phpbb subforum ad needs to be removed

I have the ad in the "overall header" file

[serengeti]

I own a website with a phpbb forum and have a product ad on there in the overall header file. This ad then appears in all my subforums.

One of the subforums is about a product that is slightly related to this advertised product, and this slightly related product vendor threatened to sue me and has reported me to google for having an ad on the subforum dealing with another product. By "slightly related", I mean say Pepsi versus milk. Not Pepsi versus Coke.

I am lower middle class. Can't afford to fight a lawsuit, even if I am fairly certain that I am doing nothing wrong.

So can anyone tell me how to remove this ad just from that one subforum? I use a phpbb version 2 point something that is now not supported.

Thanks.

[Shingetsu]

Look over the source code, it's bound to be near the top. Look immediately after the body tag and look for either a flash object or a picture... It should be there. Another way is to update the forum, look on phpbb project site to see how updating without loss of info is done.

[rocknbil]

Depending in the software, you should be able to create a template specifically for that subforum without the ad.

[serengeti]

Can someone elaborate which exact file to modify? The files are not named based on each subforum name.

Would it still be the overall header file even if its a subforum?

[Shingetsu]

Go on that sub forum and look at the URL, it should be that file. And yes it should still be close to the HTML body top.

[rocknbil]

Sorry didn't see phpbb <doh>. The templates are not stored in files, they are stored in the database and accessed in the admin area (pretty sure.) You will get lots of help from the phpBB site, here's a starter in styles [phpbb.com].

[serengeti]

Thanks rock, but the phpbb.com forum does not support questions about earlier versions of the forum software. I asked there before coming here. Shingetsu, I can't understand how to do it. Do you want to look at my forum? I would appreciate it.

My site is in my profile and you can access the forums from the site.

[martinibuster]

The overall header file may not be the best place for the ad. The file path for the files you need to edit: templates > Subsilver > viewtopic_body.tpl (and also viewforum_body.tpl)

(If you are using an alternate template or have more than one then simply edit the same files in the different template folders)

What you need to add is lines of code to check if the page is a specific forum (something like: id=forum10) and have a yes/no action. If it is the forum you don't want ads to display in, then the code will not display the AdSense ad unit in that forum category (viewforum_body.tpl) as well as in the discussions located within that forum category (viewtopic_body.tpl).

Once you remove the ad unit code from the overall header you can place it in the index_body.tpl file to display it on the main page of your forum, viewtopic_body.tpl to view it on the individual discussion, and viewforum_body.tpl to view it on the main page of the forum category. However, viewtopic_body.tpl and viewforum_body.tpl will contain the extra code for displaying or not displaying the ad.

Got it? ;)

[serengeti]

Thanks a lot martini! Unfortunately, despite being a board member for several years, such modification are beyond my skill level :-)