Helpful Information
 
 
Category: Management Articles
The Worst Things You Can Ever Do(tm)

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?

i think u have just about covered the essenials :D here here

suggestion, instead of just saying that you shouldnt have a graphic intense skin. Say, If your going to have a graphic intense design for cable users, have an alternative skin for 56k users.

Today at 06:17 PM Xelation said this in Post #3 (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?postid=420253#post420253)
suggestion, instead of just saying that you shouldnt have a graphic intense skin. Say, If your going to have a graphic intense design for cable users, have an alternative skin for 56k users.


is that a hint to wot insidethepixel wil b like ? cant w8

Is that a hint to what Inside The Pixel will be like? I can't wait.

insidethepixel is not a graphics community, its a design firm. and is not graphic intense imo... the only reason we have done graphic intense sites is because the clients have wanted graphic intense designs... we can do "lite" skins.

Today at 06:57 PM filburt1 said this in Post #5 (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?postid=420266#post420266)
Is that a hint to what Inside The Pixel will be like? I can't wait.


im gald u understood my english :p

I'm glad he also translated it for the rest of us!

i'd love to have a coffee machine come with the forums...need it sometimes :)

Can I add for people starting sites-

On the first page of your site give a clear explanation of what the site is about and what it features.

So many vbulletin sites I have seen where people are asking why no one ever joins up is because it's not clearly defined what the site is about.

Example: Welcome to the Apple forums, this site is a discussion board for all Apple Enthusiasts.


Have a theme and stick to it and your guests should be able to figure out what the site is about in the first fifteen seconds.

Mike

Good advice from everyone. :)

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!)

It is a bad idea because you're effectively giving the keys to somebody else. They can then wreak havoc when they want.

The good thing about vB3 is that you can set Administrator Permissions, so you can block them from any options in the Admin CP individually. :)

Also in vB3 you can make sure your other Admins can't change the locks on you. :)

I think having some adminstrators that you can trust is not a bad thing, however database access and/or FTP access is website suicide.

Website suicide... sounds like a new band. ;)

In refrence to additional admins. I had someone I thought I could trust when we started ,and they took the liberty of downloading their very own copy of the data base and tryed to clone my site....Good tip,,,,

In refrence to additional admins. I had someone I thought I could trust when we started ,and they took the liberty of downloading their very own copy of the data base and tryed to clone my site....Good tip,,,,
You have to make sure you can trust them BEFORE you admin them. I have adminned several people, although there was one which I adminned out of pity for the hell of it, and he took the liberty to take advantage of me setting debug mode on and deleted all the settings.

But now that I have (rather, had) admins that I can trust, I haven't had any problems.

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.

Where is the setting to ban search bots so I can check my settings?

Thanks

Doug

Great tips if you intend on building a very big and busy site.

However, there are some forums that are tightly focused, intimate even, and bigger is not always better in those cases. With them, content (and therefore, quality of membership) is king. I suspect sites like that need different strategies.

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.

That's a little out of date. :)

Always backup your database and files on a regular basis.

If possible and resources are available, even test a restore to ensure your backup process is effective...

Huge one! ;)

The worst things you can ever do?

Auto promote new users to Administrator on Activation ;)

The worst things you can ever do?

Auto promote new users to Administrator on Activation ;)

And send the FTP details of the site with the activation mail :)

as someone said, it totally depends what you're going for. sure, your car forums might benefit by someone seeing all the super flash threads and stuff and joining, but something like my teen support & advice forum requires a certain amount of privacy for my members. i show thread titles and fully published articles, but hide anything that a member wouldnt want their worst enemy seeing.

That's a little out of date. :)

As hambil was referring to graphics I agree. A site design is dependent on its theme and audience. For gaming sites, the people expect a layout that appeals and is strong.

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.


what i normally do is create another usergroup which does not have the power to edit post etc but can access admin sections and have their own colored username.

i put them in here on trial whilst i c if they are up 2 the job or not, plus it gives them a sense of power :D

That's a little out of date. :)

Why is it? I know a lot of people who still use Dial Up and often I am found using 800x600 resolution, especially late at night.

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.some nice suggestions :)

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.)

