Vanilla 101 - HL Vanilla Community
<main> <article class="userContent"> <p>Welcome to <strong>Higher Logic Vanilla</strong> (<strong>Vanilla</strong>)! We’re excited to have you here. To get started, you’ll find common topics in this section.</p><h3 data-id="learning-opportunities">Learning opportunities</h3><p>If you prefer video training, check out the <strong>Onboarding with Vanilla</strong> category of our knowledge base. It has a number of videos, most of which are <em>shorter than 15 minutes</em>, and they're <em>grouped by module</em> so that you can more easily track your progress and resume where you left off!</p><div class="js-embed embedResponsive" data-embedjson="{"body":"Looking to learn how to use the Vanilla platform? Find helpful videos here with everything you need to know.","url":"https:\/\/success.vanillaforums.com\/kb\/onboarding-videos","embedType":"link","name":"Onboarding with Vanilla - HL Vanilla Community"}"> <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/onboarding-videos" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc"> https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/onboarding-videos </a> </div><p>In addition, we recommend you check out our community welcome category with all things onboarding:</p><ul><li><a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/categories/welcome" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">Vanilla Start</a> category in the community and</li><li>our live education series, <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/discussion/1224/introducing-vanilla-connect#latest" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">Vanilla Connect</a></li></ul><p>Let’s get started!</p><h2 data-id="your-vanilla-sites">Your Vanilla sites</h2><p>Depending on your subscription, you may have two sites: <strong>Staging</strong> and <strong>Production</strong>.</p><h3 data-id="staging-site">Staging site</h3><p>Your Staging site is your "sandbox" environment. Admins and Moderators can learn, test, and try out new features (like addons). Then, if you like the how they look and behave, you can push them to your Production site.</p><p>Staging typically gets releases ahead of production. To learn more, see our <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/docs" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">Release Notes</a>.</p><p><strong>📝 NOTE</strong>: If your subscription includes a Staging site, you'll always have access to it: it will remain even after your community has launched.</p><h3 data-id="production-site">Production site</h3><p>Your Production site is your "live" community site, and is where your users will engage with one another and your organization.</p><p>You Production site will 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":"When setting up a new Higher Logic Vanilla (Vanilla) community, customizing its web address (URL) is an important step. We recommend giving your Vanilla community its own home on a subdomain of the primary domain you use for your web presence. For example, if your main website is example.com, you should use an address…","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6030677\/uploads\/VWGAXAF5OFCO\/microsoftteams-image.png","url":"https:\/\/success.vanillaforums.com\/kb\/articles\/3","embedType":"link","name":"Set up your Custom Domain - Vanilla Success"}"> <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/3" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc"> https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/3 </a> </div><h3 data-id="staging-vs-production%3A-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 <em>to</em> that environment.</p><p>This means that any changes tested, enabled, and made on your Staging site have to be <em>manually copied to your Production site</em>; currently, it's not possible to automatically move settings from Staging to Production.</p><h3 data-id="migrating-to-vanilla">Migrating to Vanilla</h3><p>If you're migrating to Vanilla, there are a few other things to consider:</p><ul><li>Test and final migrations will go on your Production site, which will "wipe" its database.</li><li>Your Staging site will <strong>not</strong> be affected by the test migration or the final migration, so we suggest that you create your Category configuration and any custom Roles on your Staging site while the migrations are taking place.</li></ul><p>For additional information about <em>migrating to Vanilla</em>, see:</p><div class="js-embed embedResponsive" data-embedjson="{"body":"Overview Migration from one platform to another doesn’t have to be a scary process. At Vanilla Forums, we always do a test import of your data and ask you to verify that the import was performed correctly, without errors, before we do a final migration. The key to a successful migration is taking the time to properly…","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6030677\/uploads\/VWGAXAF5OFCO\/microsoftteams-image.png","url":"https:\/\/success.vanillaforums.com\/kb\/articles\/347","embedType":"link","name":"Migration Guide - Vanilla Success"}"> <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/347" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc"> https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/347 </a> </div><p>If your Vanilla community <em>launch and your migration are occurring simultaneously</em>, see:</p><div class="js-embed embedResponsive" data-embedjson="{"body":"If your Vanilla