Don't know how to code, is vB still for me

[FearlessWeeder]

Had already determined if I was to “go for it” that I would be purchasing the vB product over the IPB product. Admittedly had some misgivings about starting a forum at all after I began to read thread after thread here about coding and HTML. The vB product will be purchased as soon as I’m incorporated. Not interested in wasting time reviewing software other than vB any longer.

Appears the most reliable means by which to back up is described here-
Backing Up The Database via SSH/Telnet
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/m...nce_ssh_backup

Other viable options may be-
MySQLDumper:
http://www.mysqldumper.de/en/index.php
MySQLHotxcopy:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...t=mysqlhotcopy

I will leave the decision of how to back up to my server/host man. This is way out of my league.

I’ve been reading my notes from the AdminZone forums regarding management, privacy, and security. I’ve now taken the time to review vB's available add-ons for 3.7… all 23 pages of them. I have selected the following to start with and others can be added on an as-needed basis after I actually get the forum up:

vB Database Backup (in the event my host doesn’t allow SSH/Telnet)
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=167276

Multiple account login detector (AE Detector)
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=183268

Force Users to Read a Thread (want all members to read the TOS, PP, and rules)
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=172155

Cyb - Advanced Forum Rules
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=177559

NoSpam! for vBulletin 3.7
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=183329

vbAnonymizer
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=184267

Proxy IP to real IP conversion
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=165483

Image Resizer
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=176531

Separate Sticky and Normal Threads
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=165550

Welcome headers - Improve community registration rates
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=165519

Should anyone feel I have chosen poorly, please let me know. Should anyone feel I’m missing an add-on that would ease my forum start-up headaches, please suggest it otherwise I'll be back here at vBulletin.org in a few months after I deal with other issues.

And now that all this coding and HTML is behind me; I need to focus on working with the lawyers to incorporate then onto drafting a TOS, a PP, and basic rules for a different set of lawyers to review. From visiting active forums online, I have a few other concerns that I’m sure the good folk at AdminZone can help me address. From there I need to find a way to change the colors of the vB board to an earthy and light sage green and figure out how to get an eye catching banner up at the top with the name of the .org that looks some semblance of professional. There are other miscellaneous items on my to-do list but you all here wiped out any reservations I had about moving forward.

I thank you ALL for your guidance and patience. Admittedly I am not the type of person who would feel compelled to see what more could be done with the software and am totally relieved there is no need to be sitting through online HTML and coding courses for Dummies

editing to add Digital Jedi's suggestions to my list above-

vBCredits - Ultimate Points System
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=172399

AME (Auto Media Embedding)
?

Download Manager II
?

[King Kovifor]

Originally Posted by FearlessWeeder

And now that all this coding and HTML is behind me; I need to focus on working with the lawyers to incorporate then onto drafting a TOS, a PP, and basic rules for a different set of lawyers to review. From visiting active forums online, I have a few other concerns that I?m sure the good folk at AdminZone can help me address. From there I need to find a way to change the colors of the vB board to an earthy and light sage green and figure out how to get an eye catching banner up at the top with the name of the .org that looks some semblance of professional. There are other miscellaneous items on my to-do list but you all here wiped out any reservations I had about moving forward.

I thank you ALL for your guidance and patience. Admittedly I am not the type of person who would feel compelled to see what more could be done with the software and am totally relieved there is no need to be sitting through online HTML and coding courses for Dummies

Changing colors can be easy enough using the style manager and the banner is a setting for each individual style.

[Digital Jedi]

NoSpam, and I think most of the admins who frequent here would agree, is probably one of the most essential in terms of curbing (not preventing) unnecessary spam bot registration. You'll still get the odd human user registering one of his bots, but for the most part, especially if you have a large active forum, this will trim down the spamming significantly. If you have a small forum like mine, it will virtually put a stop to it.

Use Force Read sparingly to get the most benefit out of it. But yes, definitely a useful one.

That's a very good start and will get you a good idea as to what installing modifications entails. After you get comfortable with your starting modifications, depending on your forum activity, also look into vBCredits, AME (Auto Media Embedding) and Downloads II (download manager.)

Reason I mention these three is, one, vBCredits is one of those things that can increase forum participation with your already active users, or encourage inactive users to participate more. AME is a media embedding modfication, which I admit, I'm a little biased on because I maintain an Add On for it, but would be useful for you in terms of adding video from various educationally themed video (form places like YouTube or something like 5MIN Life VideoPedia) with no need for uploading video and taking up space on your server and absolutely no need to teach your users how to use it because it converts video URLs in post automatically without need for BBCode, strain on your server or any effort on your user's part. And Downloads II is a useful one for giving your users a means of sharing files, such as PDFs, Word Docs or any other form of media which your educators could make available in a nice neat place, rather then using the attachment system where good files can get lost in tons of threads easily.

