hi is there a hack to make the post box only appear if the user is logged in. i just want the Sign in/Post topic button to show if the use is not logged in.

According to the manual it state that the New Post and Reply box will still show if the forum is set to registered-user-only. How do I bypass this and make the reply and new topic post not appear on a registered-user-only forum?

this is what the manual says:
In a case of registered-user-only forums, the post-topic or post-thread box with login information WILL APPEAR even if user is not logged in. User will be able to enter his login/pass to make a post. Anonymous or incorrectly logged users will be informed with "Access denied" message. In many cases, they can loose the information they typed, so please warn users of your board someway, that they must register before making any post!

So, does the manual say not enough? :) You MUST have this box. It's a feature - users could be logged at any time. They also can be logged in without typing anything in message box.

However, check this thread if you still want to do it.