages.

IP.Board automatically keeps track of unread content for your users

It's tough to keep up with all the content that is posted to an active community. Luckily, IP.Board automatically remembers what a user has seen, so that unseen content can be highlighted for them. Even if they read a topic and come back later, the topic will be highlighted for them if someone else has replied.

Plus, browsing into the topic will automatically take them to the first post they haven't seen before. IP.Board makes browsing a busy community efficient.

Quickly preview topics

With the Topic Preview feature, users can get a sample of a topic without leaving the page. A handy popup shows the first and first unread post, as well as an option to mark it as read if it doesn't interest them.

Multiple sorting options

Topics in a forum can be sorted in multiple ways: by last post, by topic started, by views or by a custom filter. Administrators can define the default sorting, while users can customize it to their own liking.

Topic tagging helps related content discovery

Users can choose to add tags to their topics to describe the subject they're writing about. Tags help other users to identify similar content - clicking a tag shows all topics and other content from the community that shares the same tag. IP.Board also shows a 'related topics' block at the bottom of topic pages to further highlight similar topics.

Administrators can choose whether to use 'open tagging', which allows users to specify their own tags, or 'closed tagging', which restricts their tag choices to only those pre-defined by the administrator.

Built-in spam defence

No-one likes spammers, but IP.Board makes use of our Spam Monitoring Service to help ensure spammers have a tough time getting into your community. When a user registers at your site, IP.Board can check with our central database of known spammers to see if there's a match. If there is, the user is banned or suspended immediately, before they can cause any trouble. It's just one of the ways that IP.Board proactively protects your community.

Honor staff roles with AdminCP Restrictions

The AdminCP is a hugely important part of your community full of user data, so naturally you don't want staff browsing it without a purpose. The AdminCP Restrictions feature of the IPS Community Suite allows you to specify exactly which sections of the control panel individual administrators can access - meaning you decide if your design team can only access template tools, or your billing team can only access customer transactions.

Logs show you what happened

The IPS Community Suite features extensive logging, to enable site owners to fully understand what is happening in their community. Logs kept include:

• All moderator actions
• User warnings
• Logins by administrators
• Results from the Spam Monitoring Service
• API usage
• Site errors (SQL, Email etc.)

Security isn't an afterthought

When it comes to user data and site reputation, you can't afford to choose software where security is tacked on. The IPS Community Suite is built from the ground up with security in mind with visible and invisible measures in place. Some of the measures include:

• CSRF protection
• .htaccess for AdminCP
• Secure cookies
• XSS protection
• Brute-force protection for user logins
• One-way hashing & salting of passwords

Content approval queue

IP.Board supports either a reactive or proactive moderation workflow, letting you either moderate content as it is reported, or approve all content before it is posted - and the choice can be made per-forum. If you choose the latter, as users create topics and posts, they're held in a queue for moderators to look over, either inline or in the dedicated moderator control panel. A single click is all it takes to approve content and have it show in the community.

User warning system allows custom sanctions

When troublesome users make themselves a nuicance, IP.Board provides a range of tools to help staff deal with the situation. The user warning system enables sanctions to be issued, ranging from a simple message sent to the user, right up to an outright permanent ban. Other options include a temporary suspension, or putting the user in the moderation queue, requiring all of their topics & posts to be approved by staff before they're shown.

Report Center alerts staff to questionable material

Sometimes the best alert to questionable content comes from other users. The Report Center built into the IPS Community Suite enables users to quickly notify staff when they spot something that needs attention. Reports are private and gathered in a central location for staff to review, comment on and action. Then, a button click marks the report as resolved.

Fully-featured text editor

IP.Board's text editor provides rich posting tools, letting users see how their post will look as they type it (also known as "what you see is what you get"). As well as all of the usual formatting options that would be expected, there's tools to post links, linked images, code and more. As administrator, you can even create custom 'BBCode' tags that let users achieve all kinds of formatting in their posts.

Automatic video & audio posting

When users post a link to a video from supported sites, IP.Board will automatically detect it and show an appropriate video player, enabling users to view and discuss them without leaving your site. We support several leading sites by default (YouTube, Vimeo and others), and you can easily support other services by specifying them in the AdminCP. As a bonus, MP3 audio files are also supported, and appear in an inline player right in the topic.

