After a successful installation of your Simple Machine Forum (SMF) software, the next steps is to configure the website. These involve the following:

Managing the Core Features in SMF
Configuring the basic options
Configure the SMTP
Install modules
Install Themes

Managing the Core Features in SMF

In order to access the core features page, you should first log in as administrator of your forum. Then simply navigate to Administration Center. Navigate to the Configuration tab on the main menu and then Core Features.

On this page you will be able to activate or deactivate the included features of SMF. Note that in order to apply the changes, after performing the same, you need to press the Save button.

The available core features that you can use are:

Calendar - This feature can be used to show forum events, holidays, and user birthdays
Advanced Profile Fields - This feature can be used to hide standard profile fields, or add a new one. The administrators can also choose whether or not certain profile fields show up at the registration screen
Karma - This is the SMF reputation system.It is an optional feature that shows the popularity of a certain member.
Moderation, Administration and User Logs - This will log all actions taken as a moderator or administrator. This also allows moderators and administrators look at any actions that a user has done in their profile
Post Moderation - If this feature is enabled, moderators can choose boards in which all posts need to be approved, which membergroups need to have their posts moderated
Paid Subscriptions - This allows users to change their membergroup, get more access, and more
Report Generation - If this feature has been enabled, administrators may generate reports as to how the forum is set up, what features are enabled
Warning System - This functionality allows administrators and moderators to issue warnings to users; it also includes advanced functionality for automatically removing user rights as their warning level increases. Note to take full advantage of this function "Post Moderation" should be enabled
Search Engine Tracking - Enabling this feature will allow administrators to track search engines as they index your forum.

Read full post: https://www.todhost.com/knowledgebase/873/SMF-Configuration-Tutorial.html