I'm rearranging my website, and making some changes in my personal life.  I want to keep my board online because it contains good info that many still read and appreciate.  I want to have a message for visitors to see so they understand the board is there for their reading pleasure only.  I'm a techno- dinosaur.  How can this be done?

1) Disable registrations if you prefer. 

 

2) Make sure noone has posting permissions. Go through all forums you have and make sure all groups have access similar to the guest one. Only "See Forum" and "Read topics". Download attachments can also be enabled if you want people to see attached pictures, etc. Go through group permissions and limit them the same way - make sure messenger is disabled, etc. It is possible someone will advise a faster way without going through the permissions for all forums, maybe there is a more optimal approach. 

 

3) Put an announcement on the front page that for the time being the forum is read only. Do it from Create->Announcement:

 

 

I think thats it. 

Thank you, jair.  Your instructions seemed to have worked just fine.  Appreciate your help.

On 5/5/2019 at 10:56 AM, jair101 said:

2) Make sure noone has posting permissions. Go through all forums you have and make sure all groups have access similar to the guest one. Only "See Forum" and "Read topics". Download attachments can also be enabled if you want people to see attached pictures, etc. Go through group permissions and limit them the same way - make sure messenger is disabled, etc. It is possible someone will advise a faster way without going through the permissions for all forums, maybe there is a more optimal approach. 

If you have a large number of forums, but a small number of Groups, you can save a bit of time by editing the permissions on the Group level rather than the Forum level.

Go to ACP -> Members -> Groups -> click the padlock icon to the right of a group you wish to restrict.

In the popup you can configure that Group's entire permission set on the one screen. Save the popup when done and repeat for the other Groups you have.

14 minutes ago, Mark H said:

you can save a bit of time by editing the permissions on the Group level rather than the Forum level.

Or use this at forum level with only a couple of clicks:

 

You can also archive all topics (ACP -> Forums) and filter everything you have. There will be a message on each topic that is has been archived and no new posts are possible.