The admin section can be initially accessed by going to http://www.yoursite.com/chirp-admin/. The admin program is completely independent of the main program so you can name the directory anything you want to prevent unscrupulous eyes from prying and testing. If you did not change the user name and password in the config file then login with the username admin and the password password otherwise login with what you changed it to. Configuration This section of the admin area effects the config.inc.php file directly. When you save the file it completely deletes and overwrites the old file with the new settings. Site Name - This is what the site is called. If you are Leroy then the site might be called Leroy's Banter House or something like that. Site Url - this is the web address to access the chirp script. As we discussed in doc.4.config.txt this url MUST end with a trailing slash / Theme - I will get into this in another document on how to create themes for your site. The drop down list is a listing of the themes directory in your chirp installation folder. Each theme is located in its own directory, ergo the list that you see here. Email Address - this is the email address that you will be sending chirp messages from. Typically it is a no reply type email address only used to meet rfc standards. Message Size - This is the size of the message that people are allowed to send to the microblog. Typically, as in other well known microblogs the message size is 140 characters. This handles well and keeps the speed up. When this is changed you must also make sure that you alter the theme file that allows users to enter their message - main_txt_box.theme.html Language - Chirp supports language files located in the language folder of your chirp installation. I will discuss language files in another document. The default language is English. No other language files have been created so if you make one please send it to me so I can add it to the installation. Enable Emoticons - Do you want to allow :) to be turned into a graphical image? The options are 1 = On and 0 = Off Emoticon Pack - Select the pack of emoticons you desire to use. I will discuss emoticons in another document. Num Messages - This is the number of messages to show on the page. Profile Image Size in Kb - This is the size of the profile image in kilobytes that you will allow users to upload to the website. The default profile image is located in the def directory of your chirp installation. When replacing the default avatar image, you must ensure that it is named default_avatar.jpg Username Min/Max - Often times you dont want people creating a username that is a single character. Maintaining control of the name size I think is very important. You also don't want people with a name size of 255 characters because it will blow the flow out of the water. Password Min: - Security is important. Having users select no password or a password that is like 2 characters long is rediculous and stupid on the users part. Make them create a substantial password by adjusting the length. The password is encrypted in the sql database with an md5 hash. Allow non-Follow Direct Messaging: - Do you want to allow people to send direct messages to non friends? The options are 0 = non messages if you are not being followed by the person or 1 = allow messages even if the person is not following you. Spam Filter - Options are 0 = Off and 1 = On. If the spam filter is on you will control spam phrases that will not be allowed to be used. I will discuss the spam filter later in this document. Bad Word Filter - same as the spam filter. Will discuss later in this document. Num Friends to Show - this is the number of followers to show when looking at the followers list. Admin Username - The username to access the admin section. Admin Password - this is the password to access the admin section. "Hey groone, I can see the letters! What gives?" Did you know that even when you have the dots or stars in place of the text that it is still plain text and just as secure as what you have here? I just removed the hassle of not being able to see your password. Enable Recaptcha - Recaptcha is a process to determine if a person is really a person or some fancy dancy automated web robot. It is a system that google has and is really good at doing what it does. Do not enable it unless you have an account with user public and private keys. To learn more about recaptcha go to http://www.google.com/recaptcha Public Key and Private Key - enter your recaptcha public and private key here.