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further admin quick start improvements

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Jeff Atwood 2014-05-29 15:12:57 -07:00
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Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of your very own [Civilized Discourse Construction Kit](http://www.discourse.org). :hatching_chick:
Let's get started!
### Admin Dashboard
As an admin you have total control over this Discourse instance — and with great power comes great responsibility. Exercise your admin superpowers via the admin dashboard at
As an admin you have total control over this Discourse instance. Exercise your admin superpowers via the admin dashboard at
[**/admin**](/admin)
You can also access it via the "hamburger" menu in the upper right. Admin functions are generally marked with the wrench :wrench: icon, so look for that.
Come back and spend time exploring your admin dashboard. But first things first!
You'll want to come back and spend time exploring your admin dashboard. But first, let's configure your Discourse.
### Enter Required Settings
Go to the [Required tab](/admin/site_settings/category/required) of the site settings and enter all the required basic items. **Until you set these required values, _your Discourse is broken!_**
Go to the [Required tab](/admin/site_settings/category/required) of the site settings and enter all the required fields. **Until you set these required fields, _your Discourse is broken!_**
### Customize Logos and Colors
By default you get the same standard generic "penciled in" Discourse logo everyone gets. Look for the [**assets for the forum design**](/t/assets-for-the-forum-design/5) topic; follow the instructions there to upload your logos to that topic, and then paste the uploaded image paths into the required logo settings.
To quickly give your Discourse a distinctive look, without having to edit or understand CSS, create a new color scheme via [Customize, Colors](/admin/customize/colors).
You can also specify custom CSS and custom HTML headers/footers to further customize the look. One common request is a navigation header that takes you back to the parent site. Here is some example HTML to put in [Customize, CSS and HTML Customizations](/admin/customize/css_html) under "Header":
```
<div id="top-navbar" class="container">
<span id="top-navbar-links" style="height:20px;">
<a href="http://example.com">Home</a> |
<a href="http://example.com/about/">About</a> |
<a href="http://example.com/news/">News</a> |
<a href="http://example.com/products/">Products</a> |
<a href="http://blog.example.com/blog">Blog</a> |
<a href="http://forums.example.com/">Forums</a>
</span>
</div>
```
### Establish Staff
You are the only staff member right now. Staff members are official representatives of this community and they come in two varieties:
You are the only staff member right now. Staff members are official representatives of this community:
1. **Admins**, who can do anything and configure anything on this site.
2. **Moderators**, who can edit all posts and users, but cannot add categories or change any site settings.
It's lonely at the top. You may want to grant other users staff abilities &ndash; to do so click the admin button :wrench: on their user page, then look for the grant buttons.
You may want to grant other users staff abilities &ndash; to do so click the admin button :wrench: on their user page, then look for the grant buttons.
### Private or Public?
Discourse assumes you want a public discussion area. If you prefer a private one, check out these settings:
Discourse assumes you want a public discussion area. If you prefer a private one, change these settings:
- `must_approve_users`
- `login_required`
- `invite_only`
If you only want some parts to be private, there is a built in Staff category, and you can create more private categories that are only visible to certain groups of users.
If you only want some parts of your site to be private, edit permissions on a category. The built-in Staff category is an example.
### Configure Login Methods
@ -50,7 +67,7 @@ If you want to get extra-fancy you can also [set up single-sign on](https://meta
### Test Email
If email is not working, you have a broken Discourse &ndash; email is required for new account signups and notifications. **Test your email to make sure it is working!** Visit [the admin email settings](/admin/email), then enter an email address in the "email address to test" field and click <kbd>send test email</kbd>.
If email is not working, you have a broken Discourse &ndash; email is required for new account signups and notifications. **Test your email to make sure it is configured correctly!** Visit [the admin email settings](/admin/email), then enter an email address in the "email address to test" field and click <kbd>send test email</kbd>.
- You got the test email? Great! **Read that email closely**, it has important email deliverability tips.
- You didn't get the test email? This means your users probably aren't getting any signup or notification emails either.
@ -70,16 +87,16 @@ One of the default topics is [Welcome to Discourse](/t/welcome/6). This topic is
[Edit this welcome topic](/t/welcome/6) and write a **brief introduction to your community**. Think of it as your "elevator pitch" &ndash; how would you describe this site to a stranger on an elevator when you had about 1 minute to talk?
Pinning topics works a little differently in Discourse:
Note that pinning topics works a little differently in Discourse:
- Users can hide pins on topics once they have read them via the controls at the bottom of the topic, so they don't stay pinned forever for everyone.
- When you pin a topic, you can choose to pin it globally to all topic lists, or pin it only within its category.
