Hmmmm, it does? I don’t see an FAQ link in the sidebar – that was deprecated. The Guidelines link goes to Guidelines - Discourse Meta.
(I figure Steph is talking about her own site there.)
This prompted me to try to sort out my FAQ vs. Guidelines situation, which has had me a little confused.
In Feb we saw the announcement Renaming FAQ to Guidelines, and it sounds like maybe Discourse hosted instances have this enabled..?:
…but I’m self-hosted (and updated) and still have FAQ in the sidebar and on the About page. The url is /faq with the "Edit this page’ link pointing to /t/guidelines. The FAQ links render the Guidelines page.
Upon adding an external link to FAQ_URL I get a new “Guidelines” link on the About page. FAQ links remain in the sidebar and on the About page, but now point to the external FAQ page.
I believe this is the “old” expected behavior. The announcement says the change takes effect “When you opt in to this change” but I don’t find anything in Admin to do this. I gather I’d have to enable the hidden site setting rename_faq_to_guidelines to enable the new change:
Am I on the right track?
I searched and didn’t find anything specifically covering this, sorry if I missed something.
4 Likes
Yikes, you’re right – appreciate you! I am so used to talking with hosted customers that I forgot to switch context.
Do we have some documentation gaps to fill?
From ask.discourse:
Renaming FAQ to Guidelines in Discourse AI
HAWK:
(I figure Steph is talking about her own site there.)
This prompted me to try to sort out my FAQ vs. Guidelines situation, which has had me a little confused.
In Feb we saw the announcement Renaming FAQ to Guidelines, and it sounds like maybe Discourse hosted instances have this enabled..?:
…but I’m self-hosted (and updated) and still have FAQ in the sidebar and on the About page. The url is /faq with the "Edit this page’ link pointing to /t/guidelines. The FAQ links render the Guidelines page.
Upon adding an external link to FAQ_URL I get a new “Guidelines” link on the About page. FAQ links remain in the sidebar and on the About page, but now point to the external FAQ page.
I believe this is the “old” expected behavior. The announcement says it takes effect “When you opt in to this change” but I don’t find anything in Admin to do this. I gather I’d have to enable the hidden site setting rename_faq_to_guidelines to enable the new change:
Am I on the right track?
I searched and didn’t find anything specifically covering this, sorry if I missed something.
DiscourseHelper:
Thinking
Searching
Searching for: how to enable the guidelines renaming for the faq page, is there a hidden setting to rename FAQ to guidelines, what does the rename_faq_to_guidelines site setting do, how to migrate from FAQ to Guidelines, why do I still see FAQ if I am self-hosted after recent Discourse updates, is there an admin UI toggle for renaming FAQ to Guidelines or do I need to set a hidden setting manually
Reading
Read: Renaming FAQ to Guidelines
Reading
Read: Using Hidden Site Settings
Reading
Read: Hidden Site Settings Reference Guide
Searching site settings
Found 0 results for ‘rename_faq_to_guidelines’
You are correct—Discourse announced the change to rename the FAQ page to Guidelines (see announcement), but on self-hosted sites, this is not enabled by default. There is no toggle in the standard Discourse admin UI to enable this; instead, you need to enable a hidden site setting called rename_faq_to_guidelines.
This setting is hidden and cannot be adjusted through the usual admin settings panel. As documented in the Meta how-to on hidden site settings, you can modify hidden settings like this from the Rails console:
-
Access your Rails console:
cd /var/discourse ./launcher enter app rails c -
Set the hidden setting:
SiteSetting.rename_faq_to_guidelines = true -
Exit the console:
Just typeexitwhen you’re done.
After this, Discourse should use “Guidelines” instead of “FAQ” in the sidebar and elsewhere, and /faq will redirect to /guidelines.
If you want to use an external FAQ, you can still use the faq_url setting, which will override the sidebar link even after the rename.
References:
- Announcement: Renaming FAQ to Guidelines
- How-to: Using Hidden Site Settings
- Hidden Site Settings Reference Guide
Let me know if you need more details on editing hidden site settings or anything else related!
2 Likes
Oh wow – AskBot wasn’t as helpful for my query. I just got a repeat of the announcement content.
But yes, the announcement and several older topics related to FAQs & Guidelines could probably use a review. I have a list started… should we move this to a new topic?
3 Likes
I can tag or assign it, but if you have a list or a system in place with the other mods, I won’t interfere. Let me know your pref.
Edit… I understand now. We could either do a new topic with a documentation list for updating or we could tag topics as they come up like this. Your team can decide @Danielle.
2 Likes
Not sure how this should be processed, but I moved the thread for now just to declutter the original topic.
The 2026 Feb 3 announcement Renaming FAQ to Guidelines currently says the change is available if you simply “opt in.” It could use an update noting that self-hosters must enable the hidden site setting rename_faq_to_guidelines – and a link to Using Hidden Site Settings.
There are at least a few docs & related topics that now have some outdated information. I’ve found these – there may be more:
docs
2023 Nov: Customizing FAQs and Guidelines - Documentation / Site Management – review & update
2014 Jul: Update the FAQ, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Service - Documentation / Site Management – review & update
support
Some of these are open, some closed, but contain outdated info.
Add note & unlist..? Delete..?
2023 Jul: Guidelines page on /about - Support
2023 Jun: Changing URL of “Guidelines” page from /faq to /guidelines - Support
2023 May: Restore “Guidelines” - Support - Discourse Meta
2023 Mar: Customizing FAQ / Guidelines Pages - Support
2021 May: Possible to change URL for /faq page? - Support
2018 Apr: FAQ vs Rules/Guidelines - Contribute / UX
2018 Apr: Default FAQ page - Contribute / UX
2015 Nov: Why is Guidelines called FAQ? Can we link to GUIDELINES and FAQ from hamburger menu?
feature
2018 Aug: Option for custom “Guidelines” URL (not FAQ)? - Contribute / Feature – add note & close?
2 Likes
We’re going to have a chat about it tomorrow and I’ll report back here for everyone. 
4 Likes
Guidelines sounds like Rules to me this is what I am using them for.
FAQ is questions.
3 Likes
Agree, AskBot wasn’t as helpful for me too
2 Likes
You can opt in using the related item in “Upcoming Changes”
Thanks, it sounds like this is the main action item here – to go through these docs and update them as appropriate.
I think the main thing to do is update the docs topics. Updating old support and feature topics would be nice too, but lower in priority.
1 Like
Ah yes – I didn’t think to check Upcoming Changes because I hadn’t yet enabled that hidden setting. 
2 Likes