Reordered README sections to make walking through a little easier.

Changed comment in env_custom.

README.md

@@ -3,36 +3,44 @@
 BBYIDX is a free and open source idea-gathering application written in Ruby and distributed
 under the GNU Affero General Public License.
 
-## Local Installation
+## Requirements
 
-1. `bundle install`
-2. `rake db:migrate`
-3. `rake db:seed`
+### Rails
 
-### Database
+BBYIDX runs on Rails 2.3. It does not (yet) run on Rails 3. Don't worry about installing the correct version of
+Rails and all the gems and plugins; bundler should take care of all that automatically.
 
-To set up the database, if you are using MySQL, you'll need to make sure the user configured in database.yml
-has permission to use the "load data" command:
+### Database
 
-    grant file on *.* to bbyidx;
+The app requires PostgreSQL 8.3 or newer.
 
-### Running the test suite
+You'll probably encounter issues on other databases. At the very least, full text search won't work, since it uses
+the PostgreSQL-specific tsearch plugin. We welcome patches!
 
-To verify your installation:
+One known hurdle: if you are using MySQL, you'll need to make sure the user configured in database.yml
+has permission to use the "load data" command:
 
-    rake test
+    grant file on *.* to bbyidx;
 
 ## Configuration
 
-The following files will need to be modified in order to configure your
-installation:
+You will first need to edit the following files to get the app running in your environemnt:
 
 * config/environment_custom.rb
 * config/database.yml
 * config/newrelic.yml       (if you want performance metrics from NewRelic)
 * config/twitter.yml        (if you want Twitter integration)
 * config/facebooker.yml     (if you want Facebook integration)
 
+## Local Installation
+
+1. `bundle install`
+2. `rake db:migrate`
+3. `rake db:seed`
+4. `script/server`
+
+The first time you visit the app, it will prompt you to create an admin user.
+
 ## Customization
 
 To customize the UI, edit / create files in the following directories:
@@ -43,6 +51,14 @@ To customize the UI, edit / create files in the following directories:
 
 **NOTE:** UI elements that pertain to your brand need not be contributed back to the open source project.
 
+### Running the test suite
+
+To verify the code you have checked out:
+
+    rake test
+
+If you submit patches, please make sure that they don't break existing tests.
+
 ## Heroku Installation
 
 The following steps* will walk you through getting BBYIDX running on Heroku, our favorite cloud platform.

config/environment_custom.rb

@@ -45,10 +45,9 @@
 # This will enable spam filtering.
 RAKISMET_URL = "http://#{PRODUCTION_HOST}"
 
-SPAM_PURGE_AGE = 30 # days; set to nil to disable spam purging
+# Time after which an idea marked as spam will be permanently deleted. Set to nil to disable spam purging.
+SPAM_PURGE_AGE = 30 # days
 
-# This is used for two purposes:
-#  (1) The db:seed rake task uses this as the zip code for the initial admin user (which can be changed).
-#  (2) When displaying nearby ideas, if browser geolocation fails and the user is not logged in,
-#      and we thus have no idea where the user is located, the system displays ideas near this zip code.
+# When displaying nearby ideas, if browser geolocation fails and the user is not logged in, we have no idea
+# where the user is located. In that case, the system then displays ideas near this zip code.
 DEFAULT_ZIP_CODE = '55423'