If you're suggesting to be true/up-front then I agree fully. :)

It is a bad idea because you're effectively giving the keys to somebody else. They can then wreak havoc when they want.
Still that just depends on the case.
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.

9. Never, under any circumstances except for corporate websites, have another administrator.


Perhaps you should change it to "another administrator that you met online"?
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).

Thats a little bit out of date

Personally I know over 100 people online, of those that I know only 1 user is still on dial up. So I do tend to believe that the statement indicating that the majority of online users are on a 56k line is in fact out of date. Not to say that they don't exist, but imo they are not the majority anymore, at least not of north american users, I don't know much about the rest of the world in this regards.

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!

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.

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 :p

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.

Never, under any circumstances except for corporate websites, have another administrator.

haha you're kidding :(

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.

Personally I know over 100 people online, of those that I know only 1 user is still on dial up. So I do tend to believe that the statement indicating that the majority of online users are on a 56k line is in fact out of date. Not to say that they don't exist, but imo they are not the majority anymore, at least not of north american users, I don't know much about the rest of the world in this regards.

that depends on the forum target audience........... :bunny: I think i get a lot of hits from 3rd world countries without cable.. one of my members is in Iraq, she has 56k.

Great guide - Good job!

Actually, I think another part of this is a bit out-of-date: most search engines nowadays DO read text inside images. At least, Google does.

well it was posted 3 years ago..

Actually, I think another part of this is a bit out-of-date: most search engines nowadays DO read text inside images. At least, Google does.
Google reading text inside images? I highly doubt it. If you are referring to image search, that searches the alternate text and surounding text. :-)

I at one time lived by all these rules. On my second forum nonw, almost a 1000 members. 1 rule that I have broken that I think makes it better is this one.

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.

I have found that if you have automatic login prechecked, the ability to show only post topics and not bodies, and make people to sign in that you will
1. Get more registrations (which is a no brainer)
2. Get more posts per user (has increased by 4 since I required)
3. Have a more active forum in other areas.

The second thing I have found that I don't agree with now is this one.
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.

My suggestion is not to use the newest one. Use a stable one. Use it for awhile, if you have alot of hacks on your board, don't change it. It will only cause headaches.

The Multi-Admin setup ONLY works if all the admins are completely on the same page. If you go that route you need to clearly define everyone's role from the beginning. The important part is to know who is going to retain the rights to the webspace if a separation or demotion is necessary...

I speak from experience that you need to have from the onset a protocol for dealing with a possible falling out. It will be much easier to part ways if you have openly discussed the doomsday scenario...

I agree that only one person should have absolute access to the domain...

As one who is a second admin on one forum and root admin on another, I can understand the retisence of making admins, but it can be handy some times if you are not able to go online for any reason, at least your site can be 'looked after' but there has to be trust otherwise it wouldn't work well.

What does make it hard is if you are admin and the root admin dissappears on you, and can not be contacted. This has happened to me. And as the site was failing for want of a root admins attention, I ended up starting up again alone. And I am pleased to say we are still going!

So there are good and bad things in any relationship, is basically what I am saying. ;)

In my opinion the worst thing you can do is neglect your site. If you do not have the time to make sure things are going smoothly then notify your members that you are going to take the forum down. I know of some sites that look legit, but have been havens for rip of artists and such. Although these people aren't the owners, they are letting it happen. I hate seeing stuff like that.

Two concerns:

1 "Dont pretend you are someone else". I am going to start my forum in a week or so and planned on making like 50 screennames, start making threads and posts and stuff, and change the dates around to make the forum look like it's been around for a couple weeks. I would probably spend a few days on this. This way, people will join because it looks to be a relatively popular forum. No one wants to join a forum with onnly 3 other members :cool:

2. "Stay true with your ban and dont give any explanation when rebanning." I actually had a case some time ago when I was banned unfairly, but the mods followed this rule and did not listen to me when I had created another screenname and just rebanned me with no explanation. I can understand this if the user is obviously a troll. But always?

Other than that, great rules of thumb!

Nice tutorial, though the part about 800x640 and 56k is outdated; broadband is way more common, especiallyi n Europe, not to mention the increase of 1024x768 usage.

