S8Forum v3.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author: Kelli Shaver
E-Mail: s8forum@kellishaver.com
Website: http://www.kellishaver.com/downloads/s8forum_v3-0.zip
Release Date: 19 November, 2001
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright:

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify  	
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by  
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or	    	
(at your option) any later version.  However, please leave the original
"authored by" statement in tact -- feel free to add to it, though and take
credit for your modifications.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
System Requirements:

S8Forum requires that PHP4 be installed on your system and that session
support be enabled.  For ease of use, it is _highly_ reccommended that PHP
not be running in Safe Mode.

S8Forum works fine on *nix and Windows systems provided the above criteria is
met alike (Imagine that, something working in Windows).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Upgrading:

Unfortunately, so many things have changed since the earlier 2.* versions that
there really is no easy upgrade. You pretty much nage to reinstall from
scratch.  You can, however, keep your theme.php file so you don't have to redo
this. -- Sorry, but it was necessary to fix a lot of bugs and streamline a lot
of code.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Installing:

Create a directory called "forum" in your root web directory and upload all
of the files included into it. Be sure to leave the directory structure in
tact.

If it is necessary for you to CHMOD php files in order to execute them on your
server, then do so.  Also, CHMOD the ~/data directory and the ~/users directory
and the ~/sigs directory to 777.  Don't put anything in these directories; this
is where the forum stores the post data and registered user andn signature info.

Open the "theme.php" file inside of the ~/settings directory and make changes
to it as instructed/desired. -- Be sure to get the "$postdir" path and the 
"$userdir" and "$sigdir" paths correct or nothing will work.

Delete the "delete_me" files from the ~/data, ~/sigs and ~/users directories.

If you wish to create a custom set of smilies, they can be found in the
~/settings/smilies.

To give yourself admin permissions, go to the forum and register a username.
Now, go to the ~/users directory and download your user file.  Open it in
your favourite text editor, and on the SIXTH LINE write the word "admin"
(without the quotes, of course) and that word ONLY!

Upload the file over top of the old one. You may have to delete the old one
first, because of file permissions. If so, be sure to CHMOD the new one back
to 777.

The next time you log in to the forum, you should see "(Forum Admin)" next
to your username below the footer. If you do, then you did it right and
you now have admin access.

I'll add a function to do this upgrade via a web based form later, but for
now, at least it lets you have more than one admin on the board.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Using S8Forum:

Usage of S8Forum is really very self-explanatory and no different from any
other forum out there. 

New to recent versions are admin functions for editing and deleting posts,
as well as the ability for registered users to edit their own posts, guest
posting (enabled/disabled via themes.php), and a customizable user profile
that you can edit by going to the preferences link in the
footer, as well as support for custom signatures and personal photos.

Some other changes of note for those of you who are upgrading: the [IMG]
tag syntax has changed (and it works now) so be sure to check the forum
codes page for more info on that. Also, URL's are not parsed automatically
and there is no loger a [URL][/URL] set.  In addition, 3 more smilies and
5 new forum codes have been added (see ChangeLog for more info).

S8Forum no longer uses cookies to store any user data.  This may change in
the future, so users won't have to log in each time they visit.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mini-ChangeLog:

If you don't want to read the whole thing, here's what's changed since
version 2.3.1

- Forum now uses better encryption for passwords.

- Admin status now checked by session_is_registered() and
  compared to a unique string for security.

- Forum Codes & URL's now parsed by view.php rather than
  modifying the post before writing to file. -- Should fix
  several bugs in the editor.

- Took out the "forgot password" feature, which never worked
  right anyway.  I'll put it back in in the future, perhaps,
  but really, I've never forgotten a password in 7 years, so...

- All the bugs are now gone from the editor!

- Added 3 more smilies.

- Smilie info (on/off) now stored in post data to accomedate the
  new routines for parsing messages. 

- Added 5 new forum codes.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note to all you PHP gurus:

Yes, I know that the code isn't the most efficient right now. You don't have
to tell me. ;)  I'll clean it up a lot over Christmas... if I have time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Known Bugs:

The are some parsing bugs in the editor should be fixed. I really don't know
of any new ones. If you find any, please let me know.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks:

Thanks to Bryan (bclark@bclark.yi.org) for your 2am assistance with the thread
sorting and helping me work the knots out of the reply tracking and user
authentication, and other stuff.

Thanks to Josh Catone (catone4@home.com) for his ideas, input and bug tracking.

Also, thanks to Lyon (www.lyonart.f2s.com) for his suggestions with the routines
for the smilies and other stuff, and to ph3wl (ph3wl@ntlworld.com) for pointing
out bugs and security loopholes, and Dennis Bollyn for much the same thing.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Contacting Me:

If you encounter a serious problem with the script, or a bug
in the programming, I will be glad to help you. However, you
are encouraged to take the initiative to do a bit of
troubleshooting on your own first.

If you're getting "Permission Denied" errors, or "No Such File
or Directory" errors, then you probably have a problem with
your permissions and path settings.

Note that I will ignore any emails that ask "What is an
absolute path?" or "What is/How do I CHMOD stuff?" or any
"Permission Denied", or "No Such File Or Directory" enquires. If
you don't understand what these mean or how to fix them, then
you need to look this up for yourself.  I'm not trying to be
mean, I'm just bosy. I went to the trouble to write the script,
you can at least look up that much for yourself.

If all else fails and you need to email me, please send mail to:
	s8forum@kellishaver.com

My response may take anywhere from 5 minutes to 3 days, depending
on how busy I am. Please be patient.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you, that is all.
--------------------------------------------------------------