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The Worst Things You Can Ever Do(tm)
filburt1
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filburt1 filburt1 is offline 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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  #62  
Old 03-21-2008, 08:52 PM
Pro Scribz Pro Scribz is offline
 
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Some fantastic tips there, most of them I already knew, but there were one or two useful things that I have learnt from your Article!

Thanks for Sharing it with us :P!
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  #63  
Old 10-04-2008, 02:59 PM
street tactic street tactic is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gavin B. View Post
Nothing wrong with having more than one a administrator. Many forums do this and I can't see any problem with it. Maybe it's your personal preference, I don't think it's a general tip though IMO.

Good tip on not promoting people who ask to be moderators though - hate people who do that! (and I also never give them mod status if they ask, especially if they do it in public!)
I've been on one too many web forums where this became a massive issue. Mid-day shut downs for "upgrades" on already established boards. Complete forum reuploads including users tables under new url's.

I would never in my life do that.
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  #64  
Old 10-25-2008, 12:15 AM
Slugsnack Slugsnack is offline
 
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Nice advice indeed, I'll take it into consideration.
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  #65  
Old 03-17-2009, 04:18 AM
benstillman benstillman is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by filburt1 View Post
9. Never, under any circumstances except for corporate websites, have another administrator.
Boy do I wish I'd read this one before.....
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  #66  
Old 04-02-2009, 02:51 AM
gamerfu gamerfu is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by filburt1 View Post
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.
How can I disable the memberlist to guest?
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  #67  
Old 07-13-2009, 10:37 AM
joyboy2001 joyboy2001 is offline
 
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Great advise ... I believe one should never take the decision of making someone a Admin or even a moderator, in a hurry. Take your time, plan the growth of your website and have a duration in mind when you really need to have another moderator on board to manage things. Make sure you keep in mind that he/she will also need training (the older the board, the more the training) and you should probably select someone who has been an active member on your site for quite sometime. NEVER select a moderator for your site who has been a moderator on other (even similar) site because unless your site is a complete rip-off of that site, it's going to be quite different ... Older members have been comfortable with the way things happen on your community and are OK with it ...

Select the mods and admins very carefully !!
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  #68  
Old 07-13-2009, 10:34 PM
TCG503 TCG503 is offline
 
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In regards to the multiple admins on one forum.

I run one corporate forum and one non-corporate forum.

For thecorporate forum there are 3 admins. Me, the President, and our Customer service person.

As for the other one. It is an anime forum that has ben around since 2003 when I started off as a super mod. I have since taken over the site since the "owner" has either lost interest. Or has since finished law school and is completely swamped.

I have five admins under me all with complete access to the cp and haven't had any problems whatsoever. Only one besides me has server access.
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  #69  
Old 07-29-2009, 06:31 AM
J105C J105C is offline
 
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Great suggestions!
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  #70  
Old 08-14-2009, 09:52 AM
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daveaite daveaite is offline
 
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Multi-Admin is really stressful, specially when your doing all the work. I was luck that my other admin went into the army and left.
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  #71  
Old 09-06-2009, 02:56 PM
Jorrit787 Jorrit787 is offline
 
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This is not exactly current anymore...
Quote:
the majority of computer users are using 800x600 on a 56Kb modem
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