Vanilla 101 - Vanilla Success
<main> <article class="userContent"> <p>Welcome to <strong>Higher Logic Vanilla</strong> (<strong>Vanilla</strong>)!</p><p>One of the coolest things about Vanilla is that the platform is really customizable. Different communities will have very different feature sets based on:</p><ul><li>community type,</li><li>moderation style, and</li><li>community manager preferences.</li></ul><p>Let's get started!</p><h2 data-id="your-vanilla-sites">Your Vanilla Sites</h2><p>In Vanilla, you have two sites, <strong>Staging</strong> and <strong>Production</strong>.</p><h3 data-id="staging-site">Staging Site</h3><p>If your subscription includes a Staging site, you'll always have access to it and it will remain even after your Community has launched.</p><p>Your Staging site is your "sandbox" environment. Admins and moderators can learn, test things (such as addons), and try out new features. Then, if you like the how they look and behave, you can push them to your Production site.</p><h3 data-id="production-site">Production Site</h3><p>Your Production site is your "live" community site. This is where your users will engage with one another and your organization.</p><p>You Production site will typically have its own <strong>custom domain</strong>. Learn how to set up your custom domain in:</p><div class="js-embed embedResponsive" data-embedjson="{"body":"Your Community’s Web Address Customizing the web address (URL) of your community is an important step in setting up a new Vanilla forum. We recommend giving your community forum its own home on a subdomain of the primary domain you use in your web presence. For example, if you have your main website at example.com, you…","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6030677\/uploads\/VWGAXAF5OFCO\/microsoftteams-image.png","url":"https:\/\/success.vanillaforums.com\/kb\/articles\/3-setting-up-your-custom-domain","embedType":"link","name":"Setting up your Custom Domain - Vanilla Success"}"> <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/3-setting-up-your-custom-domain" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc"> https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/3-setting-up-your-custom-domain </a> </div><h3 data-id="staging-vs-production-site-differences">Staging vs Production - Site Differences</h3><p>Your staging and production sites are essentially <em>two distinct instances of your Vanilla community</em>. It's important to understand that changes in one of these environments are unique to that environment.</p><p>Therefore, any changes tested, enabled, made on your staging site have to be manually copied to your production site; currently, it is not possible to automatically move settings from staging to production.</p><h4 data-id="how-does-this-affect-my-migration-to-vanilla">How does this affect my migration to Vanilla?</h4><p>Test and Final Migrations will go on the Production site, which will wipe the database on your Production site. Your Staging site will not be affected by the migration, so we suggest creating your category configuration and any custom roles in your Staging site while your test and final migrations are taking place.</p><h2 data-id="vanilla-successteam">Vanilla SuccessTeam™</h2><p>Your main point of contact at Vanilla is your CSM. Your CSM:</p><ul><li>is your guide as you get to know Vanilla,</li><li>will host training sessions and</li><li>will work with you to implement and grow your community strategy.</li></ul><p>In addition to your CSM, you will:</p><ul><li>have contact with our Project Manager <em>if you license professional services</em> (Migration, Custom Theme, Customizations).</li><li>receive the contact information for our Director of Experience (if ever you need a point of escalation).</li></ul><p>CSMs are available <strong>Monday through Friday</strong> from <strong>9:00am to 5:00pm</strong>, <strong>ET</strong>.</p><ul><li>In case of an emergency outside of these hours, contact our Support Team at <a href="unsafe:support@vanillaforums.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">support@vanillaforums.com</a>.</li></ul><h2 data-id="onboarding-with-vanilla">Onboarding with Vanilla</h2><p>Throughout the duration of your onboarding, your CSM will walk you through training sessions to get you familiar with Vanilla to get your community and your team set up for success! Some of the things you can expect of your CSM are:</p><p><strong>Community Strategy</strong> - Identify goals, strategies, and milestones for your community.</p><p><strong>Product Training</strong> - Learn how to leverage your new platform.</p><ul><li>Dashboard Training</li><li>Gamification Training</li><li>Moderation Training</li><li>Analytics Training</li><li>Knowledge Base Training (if applicable)</li></ul><p><strong>Implementation Support</strong> - Regularly check in on the status of your projects within your team as well as with the Vanilla Professional Services team (if applicable).</p><p><strong>Forum Launch</strong> - Help support you in getting your new community launched.</p><h2 data-id="additional-resources">Additional Resources</h2><p>In addition to your dedicated CSM, Vanilla works to ensure your community is a success by providing:</p><ul><li><strong>Vanilla Customer Community</strong> - Connect with other Vanilla users, and post questions and product feedback at <a href="unsafe:success.vanillaforums.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">success.vanillaforums.com</a>.</li><li><strong>Vanilla Knowledge Base</strong> - Search through our <a href="unsafe:success.vanillaforums.com/kb" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">product documentation</a> and keep current with our <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/docs" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">Release Notes</a>.</li><li><strong>Vanilla Blog</strong> - Stay up-to-date on the latest advice from community experts at <a href="unsafe:blog.vanillaforums.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">blog.vanillaforums.com</a>.</li></ul> </article> </main>