Technically, there is no need to run npm update for packages other than nodebb-* packages. So all you really need to do is npm install.
However, you'd want to update the nodebb plugins/themes, so:
cd /path/to/your/nodebb/install
git pull
npm install
cd node_modules
ls nodebb-* | xargs npm update // I do not take responsibility for this command, if it burns your house down...
cd ../
./nodebb start
If you run into errors specified by #6, please do an npm rebuild to patch that right up.
You're not able to change the routing in such a way, because then users whose names are only numbers cannot be accessed.
Best bet is to set up a rewrite rule in nginx to send users requesting /user/\d+ to /uid/1
I would suggest to put your nodebb behind nginx, and have a location block matching static content use a proxy_pass directive pointing to your static server.
Use this as reference: https://nodebb.readthedocs.io/en/latest/scaling/index.html#use-a-proxy-server-to-serve-static-assets
And adjust it to have a proxy_pass http://static.example.com; instead of searching the local filesystem (ie, replace root and try_file directives) under the static content location block.
I believe this should work
