Looking for experienced opinions before I go LIVE.
 

After sorting out my site's aesthetic, I'd love to get some opinions from experienced VB users before I go live.

Things such as:

Security

Backing Up

Common problems

Common errors

Spam

And so on.

Literally anything!

Please keep in mind that it's all very new to me, and that I'll be somewhat confused approximately 99% of the time.

Thanks to anyone willing to lend a hand.

Any advice? Don't do it!

I'm just kidding. Actually, just relax and enjoy it. Don't expect too much right off the bat if this is your first board. Don't be overwhelmed if it turns out to require more work than you expected. Don't be afraid to ask specific questions (in the appropriate forums) if something comes up. If this is a fresh board and not a migration, then backing up shouldn't be too much of a concern right now. Export your style and make sure you have copies of your images, but that should be about it. Spam is probably better to deal with as it happens, rather than putting in a lot of specifications before you know what your dealing with. Just take the basic measures starting out and tweak your needs as you go. Keep up with updates to the software. And any modifications you have installed. Learn as you go. And above all, enjoy yourself. I think I might have said that already...

Thanks very much for your advice, Master Jedi.

I'm already loving it, but it's certainly not easy. Still, it's keeping me out of the pub. That was the major plan.

Just to clarify, is there any one thing that you'd suggest I DEFINITELY do.

Thanks for the reply, sire.

Definitely do? Garshq, there's so much that you can do, that it's sort up to you what's crucial to you. Like for me, I'm a style guy. So my first foray into vB was coming up with a unique style (which I still sorta ripped off, but I digress). The other thing for me was making sure any mods I used supported the theme of my site. I sometimes fall short of that, but it was still a great learning experience going through that. Reading a lot on both vb.com and vb.org helped a lot. And when something clicks, like when making your first template edit, then other things click. And it kinda cascades from there.

So, I guess what I would say to definitely do is read all you can, as much as you can stand. There's some articles I wrote, which are linked in my full profile, that might help you out a little, if it's not stuff you've already read elsewhere.

That's great man. Thanks a tonne!