All users belong to roles. Each role represents a set of permissions that get applied it’s The Default Role

By default Vanilla comes pre-set with 4 roles:

• Unauthenticated
  • This is a special role that gets applied to non-registered users as they browse Vanilla (if it is open to the public).
• Banned
  • Users in this role will be blocked from all categories and have no permissions to perform anything in Vanilla.
• Member
  • Users in this role have the ability to perform all basic forum operations like posting comments and discussions.
• Administrator
  • Users in this role have full access to all categories and functions in Vanilla

• Role name
  • Every role needs a name. This role name will be visible on the user’s account page next to his/her name.

• Role icon
  • This is completely optional, here you can enter any valid URL to an image here, such as:

    http://www.example.com/role_icon.jpg

    The role icon will replace the user’s icon on all comments and the account page. If you do not supply a value for this field, the user-defined icon will remain (if one exists).

• Role tagline
  • The role tagline will appear on the user’s account page underneath his or her name. If you do not supply a value for this field, the tagline will simply not appear on the user’s account page.

• Role Abilities
  • This is a very large list of permissions available to the role. These should all be self-explanatory. If you have any questions about what they each mean, ask at the community forum.

When you’re creating a new role you will be presented with all of the options described above, as well as being asked to select the categories this new role should have access to. Note that this will not disrupt the way in which categories are managed after setting this access list. Unless otherwise specified under Category Management, this role will have access to any new categories you create after setting a new role. This option simply removes the extra step of having to go into Category Management and telling Vanilla which roles are allowed in what category.

Deleting a role is simple, just click the little (X) next to the roles name, and you’ll then be asked to define a replacement role to take it’s place. So when you remove a role from the system, users who currently have that role will be shifted onto the one you’re now replacing it with as the role you delete gets wiped from the database.

If you have permission to manage roles, you can see a “Change role” option in the panel when viewing a user’s account profile. Click this link and you will be presented with a role-changing form.