boastMachine FAQ

I heard there's a shout box. How do I use it ?
Check out the Docs->HowTo's section

Help! I get an 'Empty fields' error while trying to post !
For this, there may be two reasons. One, you left some required field empty (title,summary) or two, your blog is having no post categories. So login to the admin ,click on that particular blog's name, click 'categories' and add a category.

Multiple blogs means multiple databases?
NO! boastMachine uses just one database to run multiple blogs

What is a blog 'static file'
See 'Creating new blogs' in Docs->HowTo's section

What is a 'formatted' RSS feed?
RSS feeds are nothing but your posts rendered in XML for aggregators to read. While ordinary RSS feeds appear as XML code to the viewer in the browser, a formatted RSS feed would appear just like an ordinary html page with proper contents to the user but to the aggregators, they appear as xml code itself.

I'm writing custom pages. So how do I get a logged in user's info?
See Docs->HowTo's

What is threaded commenting?
Its a technic that enables users to comment on post, in a more 'meaningful' way. Imagine that a user X and Y post two comments. Now the user Z comes in and he wants to reply to X's comment instead of the post or Y's. Here threaded commenting comes into play. It enables Z to reply specifically to X's comment and it appears in the form of a thread on the comments page. (PS: Threaded commenting can be disabled if not necessary )

Tell me more about boastMachine's AntiSpam features
boastMachine uses an image verification technic to ensure that the comments being posted are by a human itself and not a spam bot. Also, boastMachine has the ability to block and even BAN a user/bot who's comments contain specific keywords that the Admin sets in the settings. boastMachine employs its antispam measures on Comments and Trackbacks.

Why 'Image verification' ?
Image verification is a technic used to preven automated comment posting (i.e, spam). This will prevent automated systems from spamming your blogs. Only a user who does the image verification will be accepted by the system, thus prevening spamming.

Is it possible to know the IP of a visitor?
boastMachine records the IPs of all the users who post/comment on a blog. Even if the user is not registered, when he comments, his IP is recorded. To see the IPs, you need to login as Admin first. Then when you view the posts/comments, you will see the IP beside it.

I am switching server! What about my precious data?
You can use the boastMachine backup/restore feature to transfer data between different hosts. If you are switching hosts, create a backup of the boastMachine data by going to Admin->Backup . Download and save the backup file to your pc. Install boastMachine on the new server, goto Admin->Backup/Restore and restore the backup file. Thats it! . Please remember that you will have to backup the attached files manually

I get error 404 when Clicking the post title, category etc.. ?
How do I turn off Search engine friendly urls?
boastMachine uses Apache's mod_rewrite to achieve search engine friendly URLs eliminating the symbols like ? & etc.. in the urls. When clicking these friendly URLs, if you are getting an error, that means you dont have mod_rewrite installed or for some reason its not working. At this point, you'll have to switch to traditional query like URLs.

To do this,
1. Open ./bmc/main.php
2. Goto function bmc_SE_friendly_url() [ Line 71 by default ]
3. Change the variable $enable_se_friendly to false ( eg: $enable_se_friendly=false; )
And that'll make boastMachine use traditional urls :)

Can I run boastMachine on a Windows XP/98 machine?
Absolutely! Infact, boastMachine will run on platform smoothly. All you need to have is PHP, MySQL and Apache (or some other webserver) installed

Can I run boastMachine on a Windows XP/98 machine?
Absolutely! Infact, boastMachine will run on platform smoothly. All you need to have is PHP, MySQL and Apache (or some other webserver) installed