ExpressionEngine Docs

# Forum User Management

- Administrators
- Moderators
- Member Ranks

In addition to the regular permissions you set up for your Member Groups earlier (see above), there are two special levels that you can assign to users: Administrator and Moderator. You can assign the Administrator or Moderator level to either an entire Member Group or simply to individual members of your site. In this way you have flexibility as to how you assign these special privileges.

You may also set up “Member Ranks”, which are sort of steps that users can reach, upon which they gain particular titles.

You access these areas under the User Management tab in the Forum Module.

## Administrators

The Administrators section is accessed by clicking the orange icon associated with a forum board. Administrators are very powerful users. Administrators have all rights when it comes to the forums. They can ban users, delete posts, move threads, close threads, etc. They have the same rights that a member of the “Super Admin” Member Group does, except they can’t ban SuperAdmins or delete threads made by a SuperAdmin.

Administrators in the forums are very powerful. Be extremely careful when assigning this privilege to a member or Member Group.

## Moderators

The Administrators section is accessed by clicking the blue icon associated with a forum board. Moderators are special members or Member Groups. You can add Moderators on a forum-by-forum basis and assign them permissions above and beyond those you normally assign through the regular forum permissions.

There are six additional permissions that you can grant a Moderator:

- Can Edit Posts: The Moderator can edit posts by other members in addition to their own.
- Can Move Posts: The Moderator can move posts between forums. For instance, if a thread was started in the wrong forum the Moderator can move it to the correct one.
- Can Delete Posts: The Moderator can delete posts.
- Can Change Post Status: The Moderator can change the status of a post, so they can close a post to new replies.
- Can Post Announcements: The Moderator can post an “announcement” that shows up in all forums.
- Can View IP Addresses: The Moderator can see the IP address of all users who leave posts or replies.

Remember, these permissions are in addition to any that may already be assigned to the Member Group when the forum was set up.

## Member Ranks

Here you can set up levels or steps that users of the forums can reach. For instance, you might set it so that all users who have less than 50 posts are labeled as “New Member”. Those with 51-200 might be “Regular Member”.

When you create a Member Rank, you assign it a title, set a minimum number of posts that must be reached in order for that Rank to apply, and then set how many “stars” will appear for users of that Rank.