Ozzy47
Administrator
When you find a developer willing to work on your project, he will likely need some access to your forums that a normal user cannot have. Some items he may need and their risks are below.
- Admin CP Login: For many service requests, this is required due to their nature. However, you should create an account for that developer and then demote or delete it when he is done. You should not divulge your password for your account.
- FTP access: If the developer needs to upload or download files from your site, he will need FTP access. If possible, you should create a separate account for him, just as above. Requests such as template modifications do not require FTP access unless some files need to be uploaded such as images or style sheets.
- SSH access: This is needed by some developers to fully back up your forums' database as well as run some complex queries. Template modifications and most other requests do not require this and you should not divulge it unless absolutely necessary, especially because most users cannot create separate SSH accounts; they only have access to one: their own.
- vBulletin Customer Number and Password: There is no need to ever give out both customer number and password. Your license agreement explicitly forbid sharing of your details. In case of an install or upgrade, only the customer number might be needed.