Admin Help User Task List

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WordPress User ‘Tasks’

We are gathering a list of things (tasks) any user might do in the course of setting up a WordPress site.

We need your help to add to this list!!

Please feel free to add your ideas in the comments.

Upload and configure WordPress
Remove the default post and comment
Drop by the theme editor and find the right theme
Writing my first post
Make the site “yours”
Create some content
Create a new front page
Remove the default admin account or restrict its permissions
Add new user(s)/admin(s)
Setup Akismet
Search for and install a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party
Setup pretty permalinks
Change the default tagline from “Just another WordPress blog”

You can read more about the purpose for this list here.

#admin-help

Daryl L. L. Houston (dllh) 12:08 pm on March 19, 2014

Some possible ideas at http://learn.wordpress.com/ (it’s wpcom material but much of it would transfer to .org).
- trishasalas 7:19 pm on March 19, 2014
  
  Thanks for the ideas, @dllh!
- Chris Reynolds 7:20 pm on March 19, 2014
  
  +1
  Hadn’t thought of that but that’s a good call.
Chris Reynolds 3:13 pm on March 19, 2014

Activate multisiteMultisite Multisite is a WordPress feature which allows users to create a network of sites on a single WordPress installation. Available since WordPress version 3.0, Multisite is a continuation of WPMU or WordPress Multiuser project. WordPress MultiUser project was discontinued and its features were included into WordPress core.https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network.! (muahahahahaha)
ShayHurley 5:05 pm on March 19, 2014
- Remove the default admin account or restrict its permissions
- Add new user(s)/admin(s)
- Setup Akismet
Chris Reynolds 5:32 pm on March 19, 2014
- Search for and install a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party
- Setup pretty permalinks
- Change the default tagline from “Just another WordPress blog”
trishasalas 7:16 pm on March 19, 2014

….are you trying to scare people off, @jazzs3quence? 😉

(activate, multisiteMultisite Multisite is a WordPress feature which allows users to create a network of sites on a single WordPress installation. Available since WordPress version 3.0, Multisite is a continuation of WPMU or WordPress Multiuser project. WordPress MultiUser project was discontinued and its features were included into WordPress core.https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network.…that’s funny)
- Chris Reynolds 7:20 pm on March 19, 2014
  
  I think it’s worth thinking about. Activating and setting up multisiteMultisite Multisite is a WordPress feature which allows users to create a network of sites on a single WordPress installation. Available since WordPress version 3.0, Multisite is a continuation of WPMU or WordPress Multiuser project. WordPress MultiUser project was discontinued and its features were included into WordPress core.https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network. is under-documented and tricky. Mastering that, or having some system in place that walks you through the process without having to look it up on the Codex would be *amazing*.
trishasalas 7:23 pm on March 19, 2014

Actually, I completely agree but it brings up the point again about funneling. Some will need to do this and some will never even think of it. I think we need to think about the testing in terms of groups. Maybe the User Capabilities would be a good place to start.

I was going to comment something similar on @shayHurley‘s comment as much of what he suggested would not be applicable to the average user. (but that brings up another question, who is our average user?)
- Kim Parsell 10:45 am on March 22, 2014
  
  Rather than have them remove the default admin account, it would be better to have them create a new user account and assign a role to it. This account could be for a friend who will also be writing on the blog, but probably shouldn’t be an admin. What role should be assigned to them (i.e., level of trust)?
joshlevinson 2:23 pm on March 21, 2014
I’d like to open a bit of discussion on the importance of
- Remove the default admin account or restrict its permissions
- Add new user(s)/admin(s) (as a necessary result of doing the above step)
In my opinion this is not only unnecessary, it degrades the perceived quality of WordPress. Recommending users to delete the first user and recreate it as part of setting up a WordPress site would make one wonder, “Why didn’t setup do something like this for me?”
It would make one feel less confident in the default security of WordPress.

To my knowledge, the only security concern with having a user ID of 1 (which I assume is the concern that the recommended steps are intended to assuage) is one that is experienced if an attacker has already gained some way of modifying or reading directly from a site’s database. This would signify a problem further up the chain. Perhaps a more useful fix would be to prevent users from setting up a WordPress site with the “low-hanging fruit” usernames (admin, Admin, administrator, etc.).

I vote to have those item removed from the task list – consider that users don’t always look for help when they need help doing something, they often look at a task list simply because it exists.
- Josh Levinson 2:44 pm on March 21, 2014
  
  I read a little more into this topic, and found out about WordPress’s “user enumeration vulnerability”. This basically makes the steps to remove the default account (and blocking easy-to-guess usernames) even less useful, as enumeration could be used to determine usernames no matter what the IDs are. This only reinforces the importance of enforcing strong passwords.
- Anonymous User 12:12 pm on March 23, 2014
  
  Ever since the admin account can be named in the install process, deleting the default account really has become a useless step.
  Choosing a strong passwords and a different name for the default account really should be enough.
Bradley Allen 5:32 pm on March 22, 2014

Adjust widgets
Anonymous User 9:56 pm on March 25, 2014
- Adjust timezone
- Adjust date/time format

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WordPress User ‘Tasks’

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