community migration coincides with launching your community, there are a few extra items to check off the list, which your CSM will coordinate with you. At the start of your onboarding journey, you provided our Professional Services team with a copy of your data which we will have used to estimate and…","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6030677\/uploads\/VWGAXAF5OFCO\/microsoftteams-image.png","url":"https:\/\/success.vanillaforums.com\/kb\/articles\/346","embedType":"link","name":"Migration Launch Checklist - Vanilla Success"}"> <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/346" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc"> https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/346 </a> </div><h2 data-id="vanilla-successteam">Vanilla SuccessTeam™</h2><h3 data-id="implementation-project-manager-(pm)">Implementation Project Manager (PM)</h3><p>Your <strong>Implementation Project Manager</strong> (<strong>PM</strong>) will take over as your main point of contact after your contract is signed. Your PM will guide you through the process of setting up your new community via <em>two trainings</em>, <em>two working sessions</em>, and <em>regular cadence check ins</em>. </p><p>Your PM will:</p><ul><li>design a project plan for you,</li><li>work to keep you on schedule to meet your targeted launch date,</li><li>answer any questions you have, and</li><li>advise you on best practices and the ideal set up for your site.</li></ul><h3 data-id="customer-success-manager-(csm)">Customer Success Manager (CSM)</h3><p>After your community is set up, your main point of contact at Vanilla is your CSM, who:</p><ul><li>is your guide as you get to know Vanilla,</li><li>will help you get the most out of the Vanilla product,</li><li>will work with you to develop and grow your community strategy,</li><li>keep you up to date on new Vanilla features,</li><li>work with you to develop new initiatives and solve problems, and</li><li>reduce time to value.</li></ul><h3 data-id="strategic-services">Strategic Services</h3><p>Vanilla now offers Strategic Services as an additional service. Strategic Services offers:</p><ul><li>Strategic planning conversations and workshops,</li><li>Community roadmap creation,</li><li>Monthly and quarterly reporting,</li><li>Tactical hands-on support such as setting up features and executing on strategic tactics,</li><li>Community management services such as post moderation, gamification strategy and execution.</li></ul><p>To learn more, speak to your account executive or CSM.</p><h3 data-id="vanilla-support">Vanilla Support</h3><p>Vanilla Support is here to assist with your technical questions and concerns.</p><p>To learn how to <em>contact support</em> and <em>subscribe to the system-outage status page</em>, as well as view <em>targeted response times for issues</em>, see:</p><div class="js-embed embedResponsive" data-embedjson="{"body":"Cloud Support We provide professional support exclusively for Higher Logic Vanilla (Vanilla) cloud customers. Vanilla Support agents actively monitor our ticketing queue from 12:00am to 8:00pm ET, Monday through Friday. On weekends, a rotation schedule has agents checking the ticketing queue for emergency issues.…","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6030677\/uploads\/GXW21TRYG1JP\/share-imagevanilla-community.jpg","url":"https:\/\/success.vanillaforums.com\/kb\/articles\/66","embedType":"link","name":"Support - HL Vanilla Community"}"> <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/66" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc"> https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/66 </a> </div><h2 data-id="onboarding-with-vanilla">Onboarding with Vanilla</h2><p>Throughout your onboarding journey, your PM will walk you through training sessions to help familiarize you with Vanilla to get your community and your team set up for success. </p><p>You can expect the following from your PM:</p><ul><li><strong>Product training</strong> - Learn all about your Vanilla community, including Dashboard, Gamification, Moderation, Analytics, and Knowledge Base training. We also have KB documentation and videos that you can refer to in addition to the 1-on-1 training with your PM.</li><li><strong>Implementation support</strong> - Regularly check on the status of your projects with your team, including a personalized project plan.</li><li><strong>Community launch</strong> - Support you throughout your community launch.</li></ul><p><strong>📝 NOTE</strong>: You should plan on an estimated 20 to 40 hours for your team to set up a basic site, and 40 to 70 hours for a more complex site (five of which will be spent in training / working sessions with your PM). The set up will require collaboration with your community manager, technical team, and design team.</p><h2 data-id="additional-resources">Additional resources</h2><p>In addition to your CSM, Vanilla works to ensure that 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><li><strong>Vanilla Connect</strong> - a <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/discussion/1224/introducing-vanilla-connect#latest" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">collaborative educational series</a>, with product deep dives, tips and tricks, and topic-focused discussions.</li></ul><h2 data-id="next-steps">Next steps</h2><p>Check out the topics on the left side to learn more about your Vanilla experience!</p> </article> </main>