From 26fcd3793b9142bb162d629df4a91a2d7af9663c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jeff Atwood Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 15:12:57 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] further admin quick start improvements --- docs/ADMIN-QUICK-START-GUIDE.md | 75 ++++++++++++++++----------------- 1 file changed, 37 insertions(+), 38 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/ADMIN-QUICK-START-GUIDE.md b/docs/ADMIN-QUICK-START-GUIDE.md index 1f08fb71f..4a790b916 100644 --- a/docs/ADMIN-QUICK-START-GUIDE.md +++ b/docs/ADMIN-QUICK-START-GUIDE.md @@ -1,41 +1,58 @@ 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": + +``` +
+ + Home | + About | + News | + Products | + Blog | + Forums + +
+``` + ### 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 – 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 – 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 – 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 send test email. +If email is not working, you have a broken Discourse – 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 send test email. - 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" – 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_** … +All new users start out at trust level zero, in a sandbox with restrictions for everyone's safety. **Trust level zero users _cannot_** … - 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": - -``` -
- - Home | - About | - News | - Products | - Blog | - Forums - -
-``` - ### 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 – 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 – 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). -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). \ No newline at end of file +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. \ No newline at end of file