@data-dataninja how is this effort going?

Just playing with NodeBB, and your work has saved me a bunch of time. Thanks a lot @dstang

For the last question, if you don't have admin password, either look for it in the log, or search for "lost admin password" in this forum.

TL;DR: there is a trick of adding a regular to "administrators" group, then use this user to reset "admin" password.