Typically permission sets are associated with member groups to control the permissions and features globally within all forums for that member group.
You can override the permission set associated with any member group for any individual forum by using a different permission set for the member group within the forum. This allows you to control the posting permissions for a single member group within a single forum.
To provide further control you can also associate a permission set to individual members, permission sets associated directly with members will override any permission set associated with the members primary member group and any permissions associated to a specific forum, this is demonstrated in the flow-chart below.
The flow-chart shows how permission sets are applied:
You can associate a specific permission set to a single user account when editing a users profile from the Members & Groups » Manage Members page. This is shown below...
If you choose to associate a permission set to a specific user, as shown in the flow-chat above this will override any member group and forum specific permission set associations. This is useful if you wanted to ensure a single member within your forum globally has extended or restricted permissions.
Associate a Permission Set to a Member Group
This is the most common way permission sets are used. By associating a permission set to a member group all primary members of that group will inherit the permission set globally within the forum. If a member has a specific permission set association this will override the permission set associated with the user's primary member group. You can associate permission sets to member groups from the Members & Groups » Manage Member Groups page. This is shown below...
Associate a Permission Set to a specific Forum & Member Group
You can associate a permission set to each member group with access to any specific forum within your community. This allows you to control the permissions available within any single forum for any single member group. You can associate permission sets to a specific forum and member group from the Manage Forums » Manage Forums page, use the Edit Permissions option within the drop down list next to each forum as highlighted below...
You can then choose to associate a custom permission set to each member group with access to the selected forum as shown below...
If you choose to associate a permission set to a member group within a forum, this permission set will be used for the member group when viewing the selected forum. This will not override any permission sets associated directly with any user accounts. You will need to create your permission sets first before they will become available to associate with users, groups and forums. For more information on creating & editing permissions sets please refer to the Creating & Editing Permission Sets section of this guide.