Options Affecting Newly Posted Messages

These options are set from the Conv/Msg tab of the Options Manager interface. These "message options" affect new messages posted to the discussion board.

Activate links and e-mail addresses in messages: If checked, when a user enters a URL or an e-mail address in the text of their message, the program will "activate" the URL by creating a link to it. In the "Window Control" list, you can choose whether you on the new link to replace your board's frame set in the current window, open a new window, or replace the contents in the current frame (no window control). If you want to ensure that the user will not leave your board by clicking a link on a post, he should choose to have the links open in a new window.

Allow posts as "Anonymous": If checked, your "Add a Message" forms will have a box allowing the poster to post a message as "Anonymous." Note that the program will still keep a log of who the poster is regardless of whether or not you check this option. If you check this option, the anonymous posting feature may still be disabled through the Access Manager. If you uncheck this option, anonymous posting will be disabled everywhere on your board. The "Anonymous posters can choose displayed name" option is an advanced operation documented in the following comment.

Allow URLs to be entered in e-mail address box: If checked, when a visitor posts a message in a public area, and that visitor is not registered or did not type in a username or password, Discus will allow the e-mail field to contain a URL rather than an e-mail address. Clicking the link under the poster's name will bring up the requested URL. If this box is not checked, Discus will not permit URLs in the e-mail address at all.

Capitalize first letter in usernames: If checked, when a user posts a message and the username is to be displayed (in parentheses or as the name of the poster), the first letter is automatically capitalized. If this is unchecked, the username is displayed in all lower-case letters.

Double post protection (prevents duplicate postings): If checked, the program verifies that the same user did not post exactly that same message within the last two minutes, preventing annoying double posts. This is the default option. If unchecked, double post protection is not used, but we can't think of a single instance why you would not want double post protection to be enabled.

E-mail addresses with posts: If checked, when a message is posted by a registered user, the user's e-mail address from that user's profile is made available as a 'mailto' link on the post. Note that if you have Discus Pro, you probably wish to enable the "Links to profiles with posts" option instead. If both the "Links to profiles with posts" and "E-mail addresses with posts" are enabled, the "Links to profiles with posts" has precedence.

Formatting panel on message forms (in skins that support it): If checked, in the skin that you have selected supports the use of the formatting panel, a basic formatting panel will be displayed with all "Add a Message" forms. The formatting panel is considered an experimental feature in this release of Discus.

Full names on posts: If checked, the user's full name from that user's profile is displayed on the post. This is the default option, although it can be turned off on a per-topic basis through the Access Manager. If unchecked, the link is not created, which is useful if your users are abusing this function.

JavaScript warning if preview page was not loaded: If checked, Discus will use the onLoad JavaScript capabilities of the browser to make sure that the post preview page has loaded entirely before the form can be resubmitted. If the page wasn't properly loaded, data such as the username field and the end of the text may not properly be transmitted to the server. If you use this option and someone tries to submit the form before the page is done loading, an error message will be issued in a JavaScript box. If you or your users will find this safeguard annoying, then don't enable this option.

Limit length of public posters' names to ___ characters: If checked, you can limit the length of names used by your unregistered guests (public posters) to the number of characters you specify. For this option to work, you must both check the box and supply a valid character limit.

Limit maximum word length in posts to ___ characters: If checked, the length of words will be capped at the limit you specify. This is an important setting if your messages are displayed within a table, as a very long "word" within a table can cause that table to extend beyond the screen, thus making it very difficult to read messages in the table. DiscusWare recommends a word length limit of 80 characters.

Links to profiles with posts: If checked, when a new message is posted, a link to the profile of the user posting the message will be made available with the message. Clicking on this link will bring up a display of that user's profile. This is the default option, although it can be turned off on a per-topic basis through the Access Manager. DiscusWare recommends that you leave this option checked. This option appears only in Discus Pro. If both the "Links to profiles with posts" and "E-mail addresses with posts" are enabled, the "Links to profiles with posts" has precedence.

Queued messages note what moderator approved them: If checked, messages added via the message queue function will include a note that states which moderator approved the message. As message queuing is a feature available only in Discus Pro, this option is not available in the freeware version.

Perform HTML to formatting tag conversion: If checked, basic HTML tags, such as bold, italics, links, and colors, are converted into Discus formatting tags, ensuring valid HTML in the post and protecting against malicious JavaScript, SSIs, META tags, etc. This is the default option, and is useful for large public boards with users who will be visiting infrequently and thus do not wish to learn the Discus formatting tags. If unchecked, the HTML code will be rendered as "escaped" HTML code in the post. Conversion is invoked only if the user has not used other formatting in the post (since it is assumed that if other formatting is used, the user knows the formatting language and does not need to use HTML).

Smart interpretation of URLs non-compliant with RFC 2141: Some URLs, used primarily by news sites, contain a series of commas and numbers. The use of unencoded comments is not valid URL syntax according to RFC 2141, but sites seem to do it anyway. This presents problems using Discus formatting tags, as the comma is the delimiter between the URL and the text description thereof. If this box is checked, when a non-compliant URL is entered using a formatting tag, Discus will re-parse the URL to attempt to make the outcome be as the poster intended. Note that the poster could also manually escape commas in URLs such as these (placing a backslash before the comma, as documented in the formatting instructions).

Username in (parentheses) on posts: If checked, posts by registered users and moderators are placed after the full name on the post to indicate that the post was made by a registered user or moderator. This option was recommended in previous versions of Discus to prevent forgery, but it's largely been replaced with the capability of skins to display the poster's username, and the Discus Pro feature to prevent unregistered guests from impersonating registered users.