If you are new to Question2Answer, it is best to start with the core configuration before adding plugins or customizations.
After installation, I would recommend checking these areas first:
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General settings – Configure the site name, description, language, URLs, and basic site preferences.
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User permissions – Decide what new users, registered users, editors, moderators, and administrators are allowed to do.
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Categories and tags – Create a simple category structure and define the tags you expect users to use. Avoid creating too many categories at the beginning.
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Question and answer settings – Review voting, comments, editing, anonymous posting, and moderation options according to your community requirements.
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Email settings – Test registration, password reset, and notification emails before launching the site.
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URL rewriting – Check that clean/neat URLs are working correctly. On Apache, this commonly depends on the .htaccess configuration and mod_rewrite.
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Security and backups – Remove the installation file after setup, protect your configuration file, keep PHP/Q2A updated, and schedule regular database backups.
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Plugins and themes – Start with the default setup and add only the plugins you actually need. Plugins can be installed through the qa-plugin directory and managed from the Admin panel.
A common beginner mistake is installing many plugins and changing core files immediately. It is better to first run a small test with a few users, create questions and answers, test moderation and notifications, and then customize the site.
The official Q2A documentation is also a good starting point because it covers installation, configuration, plugins, security, upgrades, and performance.