### New User Sandbox and the Trust System
Discourse is designed to offer safe defaults for communities, even if you set up the site and walk away from it forever. There is a [trust system in Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-do-user-trust-levels-do/4924/2) where regular users automatically earn abilities to assist in governing the community as they participate over time.
Discourse is designed to offer safe defaults for communities, even with no active moderation. There is a [trust system in Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-do-user-trust-levels-do/4924/2) where regular users automatically earn abilities to assist in governing the community.
All new users start out at trust level zero, in a trust sandbox with restrictions for their safety and everyone else's safety. **Trust level zero users _cannot_** &hellip;
All new users start out at trust level zero, in a sandbox with restrictions for everyone's safety. **Trust level zero users _cannot_** &hellip;
- post more than 2 hyperlinks
- post any images or file attachments
@ -90,7 +107,7 @@ All new users start out at trust level zero, in a trust sandbox with restriction
There are also a lot of rate limits around how many actions new users can take. Of course, new users don't stay new users forever; reading a variety of topics is enough to [transition to trust level 1](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-do-user-trust-levels-do/4924/2) in about 15 minutes.
These defaults are safe for the Internet out of the box, but they may be too conservative for your site:
These defaults are safe, but they may be too conservative for your site:
- If you are pre-vetting users, or your site is private and you approve all new users manually, you can set everyone's `default trust level` to 1.
@ -108,7 +125,7 @@ You have three categories out of the box:
To add a category, visit the [categories page](/categories), then click Create Category at the upper right. You can set security per-category so only certain groups of users can see topics in that category.
Every category has an initial "About the {foo} category" topic created alongside it. This topic will be pinned to the top of the category, and the description you enter here will be used in a bunch of places. So edit that first post and give your new category a good, clear description!
Every category has an initial "About the {foo} category" topic created alongside it. This topic will be pinned to the top of the category, and the description you enter here will be used in a bunch of places. Be sure to give your new category a good, clear description!
### File Uploads
@ -118,25 +135,6 @@ Basic image uploads work fine out of the box stored locally, provided you have a
- If you'd rather store your images and files on Amazon S3, [follow this howto](http://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-set-up-image-uploads-to-s3/7229).
### Customize Colors
To quickly give your Discourse a distinctive look, without having to edit or understand CSS, create a new color scheme via [Customize, Colors](/admin/customize/colors).
You can also specify custom CSS and custom HTML headers/footers to further customize the look. One common request is a navigation header that takes you back to the parent site. Here is some example HTML to put in [Customize, CSS and HTML Customizations](/admin/customize/css_html) under "Header":
```
<div id="top-navbar" class="container">
<span id="top-navbar-links" style="height:20px;">
<a href="http://example.com">Home</a> |
<a href="http://example.com/about/">About</a> |
<a href="http://example.com/news/">News</a> |
<a href="http://example.com/products/">Products</a> |
<a href="http://blog.example.com/blog">Blog</a> |
<a href="http://forums.example.com/">Forums</a>
</span>
</div>
```
### User Content Licensing
Out of the box, Discourse defaults to [Creative Commons licensing](https://creativecommons.org/).
@ -155,7 +153,7 @@ Number 3 is the Discourse default &ndash; that's [Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0]
### Maintenance
- 1GB of memory, with swap, is the absolute minimum required for a small Discourse community. If your community is expected to grow, you'll want more memory.
- One CPU and 1GB of memory, with swap, is the minimum for a small Discourse community. As your community grows you may need more memory or CPU resources.
- Hopefully you are running [in our Docker container install](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/INSTALL.md); it's the only one we officially support. That will guarantee easy updates, and all recommended optimizations from the Discourse team.
@ -166,10 +164,11 @@ Number 3 is the Discourse default &ndash; that's [Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0]
- [HTTPS support](https://meta.discourse.org/t/allowing-ssl-for-your-discourse-docker-setup/13847)
- [Content Delivery Network support](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enable-a-cdn-for-your-discourse/14857)
- [Multiple Discourse instances on the same server](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multisite-configuration-with-docker/14084)
- [Import and Export your Discourse data](https://meta.discourse.org/t/move-your-discourse-instance-to-a-different-server/15721)
- [Import and Export your data](https://meta.discourse.org/t/move-your-discourse-instance-to-a-different-server/15721)
- [Change the domain name](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-change-the-domain-name/16098)
### Need more Help?
This guide is a [work in progress](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/ADMIN-QUICK-START-GUIDE.md) and we hope to continually improve it with your feedback.
For more assistance on configuring and running your Discourse forum, see [the support category](http://meta.discourse.org/category/support) or [the hosting category](http://meta.discourse.org/category/hosting) on [meta.discourse.org](http://meta.discourse.org).
This guide is a [work in progress](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/ADMIN-QUICK-START-GUIDE.md) and we hope to continually improve it with your feedback.