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I. Thou shalt not hack core code.

This is the first and most important commandment. There are so many reasons why hacking core code is a bad idea. I won't get into them here, but please take my word for it and never never never never never never never hack core code. Never.

II. Thou shalt choose a reliable host.

There are plenty of good hosts out there, so please choose wisely. We like WiredTree for managed VPS and dedicated servers. As for shared hosting, there are lots to choose from. Just don't choose GoDaddy.

III. Thou shalt read the manual.

Please read some documentation before asking a question in the Joomla forums. There are loads of books and tutorials all over the web, as well as the official Joomla documentation.

IV. When Ryan Ozimek says "Joomla," thou shalt say "Rocks!"

Thanks for your years of service, Ryan. You'll be missed as OSM president.

V. Thou shalt not download from Warez sites.

Many Joomla extension developers charge a small fee for access to their extensions. Show them some love by paying for the extesion to help support ongoing development. Downloading from a Warez site is not only potentially harmful for your site, it hurts extension developers by depriving them of revenues that help support their ongoing development.

VI. Thou shalt install extensions in moderation.

There are 8,000+ extensions in the Joomla extension directory, but please don't install all of them. You will slow your site down and open it up to potential vulnerabilities. Show some restraint and install only those extensions that you actually need. As Jen Kramer would say, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

VII. Thou shalt honor thy designer and developer.

If you hire a designer and/or a developer to build your Joomla website, trust the expertise that you are paying them for.

VIII. Thou shalt not mix thy Javascript libraries.

Or, if you do, make sure that there aren't any conflicts.

IX. Thou shalt update thy Joomla installation with new patches.

If you are still running your site on Joomla 1.5.12, you are running a buggy version full of security vulnerabilities. Whenever the Joomla team releases an update patch, take 10 minutes out of your day and apply the patch. I recommend installing AdminTools if you are running Joomla 1.5, because it enables you to upgrade Joomla from the administrator interface with just a few clicks. If you are running 1.7+, core updates are available in the administrator interface by default. There's no excuse to put it off, unless of course you violated the first commandment.

X. Thou shalt perform regular backups.

This is so easy, there's really no excuse not to do this. If you haven't already, go to AkeebaBackup.com and download Akeeba Backup. You can use it to schedule automatic backups, and with the professional version you can have it automatically store the backup to the cloud. Why haven't you done this already?

Next, we'll take a look at the Ten Commandments for Joomla Developers. This should be fun.