A help button could be useful either way
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We had this button on Stack Overflow and the analytics / data showed that almost nobody used it. That does not mean it should not exist, of course, but the general rule is that the type of people you would want to use this button, pretty much never do.
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Stack Overflow seems way more aggressive these days for brand new users and audience for Discourse is way wider so this kind of approach may be applicable
I think there is definite value in giving some extra tips for tl0/tl1 that are getting accustomed and also for more advanced users that are looking for secret magic.
I guess what I want a little is a help mode that goes away after a bit
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To be fair, there is a plugin that sort of permits this already and I don’t think a lot of people use it…
https://github.com/cpradio/discourse-plugin-composer-help-button
Granted, it isn’t right aligned, but it gives people a way to add customize help for the format bar should they deem that a necessity.
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Also, this was written before the new outlet (that Canned Replies uses) to display help text at. So it could be improved to use that same location instead of a modal now (if someone has the time PR welcome).
Right-aligning the button might require a new outlet or a new option to the toolbar component (PR welcome for that too).
But those would be the only necessary improvements to make it meet the UI mock ups above.
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None of that is new; I worked with Ben to add that in 2010/2011. See proof here…
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Yeah it fealt eerily familiar. I guess I think there is merit for a help mode that kicks out once you posted a bit
But sure this can be plugin territory, agree that for seasoned users a help button is largely noise
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For what it’s worth, I appreciate the comfort of being able to find some kind of formatting help, even if it’s rarely used.
It’s good for bootstrapping new users unfamiliar with markdown (like communities coming from more bb related forms, or with wysiwyg editors), and a nice reminder for when I just can’t figure out how how to do something simple like code formatting, and have been deep in JIRA or Sharepoint or something with vastly different formatting options.
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My opinion on this:
Inexpirenced people don’t really know how to use the markdown features.
A markdown help would make it easier for novice users to learn markdown. Other users have posted things for markdown help. I believe it would be useful to have this feature, as it would help with ease of access
As an alternative, we can also add more markdown buttons on the top for novices. However, the problem with that is that it makes the layout more confusing.
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I think it would be a great idea to add this section (toolbar) to New User Tips too as Jeff mentioned above. 
With a little description and a configurable link inside. It can go to an own topic about formatting like Discourse New User Guide
Or can go directly to Markdown Help Markdown Reference
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Users see:
Type here. Use Markdown, BBCode, or HTML to format.
OK, they use Markdown, BBCode, or HTML, but find some things don’t work,
and there are other things other users use that work but they didn’t
know about.
So there are different versions of Markdown, BBCode, or HTML.
So in Help, Discourse should say what versions.
Or instead of that, simply have the full list of markup items that
Discourse uses.
Or at least have a link to where in the source code it is.
But normal users couldn’t understand that source code,
So it still would be better to have a full list, or call it cheatsheat,
of Discourse implemented markup operators.
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So where is the [details=summary][/details] syntax documented?
- It is not mentioned on any of the pages referenced above since it is a custom Discourse feature.
- A search for “[details]” on meta shows that it exists and that it might be described as “hide” but gives no hint about how the summary syntax works.
- A search on the web shows the discourse-details repo, but this now contains no information except “Plugin deprecated, now part of Discourse by default”.
- I finally found it in Details in topic styling changes - Feedback. Not where I would expect to send users to learn about the syntax.
I would have really liked a help button linking to some sort of official documentation…
It is part of the discobot tutorial
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If you click the gear it will offer to insert it for you
So people who won’t click the gear probably also won’t click a help icon. 
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There is a discobot tutorial? I have been using and advocating Discourse for many years and have never once come across this, or the idea that it is where one should go to learn about how to use Discourse. Even now, I have no idea (looking at our Discourse instance) how I would go about running this.
I thought I must be missing something, or maybe the discobot was introduced after I first started using Discourse, so I went to the Discourse New User Guide. No mention of either the discobot tutorial, or [details]. There is Markdown Tutorial - Introduction listed, but only for common mark.
@pfaffman I now see that option under the gear. It is not that I would not click the gear, but that I thought that I knew what the gear meant - to change settings. (I was wrong.) That combined with the assumption that there are probably a whole bunch of Discourse-specific features like [details] I convinced myself that they would not all be listed under some hidden menu, so started looking for a manual.
I would certainly have clicked on a help button if one of the buttons was obviously for help (i.e. a question mark). I would also have clicked on a button if it was obviously for inserting things. I just subconsciously had convinced myself that it could not be the gears…
Perhaps I am an old-school, but I really want an authoritative source to read where I can learn about all features and refer to inthe future. Does such a thing exist, or is learning through bots the new thing?
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Create a new account on a Discourse site.
Not other than keeping up with announcements here. There has been increased effort to document stuff here in the docs Docs but I don’t know if it feels authoritative.
Thanks. So if I create a new account, then I indeed see the discobot. However, it is very confusing how to interact with it for a user like me who joined before the discobot started. This is perhaps a bit off-topic, but highlights a potential need for a help button, so I will keep the discussion here. Please feel free to move, or direct me to a better topic if you think it is appropriate.
Having newly discovered the discobot, I tried to use it on our sites. As per various discussions and mentions, I expected I should be able to somehow type @discobot start tutorial somewhere and learn…
- I tried this in the site chat on one site. Nothing happened. I tried to initialize a personal chat with @discobot, but it could not be found.
- I then tried to send a “Personal chat” to the discobot. I could not.
- On one of our sites, I was able to add discobot to my Personal chat list, but asking it to “start tutorial” did nothing.
- Finally, I created a new account on this site, and was greeted by the bot, which made it clear that there should be a Topic with my interactions with the bot (and that I should bookmark this topic).
Now I see that I can search for discobot on our site, go its user page, and then send it a message, where I confusingly need to enter a long title and some content. Finally, after this message is created, I can ask it to “start tutorial”.
Why is this so hard? Why does the bot not respond to requests to start the tutorial in chats, or private chats, etc? What of someone starting on a site skips past the notification settings and does not notice the discobot? How do they get help later on?
I don’t know what the best solution is, but a help button somewhere that directed me through this would have been very helpful.
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Did you disable Discobot in your settings? Are you running very old discourse?
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