If an existing forum was looking to replace their admin (the one who does updates, modifies settings, installs plugins, does backups, etc.) what would the qualifications be?
For example, if someone knows how to admin a large Wordpress site, would they probably be able to admin a Discourse forum?
Obviously someone would need to be careful and conscientious. But are there more specific things to look for? Or would someone with general admin skills be able to pick up things as they went along?
EDIT: I’m talking about the basic operation of the forum, not advanced things like bulk changes to the database using the command line.
Root access to the server is required (this is not mandatory for a Wordpress site).
The command line is sometimes used for very basic commands (upgrade via ./launcher rebuild app).
Ideally, they would know at least the basics of how Discourse works for users AND admin: site settings, simple official or third-party customization, moderation tools and features.
The support forum (that’s us, hi! ) is very helpful, and many issues raised by self-hosters are resolved by the community.
ask.discourse.org, an AI-powered search based on Discourse-specific information, often returns very helpful answers as well.
If your forum is already online, it can be helpful to share here some info about it. Is it self-hosted, does it have customizations (themes, components, plugins), how active/large is it, etc.
Thank you. I edited my original post to mention that I’m not talking about bulk modifications to the database and things like that.
The forum in question is self hosted. It has been running for over 10 years. It’s maybe medium size? I don’t know all the details, but there are probably about 100-200 posts per day. Maybe 2-8 new threads each day. There is a quality moderation team made up of about 5 active mods.
As far as I know it does not have customization beyond (perhaps) a simple custom theme. There is one feature that turns abbreviated citations in posts to links using regex. We have had that for some time and it has never caused any problems that I know of.
The forum itself runs very well and there isn’t much complicated about it. In fact the admin’s strict and conservative approach to management is part of the problem. So I wouldn’t expect that there would be problems waiting for the next admin to have to deal with.
Hmm… intersting question. I think an admin has to have some knowledge of Discourse, to operate the forum more easily.
I think an Admin also has to listen to users. If users want a new category, new tags or something to change, the admin has to really consider it and discuss it with the users. I think the important part is that the admin shouldn’t shut down the suggestion, or abuse their powers.
If you have a particular, trusted, person in mind, I think sending them the Discourse install guide and asking if they are comfortable executing that would give you a pretty good indication
) is very helpful, and many issues raised by self-hosters are resolved by the community.