Understanding and customizing the About page

[Discourse]

This documentation provides an overview of the About page on a Discourse site and explains how admins can customize it.

Required user level: Administrator

Console access not required

The About page in Discourse serves as an introductory section for visitors and newcomers, providing an overview of the community, the people behind it, basic statistics, and contact information. While primarily intended to orient those unfamiliar with the site, administrators can make basic customizations to ensure the page accurately represents the community’s identity and purpose.

Accessing the About page

To access your site’s About page, navigate to discourse.example.com/about, or look for it in the navigation. This page is public and accessible to anyone. For sites requiring login, the page is accessible only to logged-in users.

Key sections of the About page

About

The “About” section at the top of the page serves to introduce the community to visitors by providing a brief overview of its purpose, mission, or unique aspects. It aims to give newcomers a sense of what the community is about, why it exists, and what they can expect by participating. This section is a crucial element for conveying the community’s identity and setting the tone for what makes the site special.

Site activity

The “Site activity” section provides a high-level summary of the community’s recent engagement metrics. The following metrics are displayed:

• Topics: The total number of topics created over the past 7 days. This includes topics in public and private categories, but doesn’t include personal messages.

• Posts: The number of posts across all topics within the last day.

• Visitors: The estimated number of distinct people who visited the site over the past 7 days. This includes the number of logged in visitors in the period and an estimate of unique anonymous visitors, which is calculated by dividing the number of pageviews made by anonymous visitors by the average number of logged in pageviews per logged in user.

  This metric is only shown if the display_eu_visitor_stats site setting is enabled. When enabled, the count of EU-based visitors is also displayed alongside the total.

• Active users: The count of users who have been active on the site over the past 7 days, which typically means they have logged in, browsed, posted, or otherwise interacted.

• Sign-ups: The number of newly registered, activated, human, not suspended, and not silenced users who joined the community within the last 7 days.

• Likes: The total number of “likes” given to posts in the community across all time.

Plugins and theme components can add custom stats, the exact definition of which depend on the plugin or theme component.

Our Admins and Our Moderators

These sections list the site admins and moderators to show the people managing the community. The lists are sorted based on the “most recently seen” order, with a display limit of six, expandable to show all.

Extra Groups

If the about_page_extra_groups setting is configured, additional group sections are displayed below the admins and moderators lists. Each configured group is shown with its name (linking to the group page) and its members, displayed in the same format as the admins and moderators lists. Group descriptions can optionally be shown if the about_page_extra_groups_show_description setting is enabled.

Contact Information

Shows contact details for the community, including the contact email or URL if provided.

Customizing the About page

The About page can be customized through the admin interface, on the “About your site” page at /admin/config/about.

Below is an explanation of each field and how it affects the About page’s appearance:

General Settings

• Community name: Sets the title displayed at the top of the About page, just right below the banner. This serves as the main heading and usually represents the name of the forum or community (e.g., “Example Community”). Changing this field updates the title on the /about page.

• Community summary: Provides a brief description or introductory text displayed just below the “Community name” title. It can be used to add a slogan or tagline for site visitors. If left blank, this field will not be shown.

• Community description (optional): Offers a larger text field for a more detailed introduction, mission statement, or overview of the community. This section can be formatted using the text editor, allowing for links, lists, and other advanced formatting using Markdown or HTML. Content entered here appears under the “About” section of the About page.

• Community title (optional): A short site description used for metadata and search engine results. This does not appear directly on the About page, but is configured alongside the other About page settings.

• Banner image (optional): Allows the upload of a visual banner that appears at the top of the /about page. This banner can add a visual appeal and branding to the page.

Contact Information

• Community owner (optional): Name of the key contact person responsible for the site.

• Contact email (optional): An email address for the site owner or primary contact. Displayed on the About page, it provides a direct means for visitors to get in touch with the community’s leadership.

• Contact URL (optional): If a contact URL is provided, it replaces the contact email on the About page. This could link to a contact form, help desk, or external website.

• Site contact name (optional): A staff username to be used for sending all automated messages from the site. If this is left blank, the default “System” account will be used.

• Site contact group (optional): A group that will be included in automated private message sent by the system. This can be helpful for allowing a group of users to see what/if people reply to system messages.

Your Organization

This section is used to configure legal and organizational details that are used in the site’s Terms of Service.

• Company name (optional): The name of the company or organization operating the site. When provided, this is used in the site’s Terms of Service.

• Governing law (optional): The jurisdiction whose laws govern the site’s Terms of Service.

• City for disputes (optional): The city where legal disputes related to the site will be resolved.

Extra Groups

This section allows you to feature additional groups on the About page, displayed below the admins and moderators lists. This is useful for showcasing teams, contributors, or other notable groups.

• Groups: Select which groups to display on the About page.

• Initial members: The number of group members to show initially before expanding (default: 6).

• Order: Controls the display order of the groups. Options are: “alphabetically” (default), “order of creation”, or “order of theme setting” (the order they were added to the setting).

• Show description: When enabled, the group’s bio/description is shown alongside its members on the About page.

Excluding Users from the admins and moderators lists

To hide certain users or groups from appearing in these sections, use the about_page_hidden_groups site setting. This setting allows you to specify which user groups should be excluded from the admins and moderators lists on the About page.