Hi there 
I am following this guide on Github and you are recommending Namecheap there.
I did follow up on this, and you say, I have to check a subdomain.
Two problems:
Absolutely nowhere on Namecheap is any option to be found, that lets me do that.
Absolutely nowhere on your documentation is mentioned, how I could do that.
You’ll just create an A record for whatever subdomain you want as described at https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/319/2237/how-can-i-set-up-an-a-address-record-for-my-domain/.
Thanks a lot!
Personally, that isn’t really helping, since there are no clear, dedicated instructions on how to setup a subdomain.
Also, the guide still does not say anything at all about that.
Are we sure, that’s helping people as is?
It is in the Standard install instructions on GitHub.
“Your DNS controls should be accessible from the place where you purchased your domain name. This is where you will create a DNS A record for the discourse.example.com hostname once you know the IP address of the cloud server where you are installing Discourse, as well as enter your SPF and DKIM records for your email.”
That’s because there is nothing to it. It’s just a DNS A record that points to a server.
On some systems “setting up a subdomain” seems like a big deal since those systems do a bunch of stuff, including installing something that will answer https requests (you’ll install Discourse) that runs somewhere (you’ll create a VM) and point a DNS record to it (the part that you seem to be having a hard time understanding?).
I was wrong about @, apologies, the column is “Host”.
Here’s a few examples:
Where Value is the desired IP address.
so:
demo.example.comdev.example.comsnow.example.comThat’s literally it!
(though you will also need to request a certificate using something like Let’s Encrypt from the server unless it’s automatically done like it is with Discourse)
For somebody who has never dealt with that, thats not nothing.
That comes already closer to an actual solution. The people would still not know, how to gain their IP address.
If this is supposed to be limited to people who are already web developers, than the current docs are probably fitting.
If you intend to provide the opportunities that come with Discourse for everyone equally, there is some way to go.
My web dev has had a lot of struggles with the setup of the SMTP host, as an example - I would have never been able to perform that.
It’s the same IP address as the VPS you log into to install Discourse.
That is all information, that is relevant to be documented for a new user. I am willing to put in this work, in case you are interested to merge it.
Maybe a bit more detail. However your VPs provider has the IP address in the Dashboard with server specs.
How easy this is will depend on the SMTP you choose to use. For example Brevo.com it is just sign up a username and password and either use the free or paid plans.
Then just entering the username, password in discourse setup and the SMTP address
The above is standard in discourse. The smpt provider may also have instructions to create a DNS record if I have it correct to have the dkim to help ensure mail delivery.
Then you have some like Lark which is more complicated setup then what I posted above.
This is why Discourse Meta is here to help provide official and community based support. If one has a budget there are many folks that will do the initial setup and some like @pfaffman for self hosted folks has a support dashboard for a small yearly fee that also includes his support. The Dashboard gives options to make installing plugins and doing some command line upkeep for less techy savvy users.
Just to be clear I do sympathize with where your coming from and have to say. In this day and age a gui UX is considered more standardized for every day layman users.