A newly installed site has many different options to configure, many of which can often seem complex. Follow these steps as a basic outline of what you need to configure to get your site up and running. Remember, any of these options can be changed at any time. More typically, you will only run through many of these options once, not changing them unless you are re-vamping the structure or purpose of your site.

1. If you've set up a site and are developing it behind closed doors - we strongly recommend you develop your site behind closed doors until there is some content and it's set up at your domain name NOT at a subdomain of bryght.net (every Bryght Light site starts off with a temporary URL of yourdomain-tld.bryght.net e.g. coolsite-com.bryght.net but you can and should move it to a domain you own):
1. Turn off anonymous access. Click Administer » User management » Access control then uncheck everything under the anonymous user column. Click Save permissions.
2. Make sure the Ping module is disabled under Administer » Site building » Modules. Click "Save configuration". This step will help prevent Google and RSS search engines from indexing the site until your content and domain is ready. Also, this will keep people from linking to the temporary Bryght URL
2. Configure basic administrative settings
3. Select which modules to enable and disable. Click Administer » Site building » Modules.
4. Configure users
1. Set registration and user picture options
2. Create roles and permissions
3. Create a second user for editing themes.
4. (optional) Set email and username access rules
5. (optional) Edit the fields for user information included in the profile
5. Set the default workflow for all types of content
6. Create categories with optional tagging (categories are required for setting up weblinks and it's useful for other types of content).
7. Set module-specific settings (click Administer » Site configuration and you should see a list of modules beneath the settings link in the navigation menu)
8. If you've enabled the forum and/or image modules, setup forums and image galleries.
9. Configure input formats
10. Select your theme and set theme options though Administer » Site building » Themes. You can change the colors of the Garland or Minnelli theme and add custom CSS information.
11. Enable, disable, and set order of sidebar blocks
12. Point your domain at the Bryght servers. It may take from 1 minute to 48 hours (typical time is a couple of hours) for your site to show up at the new domain name and it always takes longer than you think (since every domain provider has a unique method of setting up DNS) so allow PLENTY of time for this step (we suggest at least a couple of days). Again, we strongly recommend purchasing a domain for your site: owning your own domain name is key to owning the content of your site.

When Ready to Launch Site

1. Check the URLs of all your pre-launch content and your navigation. It's easy to point inadvertently to your temporary URL which you don't want to do when your site is launched.
2. If your site is public, turn on anonymous access if you disabled it. Click Administer » User management » Access control and check everything under anonymous user that you want people to access, then click "Save permissions".
3. Optional: enable the ping module by clicking Administer » Site building » Modules, checking the box next to "Ping", then clicking "Save configuration".

These steps will allow people to surf your site without being logged in and to allow the RSS search engines and Google to index your site.

This is a very basic outline of the steps to take, and not all of them are required. In fact, you can start adding content or select your theme at any point -- this list just takes you through all the options you might want to consider in setting up a site.