# Basic Product Documentation
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/basic-product-documentation/35719
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [November 17, 2015, 9:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/basic-product-documentation/35719 "2015-11-17T21:40:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Rob\_Waters](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Rob_Waters)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2015, 9:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/basic-product-documentation/35719/1 "2015-11-17T21:40:23Z")
Hi, I’m new to Discourse and I’m just looking for basic documentation about features. Searching these forums so far hasn’t yielded the kind of information I’m looking for. I particularly want to know about what badges, groups, and trust levels are intended for, and what functionality options they carry. Sorry if this is a duplicate.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2015, 10:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/basic-product-documentation/35719/2 "2015-11-17T22:15:48Z")
Badges are there to encourage experimenting with features and reward great content. They are a substitute for the user manual.
Groups are 100% about security, if you need a particular group of users to see content that nobody else can see, you start with a group. Then you assign the group to a category.
There is a trust level explanation topic in the faq category here, but in general, trust level lets users have more community cleanup and moderation powers as they spend more time on the site.
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### Author:  [@Rob\_Waters](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Rob_Waters)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2015, 8:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/basic-product-documentation/35719/3 "2015-11-18T20:12:04Z")
Jeff,
Thanks for the info! Can you elaborate on what you mean when you say badges are a substitute for the user manual? That’s the only part I’m not sure I understand.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/basic-product-documentation/35719/4 "2015-11-18T22:59:15Z")
Here’s an example:
> **[Level One: The Intro Stage](https://blog.codinghorror.com/level-one-the-intro-stage/)**
>
> Way back in 2007, before Stack Overflow was a glint in anyone’s eye, I called software development a collaborative game. And perhaps Stack Overflow was the natural outcome of that initial thought – recasting online software development discussion...
Badges give you a set of objectives that you can achieve in your own order, on your own terms, and you “explore” the product to get there.
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### Author:  [@Rob\_Waters](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Rob_Waters)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2015, 6:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/basic-product-documentation/35719/5 "2015-11-19T18:43:39Z")
This is great information. Thanks again!
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### Author:  [@maltfield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/maltfield)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2019, 12:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/basic-product-documentation/35719/6 "2019-11-08T12:07:09Z")
+1 for this. Where is the Discourse documentation?
Is there actually no documentation for this project other than the API documentation??
- [https://docs.discourse.org](https://docs.discourse.org)
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### Author:  [@Remah](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Remah)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2019, 12:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/basic-product-documentation/35719/7 "2019-11-08T12:13:28Z")
Start with the #howto category particularly the #howto:faq subcategory which has some basic user and admin guides.
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### Author:  [@maltfield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/maltfield)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2019, 12:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/basic-product-documentation/35719/8 "2019-11-08T12:35:38Z")
awesome! Is it possible to add links to these pages in [https://docs.discourse.org](https://docs.discourse.org)? They’re not at all obvious to find, and their URIs are perplexingly obtuse
- [https://meta.discourse.org/c/10-howto](https://meta.discourse.org/c/10-howto)
- [https://meta.discourse.org/c/howto/faq/4](https://meta.discourse.org/c/howto/faq/4)
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### Author:  [@Remah](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Remah)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2019, 1:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/basic-product-documentation/35719/9 "2019-11-08T13:12:17Z")
I can’t speak for [discourse.org](http://discourse.org) but I don’t think so because [https://docs.discourse.org](https://docs.discourse.org) is the Discourse API Documentation for developers. Those links are for other interests.
By the way, using those links without a useful label is rather unhelpful behaviour.
The documentation could be improved but it is a massive job for a constantly changing open-source product.
If you look at the #howto category you will see a diversity of interests which cannot be catered for in one document anyway:
- #howto:devs
- #howto:sysadmin
- #howto:admins
- #howto:cmgrs (community managers)
- #howto:faq, #howto:tips-and-tricks for everyone
There’s also an awful lot of crossover in topics and that is very obvious in other categories that impact the UX:
- #Customization > Theme
- #Customization > Plugin
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### Author:  [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2025, 11:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/basic-product-documentation/35719/10 "2025-12-04T11:37:07Z")