Post installation Checklist ? Is there such a guide / tips ?

[Digital Doctor]

Scenario: You just completed your installation and you logged into the Admin Control Panel for the first time. You completed step 5 (File Health Check) - what next ?

Is there a checklist for the essential decisions ?
- How to backup
- Forum permissions
- SPAM setup
What are the main decisions you need to make ?
- SEO friendly URLs or not ?
What are the fine-tuning decisions you need to make ?
- robots.txt

For the benefit of the Newbie admin - what would be considered essential reading for the initial deployment of xenforo ? what mistakes are people making ?

I am reading in http://xenforo.com/community/forums/tips-tricks-and-guides.36/ for tips
Any other threads / resources ?

 

[Lycaon]

Not sure if there's a guide or not but in my opinion it would hard to make and such a guide could cause confusion for new admins. Every forum is unique and need different options and it would be near impossible for a guide to cover all eventualities.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Fair enough.
Well then what are the top 20 things to setup / learn about ? In order of importance.

All help appreciated !!

 

[Morgain]

I think this could be great as a logic tree.
So it has a set of questions.
My first wish is to close off external registration. Then make my mark on the board to show it's MINE! I can remember doing the XF install, getting it working, setting the registration access, and chucking in a logo and a few colours. Then happily to bed till getting to work seriously the next day.

NEW XF INSTALL: To Do.

Do you want this board to be Active?(Explain) YES/ NO.
Clicking YES opens the guide section. After doing that I click "Next - TO DO list" to go back to the next step.
Clicking NO moves me to the next step.
Do you want to block visitors from registering? YES/NO
Clicking YES opens the guide section. After doing that I click "Next - TO DO list"to go back to the next step.
Clicking NO moves me to the next step.
Do you want to design the header area of the forum? YES/ LATER.
Clicking YES opens the guide section. After doing that I click "Next - TO DO list"to go back to the next step.
Clicking NO moves me to the next step.

Some paths would jump several steps as irrelevant because of decisions made.
Those that are irrelevant to this admin can be quickly clicked NO NO NO down the page.

Etc. Any LATER options chosen continue to display on TO DO unless the new admin chooses to Delete them - option to RECALL.

 

[Digital Doctor]

One key task is to:
Set User Group Permissions

 

[Digital Doctor]

Is it fair to say you should almost always set User Group permissions before you set Node permissions ?

 

[Paul B]

It makes no difference as permissions are cumulative.

Most people though set user group permissions first and then any specific node permissions.

 

[Digital Doctor]

I was surprised my admins didn't have many responsibilities. My SuperAdmin had lots of permissions in the admin panel ... but my admins had virtually nothing.

Then i realized administrative permissions are not a part of the "User Group Permissions" and must be set on a case by case basis only. I think this is probably a good idea - it forces the admin / superadmin to review each admin situation on a case by case basis. That being said, I would have liked to know that "admins have permission to do NOTHING until granted it".