Speedy replying and editing

A quick reply form is available at the end of every topic page, making it incredibly easy for users to jump in and discuss. Editing is just as quick - clicking the button on a post loads the editor right there and then, and the user sees their changes immediately.

MultiQuote several posts at once

IP.Board makes replying to multiple posts in one go simpler than ever with the MultiQuote button. Users can select multiple posts - even posts in different topics - then hit reply to see them all included in the editor, ready for them to respond.

Built-in polls

Users can easily attach polls to their new topics - great for seeing what the community thinks! IP.Board polls have many of the features you'd expect from standalone poll software - public/private polls (allowing the topic starter to determine whether votes stay anonymous or not), multiple choice or single-choice only, and whether replies to the poll are accepted. As administrator, you can choose which members groups may start or vote in polls, too.

Easily share content from elsewhere in the community

With the My Media feature, users finally have a way of easily accessing all the great content they've posted somewhere else in the community, and using it in their topics and posts. Users simply click a button on the editor toolbar, and the My Media browser appears, categorizing their content by area. Content they choose to share is then inserted into the post ready for others to check out.

Custom profile fields for capturing additional user information

While IP.Board includes some default generic user fields, custom profile fields allow you to tailor the data gathered specifically to your needs. Fields are extensively configurable - choose whether their data shows in a users profile or only to staff (great for customer data), whether they're required or optional, and whether they are collected at registration time or later via the user control panel.

Fully customizable appearance, including per-forum theming

The IPS Community Suite includes incredibly powerful customization tools, allowing you to brand your community with almost limitless freedom. Match your existing website or develop an exciting new style.

IP.Board takes the customization further by allowing you to apply unique themes to individual forums within your community - useful if you have multiple brands that you're bringing together under one roof, or distinct subject areas that would be better served with their own styling.

Invite the world in with localization support

Every aspect of the IP.Board and IPS Community Suite interface is localized, enabling your community to appear in a huge range of languages. Our addon community has created language packs for many of the most-spoken languages in the world, and the IPS Community Suite includes a language manager allowing you to build your own, too. Right-to-left languages are supported, too.

Users can choose from the languages you support, and their selection is remembered every time they visit in future. IP.Board provides a friendly experience to all users, regardless of location.

Extend functionality with hooks & more

Extend what IP.Board and the IPS Community Suite can do by installing hooks (small plugins that change or improve existing functionality) and other addons. Installation is generally a one-click process. Hundreds of free and paid addons are available in the IPS Marketplace ready for you to install and boost what your community is capable of!

If you're a developer, we provide extensive documentation on extending our platform so that you can build and distribute your own addons.

Reputation points encourage quality contributions

Users can award reputation points for posts and comments that they like, and optionally, give negative points for poor content. Repuation points are great way for the community to indicate which content they appreciate and value.

Plus, since users accumlate reputation points they're awarded by others, it's always easy to see whether someone is an asset to the community. Special badges can be awarded at defined levels when users earn enough reputation points.

Notifications improve content awareness

Users don't need to let interesting content pass them by. IP.Board can automatically tell them when there's something interesting happening with the Follow This Forum/Topic feature. They'll be notified when there's an update, encouraging them to return time after time.

Users can configure what they're notified about - for example when someone quotes a post they've made, or when someone 'Likes' their content - and how, whether it's by email, mobile notification or a popup message in their browser.

It's convenient to find unread content

Users don't need to let great content pass them by just because they were offline. With the View New Content tool, all content posted since their last visit is conveniently listed, letting them get up to speed and find the interesting topics they missed. The tool can break down content by forum, time frame and more, and of course show content from the wider community - not just IP.Board.

Reward your best users

By using the group permission features of the IPS Community Suite, you can reward your active users by offering them additional perks such as access to new forums, more upload space, a special icon and more. And with the auto-promotion feature in IP.Board, they can be automatically promoted to a new member group when their post count reaches thresholds you define. It's a great way of showing apprecation to users who contribute most, and gives others something to aim towards.