This is a great thread, every new community should follow it! Sorry for bumping and old, there isnt many posts in this board but! An addon to number 3 is search engines cant crawl if you disable guest views!

I would just like to add to this, dont allow name changes. They create confusion, and just are generally a hassle.

1. True, and no one can argue for banning them, as all they do is generally positive.

2. So true. There are scenarios (such as sensitive issues and private forums) where you don't want this, but if you are running a non controversal, normal site, this is something to think about. Never stop guests viewing your forum, and if you don't, also never stop them viewing topics either.

3. Cannot say, but I still know more people on broadband connections than dial up, and the resolution thing is a bit old fashioned.

4. Ditto. You don't know how often I use stats like how many members joined since the forum opened and how long it has been around for to decide when to join. Just one advantage of letting guests view profiles is that you can let them work out how active the forum is from stuff like that. I do wish contact information could be made private but not all of the profile though. Just e-mail and IM information. And yes, the best way to encourage guests is to keep cool features like the arcade to the members only.

5. So true. I do this a lot myself, and on every forum I ever registered to. Failure to do this ends your forum on the same note as that forum with 122 members and only 22 posts... the forum graveyard. And failure to keep involved as an admin leads to either a dead forum or a state of anarchy/civil war. I have seen this happen too often...

6. Agreed.

7. Also agreed. To add to this, partial network banning could also accidentally ban a whole school/workplace/college/library/internet cafe as well, which would ruin access to your forum for those depending on such places.

8. I have no idea about this, because it causes a conflict of theories and ideas in a psychological and philosophical sense.

9. I disagree. True with a small forum, but any large forums do need more than one staff member with this kind of power. Do you really think many of the largest communities online (Offtopic, Gamefaqs, IGN, etc) could be run with one administrator? Some are corporate, but many actually high non paid admins because of need as well.

10. Honestly, I have no idea why a HTML allowed option even exists, because the option unfiltered is website suicide. Makes me think of a certain forum I used to go to which accidentally allowed iframe code and someone inserted shock pictures in topic titles...


11. Also true. I have seen instances of vBulletin 3.0 and 3.5 being run, which is just slightly insecure. I also remember a site once still running vBulletin 2.

12. Sadly this is a very common problem and materialist attitude, as far too many people think that by adding one more thing, doing one more thing or buying one more thing, everything will be perfect and their problems will be over. Far from the case, and why have a clock, it's already on your desktop? And a weather display is useless for non weather related forums. Reminds me of that engineer saying, that 'If something is not broke, it doesn't have enough featurs yet!'

Re having other admins:

I thought this was a bad idea to have more than say 2, but I added 4 more over time, all of which have limited access to the admin CP and I know them personally.
Generally due to the fact that my online access was limited, I added more and that one of the other admins has previous experience too.

I am the only one with full backend access to ftp and the database, so I am safe :)
Plus its nice to know in the config you cannot be deleted.

I totally disagree on the admin numbers thing. I run a forum, of which i'm one of 7 admins.

4 of us have root access to the server to fix problems - one in each timezone (uk,us,aus) and the site owner.

our smods also have limited admin access allowing them to add mods and make changes to the forums that they are responsible for.

It all depends on need. Without this number of admins nothing would get done on the site. Obviously you dont make someone you've just met an admin; most of our admins/smods have been on the site for years and have worked their way up through mod/smod/admin ranks, all new staff members are voted in by admins + smods, so we generally get only the best into staff positions.

The Multi-Admin setup ONLY works if all the admins are completely on the same page. If you go that route you need to clearly define everyone's role from the beginning. The important part is to know who is going to retain the rights to the webspace if a separation or demotion is necessary...

I speak from experience that you need to have from the onset a protocol for dealing with a possible falling out. It will be much easier to part ways if you have openly discussed the doomsday scenario...

I agree that only one person should have absolute access to the domain...

The one problem that comes with that is, the person who has server access/owns the hosting or server is generally going to do what they want with the site if they decide to leave or can it.

I had another admin on my site and he literaly was complaining about MY decisions... like if he was the owner!

GOD! If you ever add an admin allways be clear about their place on the administration...

