Howdy, HTH.
You're not missing something. Our install of PHPBB doesn't seem to allow that option at the user level - though I'm still digging through a few of the admin screens to check if there is a setting for it or not. If it doesn't exist, I am quite certain there are mods out there to do this. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's been so long since I installed a mod, I'll need to take a bit of time once I find it to re-learn.
This is a really busy week or so for me. I have some crazy deadlines at work, my soccer-coaching season wraps up with two tournaments this weekend (and so has a ton of practices and paperwork), and basketball-coaching season starts tonight. That said, I'll see what I can find and then get our benevolent overlord some options to see what he's comfortable with installing.
And for everybody's reference, our current settings on this sort of stuff:
Threads per Page: 50
That is the number of thread titles you see in a forum for each page. I
think that number excludes stickies and announcements, but I'm not 100% sure my memory is correct.
Posts per Page: 25
This is the one you're asking about. If I can't find a mod to give users control over the default, we can have a discussion about whether we need to tweak this at the site level.
Posts for Popular Threshold: 25
PHPBB has a "popular" or "hot" feature on threads. We change the image seen in the thread list when a thread is considered popular. The "bell" inside the circle "rings" for a popular topic, and just sits there, all lonely and dejected, for regular topics.
Hot Topic, no new posts:
Hot Topic, new posts:
Normal Topic, no new posts:
Normal Topic, new posts:
So... we can talk as a group about changing that setting as well, independent of the others. Me, personally, I don't ever really care on any forum whether or not something is considered a "hot" or "popular" topic. But we can certain talk about changing the threshold if a majority wants it higher.
So... let me get through my busy week; I'll squeeze in some research here and there, and then really dive in next week to get a handle on the options.