How to Configure User Registration Settings in phpBB 3.0

When customizing your site and its behavior, you do not want to forget the user registration settings. From within the administrative dashboard in phpBB, you can tailor the settings for such features as password width, username width, the number of posts a user must hit before no longer being considered ‘new’, etc. This article discusses all the different settings found for user registration in your phpBB 3.0 site.

Setting up User Registration Settings in phpBB 3.0

1. Log into your phpBB admin dashboard.
2. From there, click on the General tab if the screen is not already focused on it.
3. Once you land on the General tab you will see several categories listed on the left hand sidebar. Click on the User Registration Settings link found under the Board Configuration category.
   
4. This brings you to the User Registration Settings page. The settings are divided up into three categories: General Settings, General Options, and COPPA.
   General Settings
   

   Account Activation	This setting is the master switch and will turn the ATOM feeds either on or off entirely. This setting supercedes all other settings on the page.
   New Member Post Limit	Enabling this setting allows the display of individual statistics on the feed items such as views, replies, date and time, etc.
   Set Newly Registered Users Group to Default	This setting can be used to enable HTTP authentication to allow users to receive content otherwise hidden to guest users.
   Username Length	This setting allows you to control the minimum and maximum length of user names.
   Password Length	As above with the username, this setting allows you to set the minimum and maximum length of the user password.
   Limit Username Chars	This setting lets you set the allowed composition of the username from the dropdown. The settings are as follows: Any Character Alphanumeric Only Alphanumeric and spacers Any letter and number Any letter, number, and spacer ASCII (no international unicode)
   Password Complexity	Allows you to set the required complexity of the password from the dropdown list. No requirements Must be mixed case Must contain letters and numbers Must contain symbols
   Force Password Change	This setting forces users to change their passwords after the set number of days. Setting this to 0 disables this feature.

   General Options
   

   Allow username changes	Set to Yes if you wish to allow users to have the ability to change their usernames.
   Allow e-mail address re-use	If enabled, this allows the use of an email address for more than one user account.
   Enable spambot countermeasures for registrations	This requires users to pass an anti-spambot task to prove they are human, if enabled.
   Maximum number of login attempts per username	Sets the nuber of login failures that will then trigger an anti-spambot task. Setting to 0 prevents it from being triggered.
   Registration attempts	The number of attempts a user can try with the anti-spambot task before they are locked out of that.

   
   COPPA
   

   Enable COPPA	Enabling this requires users to state whether they are over the age of 13 in compliance with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
   COPPA mailing address	The mailing address to which parents will send COPPA registration forms.
   COPPA Fax Number	Fax number for COPPA verifications.

5. Once you have your desired settings configured, click on the Submit

Congratulations, now you know how to configure user registration settings in phpBB!