I did have one (older, but intelligent) person say that they didn’t understand my forum or how to use it. I should perhaps ask them to see if they can remember their first impressions.
For me, there’s a hierarchical organisation which is obvious, but of course it isn’t obvious to everyone
- there are categories, which contain topics
- each topic introduces an idea and prompts a conversation
- the conversation happens in replies to the topic
At any one time, there are several active topics, and you won’t see the latest comments until you click on the topics of interest to you.
Also visible are older topics which are not presently active.
There’s no way to see the latest comments without visiting their respective topics.