Profile banners let members add custom background images to their public profiles. You can turn this into a paid feature by taking it away from regular members and selling it back to them. Start by changing the Registered group settings. Go to Groups & permissions, click on User groups, select Registered, and change Upload a profile banner to No. Save these changes, and nobody can use profile banners anymore.
You need a special group for people who pay for banners. Create a new group called Has profile banners. Find Groups and permissions, click User groups, choose Add user group, and type the name. In the permission chart, Set Upload a profile banner to Yes. Save everything when you finish. This creates your special group with banner...
You can make money from your XenForo site with a premium content area. First, create a new group called Subscribers. Then, set up a new forum named Premium Content. Make this forum private by checking that box in its permission settings. Head over to the Subscribers group and turn on the View node permission for them.
The private setting blocks everyone except those with special permission. Members need the View node permission to see anything in there. They automatically inherit other abilities like posting from their regular group settings. You must also give your admins and moderators access, or they will be locked out just like regular users.
Next comes the payment part. If you haven't already, set up a payment profile. Create a...
XenForo offers user upgrades as a way to earn money from your site. Members pay for better access or extra features through this system. When someone buys an upgrade, the system puts them into special user groups, which have more permissions than regular members.
If any feature or content uses the permission system, you can tie it to these upgrades. Setting up requires two main steps. First, create a payment profile under the Setup menu. This tells XenForo how to handle the money side of things.
After you have the payment profiles ready, you can make the actual upgrades. You decide the price, the length of the upgrade, and whether it renews automatically. Members find these options under Account upgrades in their menu when they want...
XenForo allows administrators to collect extra information from members through custom user fields. These values appear in messages or profiles, serve as internal data, or modify XenForo behaviors via template changes. Administrators can display this information anywhere they want or use it behind the scenes for site functionality. Setting up these fields requires several decisions about how users will interact with them.
Every custom user field needs an ID containing only alphanumeric characters. This ID cannot change after creation because the system references it internally. Administrators must know these IDs when implementing advanced features with custom fields. The system offers numerous configuration options regarding who can...
Custom user fields help you ask for extra information from users. When users sign up or fill out their profile, you can ask them questions beyond the basic stuff. The answers appear next to their messages or on their profile pages. You might create fields to learn about favorite colors, birthdays, game usernames, or anything else you want to know. These fields make your forum special because you decide what information matters. You pick a short name for each field made of letters and numbers. This short name helps the computer remember which field is which.
You can create two main kinds of fields. Text fields let users type whatever they want as answers. You decide if they can type just one line or many lines. You can also set rules...
After you search for users or see everyone, you can click any user name. This opens a screen where you see all their information. The page shows many parts like details, extra stuff, computer addresses, changes, and what they can do. When you change an administrator account, the system asks for your password first. This keeps important accounts safe. The details part lets you check and change things like names, email addresses, and pictures. You cannot see passwords but can make new ones for users. If someone has two-step checking turned on and has locked themselves out, you can turn it off for them.
You see which groups users belong to. Every user needs one main group but can join many other groups. We say keep the main group as...
Passwords protect user accounts on your forum. Many browsers have password helpers that create strong passwords that nobody can guess easily. You should tell users to try these tools. XenForo keeps passwords safe using special math that scrambles them. Nobody can see the real password after it happens - not even you! When users forget passwords, they must use the lost password link instead of asking you to tell them what it was. The system watches for people trying the wrong passwords. After four wrong tries, XenForo takes action. You can make users type a special code or lock their account for fifteen minutes. You control this through the Setup area under User options.
Your forum can ask for extra proof when users log in. This extra...
Users make a forum important. The Admin control panel has many tools to manage users in the Users section. Anyone who visits your forum counts as a user. People who sign up and log in become members. People who just look around without logging in are guests. Each user has their profile with special settings. Most things users can do depend on which user groups they belong to. User groups decide what people can see and do on your forum.
XenForo helps you find users with a big search system. You can look for users based on what they did or when they joined. You can also search by computer address. The system shows users in a list you can sort by different things like name or join date. You can save this list as a file on your computer...
Cron comes from an old computer tool named after Chronos, the Greek god of time. Cron helps XenForo plan when to do important jobs by itself. The system puts these jobs on a schedule. You can find all these jobs in the Tools part of your Admin control panel under Cron entries. These jobs help keep your website clean and updated without you needing to do anything. Each job happens at certain times to make sure your forum runs smoothly. Most of these jobs start working when someone visits your website. The system waits for a visitor to load a page, then begins working on its tasks quietly in the background.
Sometimes, you might need your server to start these jobs instead of waiting for visitors. You can change this setting by going to...
