You can also access it via the "hamburger" <kbd>☰</kbd> menu in the upper right: Admin functions are generally marked with the wrench :wrench: icon, so look for that.
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!_** Go ahead and do that now.
By default you get the standard "penciled in" Discourse logo. Look for the [**assets for the site design**](/t/assets-for-the-site-design) 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/HTML**](/admin/customize/css_html) under "Header":
You may want to grant other users staff abilities – to do so click the admin button :wrench: on their user page, then look for the grant buttons.
Discourse assumes you want a public discussion area. If you prefer a private one, change these [login site settings](/admin/site_settings/category/login):
If you want to get extra-fancy you can also [set up single-sign on](https://meta.discourse.org/t/official-single-sign-on-for-discourse/13045), or even [build your own login method](https://meta.discourse.org/t/login-to-discourse-with-custom-oauth2-provider/14717).
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>.
Email deliverability can be hard. We strongly recommend using dedicated email services like [Mandrill](http://mandrill.com), [MailGun](http://www.mailgun.com/), or [MailJet](http://www.mailjet.com/), which offer generous free plans that work fine for most communities.
One of the default topics is [Welcome to Discourse](/t/welcome-to-discourse). This topic is pinned globally, so it will appear on the homepage, right at the top of the topic list, for all new users. Try viewing your site with incognito, inprivate, or anonymous mode enabled in your browser to see it how new users will.
Your welcome topic is important because it is the first thing you visitors will see:
[Edit your welcome topic](/t/welcome-to-discourse) and write a **brief introduction to your community**. Think of it as your "elevator pitch" – how would you describe this site to a stranger on an elevator when you had about 1 minute to talk?
- Users can hide pins on topics once they have read them via the controls at the bottom of the topic, so they aren't always pinned forever for everyone.
If a pin isn't visible enough, you can also turn one single topic into a **banner**. The banner topic floats on top of all topics and all primary pages. Users can permanently dismiss this floating banner by clicking the × in the upper right corner.
To make (or remove) a pin or a banner, use the admin wrench at the top right of the topic.
You can change the homepage to the Categories list by editing `top menu` in the [Basic Setup](/admin/site_settings/category/basic) site settings. Change it from the default of
`latest|new|unread|starred|top|categories`
to
`categories|latest|new|unread|starred|top`
That is, move categories from the far right to the far left -- that leftmost top menu item is your default homepage.
Right now [your FAQ](/faq) is the same Creative Commons [universal rules of civilized discourse](http://blog.discourse.org/2013/03/the-universal-rules-of-civilized-discourse/) we provide to all Discourse installs. These built-in community guidelines are referenced a bunch of places; please *do* use them and refer to them often – they really work!
4. Paste that URL into the `faq url` setting in the admin site settings. This links your topic from the hamburger FAQ menu entry at the top right of every page.
**Don't create too many initial categories**, as you can overwhelm your audience. You can always add more categories, and easily bulk recategorize topics later. It's better to figure out the organization as you go rather than assuming you'll get it all right from the beginning (hint: you won't).
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 this category" topic. This topic will be pinned to the top of the category, and the description you enter will be used in a bunch of places. Be sure to give your new category a good, clear description, so people understand what belongs there!
If your discussion area is be open to the public, new visitors will arrive that are initially strangers to the community. Discourse has a [trust system](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-do-user-trust-levels-do/4924/2) where users can, over time, earn the trust of the community and gain abilities to assist in governing their community.
Virtually every action a user can take is rate limited for safety, and especially so for new users. But don't worry, new users can [transition to trust level 1](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-do-user-trust-levels-do/4924/2) in about 15 minutes.
- You can relax individual new user restrictions. Search settings for `newuser`. Ones commonly adjusted are `newuser max images`, `newuser max replies per topic`, `newuser max links`.
One way to get people to visit your site is to invite them via email. You can do this via:
- The Invite button at the bottom of the topic.
- The Invite area on your profile page.
The invite area on your profile page also includes advanced Staff methods of [sending bulk invites](https://meta.discourse.org/t/sending-bulk-user-invites/16468), and [inviting users into groups](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-individual-users-to-a-group/15544).
- One CPU and 1GB of memory, with swap, is the minimum for a basic 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. It guarantees easy updates, and all recommended optimizations from the Discourse team.
- You should get an email notification when new versions of Discourse are released. To update your instance via our easy one click upgrade process, visit [/admin/upgrade](/admin/upgrade).
Have suggestions to improve or update this guide? Submit a [pull request](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/ADMIN-QUICK-START-GUIDE.md).
