TetraBB.com Home of Tetra-WebBBS and TetraBB PRO

: Thank you, Rainer. The .htaccess for defining DirectoryIndex
: worked, and I've managed to put the /lib and /bbs folders in the
: 'root' of my ftp area, so that's perfect.

Great.

: With regard to the 'secret' project, it's intended to be anonymous
: (i.e. separate from 'me'), but will be publicly visible when
: it's fully active. However, I'm trying to limit public posting
: permissions, etc.

ahh.... that's clear of course.

: I'd like to be able to limit posting new threads and responses to a
: few specific of users, say user a, b and c. Everyone else can
: view the entire forum, but can't post new threads or reply to
: any threads established a b or c.

: $AllowNewThreads and $AllowResponses seem like the ideal variables,
: but that limits everyone, even users a, b and c. I don't fully
: understand $LockRemoteUser (specifically the REMOTE_USER
: environment variable in .htaccess), but it seems like it would
: limit public viewing of the forum entirely.

: Ideally, I'd like the username, new / reply text box and other
: fields to not be visible to visitors unless they click on a log
: in link, and only able to log in if they are users a, b or c.
: Effectively, I want the forum to be read-only apart from three
: users.

The key to such a setup is to understand that with Tetra-WebBBS you may have more than one entry script for public users to access the same data with different privileges.

Assume you want a forum to be read by any random user.
Set it up with limited features.

Assume you want a few users to be able to post, then create a folder "/posters" on your site.
Password protect that folder using .htaccess and let each "poster" have his own credentials for login to the /posters folder.
Place a public forum entry script inside the /posters folder and set the $LockRemoteUser in section(3) of that entry script.
Now only those users can access this /posters script which have credentials for .htaccess password check and the entry script inside will automatically pick up the login name for posts.

To maintain the .htaccess password protection, you may create the files manually, use the control panell provided by your host or use some sort of membership software like Account Manager from siteinteractive:
http://www.siteinteractive.com/free-membership-software/

Remember: The key is to understand that more than one entry script to public forum can be used and that those different entry scripts may provide different features (configured in section(3) of each entry script.

: I appreciate I'm being vague / ambiguous and might be asking too
: much, so I hope I'm not being a pain! I appreciate your help!

Your always welcome to ask any question.
Only for a usefull answer one needs either a specific question or a description of what the goal is ... and sometimes some information only available via debug output

Enjoy!