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The Worst Things You Can Ever Do(tm)
filburt1
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 6,144
Maryland, US
07-23-2003, 10:00 PM
What follows is a list of things that you should always do, except in extraordinary circumstances, when operating vBulletin. If you have any extra points, you can reply. While these are IMO, they're also commonly accepted. 1. Never ban search bots. They may use a bit of bandwidth when crawling your site, but you'll get more users when people find your site via Google, Yahoo, etc. 2. Always allow guests to view your site. You may get many registrations if you turn off guest viewing, but virtually nobody will post because the majority of registrants will simply view your site and leave. 3. Don't use a graphics-heavy layout such as those like Yaxay and other sites. Some people think they look good, but remember the majority of computer users are using 800x600 on a 56Kb modem. Also, remember that search engine bots can't index the text within images. 4. Always allow guests to view forums and threads, as well as clearly being able to tell statistics like the number of people online and the number of total posts. You don't need to give them access to attachments, the actual Who's Online page, or the memberlist. Do let them view profiles. If your forums offer special features such as a Tip of the Day, entice them by showing them the first several hundred chars of the tip, and then require them to register to view the rest. 5. Participate in your forums' discussions. This is crucial when starting out because it makes your site look busy. Once you get many hundreds of users, you can sit back some more. 6. Don't even bother considering promoting those who ask to be moderators. Instead, promote a moderator when you feel that (s)he is a great asset to the forum in a sense of maturity, responsibility, and resourcefulness on your site. 7. If you want to ban a person's IP, ban just that exact IP. Never ban a partial IP because for ISPs such as AOL and other dialups, you risk banning random users by accident. 8. If you do ban somebody, remain firm in your decision. Never let down! If they keep trying to register, keep banning. Most importantly, don't keep in communication with them. It only gives them further incentive. Publicly and privately with them, just pretend that they never existed. 9. Never, under any circumstances except for corporate websites, have another administrator. 10. Likewise, never turn on HTML anywhere, including but not limited to posts, signatures, and private messages. It opens up cross-site scripting vulnerabilities (XSS) which, simply explained, allows a user to inject malicious Javascript into a page and eventually steal your password. 11. Always stay up to date on your version of vBulletin. There are literally no exceptions to this. Always use the absolute latest stable (non-beta and non-RC) version which contains the latest security and bug fixes. 12. Never install a hack unless you need it. I guarantee you that you don't need a stock ticker, a weather display, a welcome panel, a massive list of useless stats, and a coffee machine all crammed at the top of the page. Any others? 
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#32
04-14-2006, 11:09 PM
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Just thought about another couple which I have experienced as an end user before I got my first vB.
Don't pretend that you are someone else. Multiple personalities always get themselves found out. Make sure you have your usergroup permissions right. You really don't want to have banned users having access to your admin forum. If you are going to invent stories for the change of ownership because a site started out as a spin off from another one and you are trying to keep incognito then at least try and make it remotely realistic. I think that is it really. (No digs at anyone are intended with this post - it is simply for educational and informational purposes only.)
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#33
04-14-2006, 11:15 PM
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If you're suggesting to be true/up-front then I agree fully.
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#34
04-16-2006, 06:57 PM
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Quote:
In the forum I admin at i'm 1 of 3 admins. The owner is an admin because it's his site. The other admin helps to run the site. I install, create and maintain hacks and the forum software. So in our case 3 admins is good.
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#35
06-01-2006, 04:58 AM
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Cause if you know a person from real life and you make the site with him/her from the beginning how can that be bad? It's not your site then, you own half of the site and he/she owns the other half  Personally I own my site with my boyfriend and we equally share the responsiblities (although I code more and he pays more but it balances in the end).
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#36
06-20-2006, 04:31 PM
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Quote:
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#37
06-30-2006, 04:18 PM
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Out of my entire forum, I, the owner, am the only user still on 56k. lol
The worst part is uploading and downloading. /me eagerly awaits cable internet Great advice! Thanks!
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#38
07-01-2006, 12:42 AM
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good read, altho i dont agree with the 56k part
pretty sure here in scotland u cant get 56k anymore.(or atleast near the big citys) think the lowest is 4mb and am on a 10mb line wich most peeps i know have aswell.
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#39
07-08-2006, 03:03 PM
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Overall a good thread, well written.
To add our views to this, our site has three administrators. All have full access to the site, the adminCP, FTP and the SQL database. One of us deals mostly with the hosting and financial side of the site. Another deals with the graphics and the content of the site, along with the general user interaction as he's slightly less impulsive than me. I tend to deal with the coding side of things, making additions to the site and generally keeping it all together technically. We all have complete trust in eachother. We have a variety of forums, some of which are not displayed to guests, some of which are. This is more due to content within the forums, as opposed to enticing signup. We have a few moderators across the forums, just to keep them tidy, but more importantly they are tasked with adding content to the forums and driving their respective areas. We give them pretty much complete creative control over their respective areas. The IT and electronics section is moderated by a guy who has an intense area in the subject. The vBookie forum with the betting threads is moderated by a fellow admin, as he has an intense interest in all forms of sport. The adult material forum is moderated by a man. Because we're generally more perverted  We tend not to ban users, based purely because a lot of us, including the three admins, have came from a forum which was bought out and has had a great deal of restrictions imposed on it. We're all adults on our website, the youngest registered age is seventeen if I remember correctly, so we think that simply warning a user who oversteps the mark is the best way to proceed. It's working very well for us. Just my two cents.
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#40
07-10-2006, 01:10 AM
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Quote:
 All the other advice was spot on but there is nothing wrong with giving administrator permissions to other people, especially in my case where I have known the other administrators for around 5 years. Unless your board only has like 5 people viewing it at one time, having only 1 person who can actually get stuff done is impossible :/ If this is a guide for newer forums, sure. Don't make another admin. Established communities with more administrators is perfectly fine.
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#41
07-10-2006, 10:30 PM
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