Also note, I'd say 99% of all modifications here all install in the same manner. Once you do two or three, you start to get the gist of what to do from then on. Basically, you'll seldom run into a modification that doesn't involve one or more of three basic actions.

Import through Product/Plugin Manager
Template Edit (eg. Find this line of code, add this Lind of code under it)
Upload Files

Beyond that, they're almost all the same thing. Do a template edit to your postbit three of four times, and it registers almost right away how that works. And if the "find this line of code, add this like of code under it" sounds tedious. vBulletin has a search feature in the template editors that searches through the code in a split second.

Also, and this is most important, never underestimate support at vB.com or vB.org. Yes, I know sometimes threads don't get answered. That's inevitable on a forum of this size. But that's the only reason why, and doesn't happen as often as you might think. People here are really more then willing to help, even in spite of the sheer volume of requests. But, ironically, because there's such a high volume of Q&A on this forum, you'll likely find the answer to your question multiple times by doing a site search.

[Dismounted]

Originally Posted by FearlessWeeder

NoSpam! for vBulletin 3.7
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=183329

NoSpam! shouldn't be necessary - the "question & answer" functionality is already implemented in vBulletin 3.7.

[Digital Jedi]

I beg to disagree with you Dismounted. The built in function is "CAPTHCA OR Q&A", while NoSpam provides "CAPTHCA AND Q&A" capability, which from what I've seen has been more effective then one or the other.

[FearlessWeeder]

It is my intent to block all IPs from China. Sorry but I've read enough to know I don't want to deal with the by product of those cyber cafes. If anyone else has had the opportunity to visit that Country, they fully understand what is driving these children of the streets. It's nothing personal, just a means by which they can eek out a living at our expense. Anyone legitimate can contact me and I'll get help figuring something out. Others can deal with the NoSpam!

I only want Force Read for the TOS, PP, and rules. Possibly changes to same. Don't know. Will consider that at such time as there is a change to a TOS.

Yes, I spent time reviewing all add-ons more so to familiarize myself with what would be available to me. Wanted bare bones for the direction I want to go and it would appear I did ok in the initial selection process.

Yes, I found the Q&A here. Loved them and will be over in that area again and again. Those Q&A's here and at AdminZone are the reason why I'm in a position to communicate my needs some semblance of intelligently. You poor people would have been dealing with a babbling idiot were it not for Q&A areas. Most people don't suffer fools well.

Thank you very kindly for your suggestions Digital Jedi. Must think about vCredits but will add it to my notes along with AME. There will be quite a few users on dial up so I must consider their stress levels in using the site. Will need to learn much more about how to accommodate dial up users but am pushing that to a back burner for the time being. Would the Downloads II add-on be capable of handling a Power Point presentation?

Many thanks to all of you. I feel more comfortable with feeling uncomfortable about this whole start up process.

[Digital Jedi]

Yes, Downloads II will upload anything with the extensions you designate in the Admin CP. So you can add PowerPoint extensions (I forget what they use) and they'll upload, and by extension you can restrict files types simply by not adding a given extension.

As far as dial-up users go, the only time they'd run into a problem is if they loaded a page with a video on it, and that's only if it's from a site that auto-loads large files. I've done 150+ definitions for various media sites, and I don't know of one yet that does that. Most video hosting sites accommodate for dial-up users, and you'd simply be embedding videos hosted on their servers. As a former dial-up user, I can testify to that.

[Hex_legend]

Originally Posted by Digital Jedi

Yes, Downloads II will upload anything with the extensions you designate in the Admin CP. So you can add PowerPoint extensions (I forget what they use) and they'll upload, and by extension you can restrict files types simply by not adding a given extension.

Powerpoint use .ppt

[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by Hex_legend

Powerpoint use .ppt

New it was something like that. I'm glad I didn't say what I was thinking (.pub), which is for Publisher files.

[FearlessWeeder]

I edited the post that had my list and added all three of your suggestions. If you happen to know the links to AME and Download II, that would be great. Briefly looked for them and couldn't locate same. Wonderful to know that Power Point presentations may be added. Will work on learning more about making it easy for dial-up users to load pages in the future. That's very important to me. Don't want anyone left sitting at their monitor frustrated a page is taking for ever to load if at all possible.