Hi,

Can you tell me how I can block public user registrations to the forum so only selected users can be a member of the forum and post? I am going to be using the forum for news delivery and therefore do not want public users signing up and making accounts.

Try to check how Administrator may approve new users first.

If you would like to achieve that admin only registers new accounts, under setup_options.php set

Then login as admin and use the regular registration link, like

your_forums_url/index.php?action=registernew

You can put this link under your admin panel template, or bookmark, whatever... it will lead to registering an account by admin, so specify any kind of username/password/email you would like to put there. Email notification should be sent on this email, if enabled.