In this chapter we've tried to give you a whistle-stop tour of vBulletin from both the end user's perspective and the administrator's point of view. By now it's probably clear to you just how big, powerful, and customizable vBulletin is. The more you dig, the more options and settings you end up finding! Once you get comfortable with using vBulletin, this is great, but in the beginning it can make it seem like a huge learning curve. What we've tried to do with this chapter is give you a fast track up that learning curve to a base camp at a point where you have a working forum and are in a position to begin making a few basic changes to it.

At this stage we recommend that you take a break from reading and spend some time with your vBulletin installation again (a few hours if possible)—work through the options outlined here and get a feel for what's on offer and how it's presented by the interface. If you feel confident enough, then make some small changes to your installation, and see what implications they have—if you don't like them, undo the changes. By having some hands-on time with your forum, you'll gain the confidence you need to perform the bigger, more complex tasks we'll be looking at in later chapters.