This section allows the administrator to specify the default values for various topic and post settings in In-bulletin.
<ul> 
<li> Sort topics by – this setting specifies the default primary sort order for the topic listings. It applies both on the front-end, and in the Administrative Console – in the catalog. The first dropdown allows to select the field (an attribute of the topic), and the second dropdown – the direction of the sort. 
<li> And then by – this setting specifies the default secondary sort order. It is set in the same way as the primary, and used when the primary order values are ambiguous. For example, when the primary sort value is ‘Topic Name', the secondary order will be used to sort among topics with the same name (subject). 
<li> Number of topics per page – specifies the default number of topics shown per page. This value applies both to the front-end and to the Administrative Console. In the latter, this value can be changed for each session through the View menu. 
<li> Topics Per Page (Shortlist) – this setting is similar to the ‘ Number of topics per page', but it applies to the front-end short topic lists only. It can be overridden by setting the tag attributes in the appropriate templates. 
<li> New Topics (Days) – this setting specifies the number of days, from the date of creation, during which the topic will be automatically marked ‘New' by the system. This setting will only apply to the topics with the ‘New' flag set to ‘Automatic'. 
<li> Minimum rating for a topic to be POP– this setting specifies the minimum rating of a topic for it to be automatically marked ‘Popular’ by the system.  This setting will only apply to the topics with the ‘Popularity’ flag set to ‘Automatic’.  Note, that for an article to be “popular” it will need to meet the “minimum votes” requirement set below. 
<li> Maximum number of HOT topics – this setting specifies the maximum number “hot” topics in the database.  A “hot” topic is the one that has more views than the other topics.  For example, if this option is set to “2”, the In-portal system will pick the two topics with the most views and mark them as hot.  (Of course, this will change real-time as the topics’ view counters are updated, or as this setting changes).  Please note, if more than one topic has the maximum number of views, the system will still enforce the maximum number requirement; therefore, there may be situations when a topic with the most views is not marked as “hot”. 
<li> Minimum number of votes to consider a topic to be popular – this setting specifies the minimum number of votes required for the topic rating to be effective.  Usually, when only a small number of users have voted on a topic, its rating will not be statistically accurate - it is likely, that only biased users have voted.  When a larger number of users vote, the rating becomes more accurate.  This setting affects the “popularity” property of a topic – topics with less than required number of votes will not be considered “popular”, even if their rating is high enough. 
<li> Display editor picks above regular topics – this setting will force all topics, marked as ‘Editor's pick' to be displayed above the other topics, regardless of their priority or sort order. This is very similar to the ‘sticky' feature of other bulletin boards. Among themselves, ‘Editor's pick' articles will be sorted according to the regular rules. 
<li> Allow Duplicate Reviews – this setting specifies the period during which the same user cannot submit another review on the same topic. The time can be entered in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months or years. If it is set to zero, the users can submit reviews without this limitation. Please note, that regardless of this setting, the same user will be able to submit a review on another topic immediately after the first review. 
<li> Allow Duplicate Rating Votes - this setting specifies the period during which the same user cannot rate the same topic again. The time can be entered in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months or years. If it is set to zero, the users can rate topics without this limitation. Please note, that regardless of this setting, the same user will be able to rate another topic immediately after the first rating. 
<li> Posts to lock – this setting specifies how many posts in a single topic will it take to automatically lock that topic. If it is set to zero, the topics will never be locked automatically. 
<li> Number of posts per page - specifies the number of posts shown per page inside a topic. This value applies only to the front-end. 
<li> New posts (days) - this setting specifies the number of days, from the date of posting, during which the topic will be automatically marked as having new posts in it.
</ul>