Two concerns:

1 "Dont pretend you are someone else". I am going to start my forum in a week or so and planned on making like 50 screennames, start making threads and posts and stuff, and change the dates around to make the forum look like it's been around for a couple weeks. I would probably spend a few days on this. This way, people will join because it looks to be a relatively popular forum. No one wants to join a forum with onnly 3 other members :cool:



After reading all of the above post, this one stuck out. I'd be interested if you actually did this? This seems like a recipe for disaster especially as your legit members start asking questions of individual fakes. And then keeping the PM mess clear will be a nightmare.

If a forum is interesting it will attract members.

I got very lucky and although I thought the first contact was actually someone trying to sell me some services that I can't afford, I made a phone call and gave someone admin privileges and it has worked exceedingly well. BUT, he owned a vB forum with over 21,000,000 posts, is a programmer, had a real interest in my forum, and gave me a lot of interesting tips that have helped build the forum. I had no idea about administering a forum, banning users, registration problems, etc.

I didn't give ftp access or access to the database and don't plan on doing so. I consider myself lucky as this could have gone south. I now have another moderator and will be adding another in the coming months.

After reading all of the above post, this one stuck out. I'd be interested if you actually did this? This seems like a recipe for disaster especially as your legit members start asking questions of individual fakes. And then keeping the PM mess clear will be a nightmare.

If a forum is interesting it will attract members.

I got very lucky and although I thought the first contact was actually someone trying to sell me some services that I can't afford, I made a phone call and gave someone admin privileges and it has worked exceedingly well. BUT, he owned a vB forum with over 21,000,000 posts, is a programmer, had a real interest in my forum, and gave me a lot of interesting tips that have helped build the forum. I had no idea about administering a forum, banning users, registration problems, etc.

I didn't give ftp access or access to the database and don't plan on doing so. I consider myself lucky as this could have gone south. I now have another moderator and will be adding another in the coming months.

It's quite normal for admins to make about two or three alts... just make sure they vanish into the sunset early on the forum's history. Your mods will probably understand why you made the alts if they ever figure it out.

As for you getting help from this guy, that's a great thing, as the person looks extremely skilled in forum management from the information given.

wow this is still as relevant as it was when i first read it in 2003! classic!

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!

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.

Nice advice indeed, I'll take it into consideration.

9. Never, under any circumstances except for corporate websites, have another administrator.

Boy do I wish I'd read this one before.....

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? :confused:

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 !!

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.

Great suggestions!

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.

This is not exactly current anymore...
the majority of computer users are using 800x600 on a 56Kb modem

Hmm...
Netbooks, Phone, mini-pmp tablets...
GSM/EDGE & 3G/HSDPA? Your 21Mbps Mast is only 2Mbps SHARED amongst all the the users for 97% of the cell area. A 50k to 100k experience is not uncommon.
Actual dialup is 20k to 49k, rarely ever more, only ISDN or related tech does true 56k or 64K.

Less than 50% of Irish Internet users have true Broadband. One third of non-copper pair dialup are actually on 3G/Mobile/HSPA, which is absolutely not Broadband, though marketed as it.
http://www.wattystuff.net/issues/mobile-and-nbs/
http://www.techtir.ie/forums/showthread.php?p=2045#post2045
http://www.techtir.ie/forums/showthread.php?p=2073#post2073
http://irelandoffline.org/

Don't have gratuitous graphics. :)

What follows is a list of things that you should always do, except in extraordinary circumstances, when operating vBulletin

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.


I think this one is out of date mate:D
ETA I did not see the last replies when I quoted this from the front page , guess it was a pretty common observation.

of course we also have the archive and PDA option, although it does not do the user CP or new post in low to no graphics. unless I have missed something.

maybe somebody should update this article a bit

Really good guide/article.

Thanks very much for your share!

just setup my own forum, and while learning loads,. i just came across your post,. thank you for that,. luckily i use common sense and do search alot,. so many of these points are already considered the norm, however,. on that admin regard, hmm, i run no corporate forum, so i do see the point in that, additional admin negated (mostly because of his own behaviour, which was exactly my worry from the get-go)

thank you for your useful tips.










privacy (GDPR)