# Hiding GUI elements for new users (less overwhelming)

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/hiding-gui-elements-for-new-users-less-overwhelming/254191
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [February 6, 2023, 12:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hiding-gui-elements-for-new-users-less-overwhelming/254191 "2023-02-06T12:38:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 13

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### Author: ![stephtara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/stephtara/32/517827_2.png) [@stephtara](https://meta.discourse.org/u/stephtara)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2026, 2:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hiding-gui-elements-for-new-users-less-overwhelming/254191/13 "2026-02-22T14:40:15Z")

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Picking this up as this came up in another discussion ([“Tip of the day” / Or how do you remind/nag people with good tips for using Discourse?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tip-of-the-day-or-how-do-you-remind-nag-people-with-good-tips-for-using-discourse/82645))

I would definitely love to have a bare-bones (in terms of functionality theme (or « variant » of a theme) that is activated for users by default and which allows them to opt in to the « advanced/full interface » with all the available functionalities Discourse provides. Maybe there is a use-case for more granular addition of features to the interface, not certain yet.

It would be like when you connect to your router admin: there is « basic » mode, and advanced, and sometimes expert.

My use-case is migrating people from Facebook. So, what would be the minimal features/functionalities they should access?

- post topic, with [hidden title field](https://meta.discourse.org/t/are-topics-the-equivalent-of-facebook-posts/395630) that can be revealed if desired
- reply to topic
- like topic or post
- get link to topic or reponse
- add picture
- edit profile and some basic settings (the rest hidden unless some action is taken to reveal them)
- simplified notifications (all in one bucket)
- remove most of the meta-information about topics that is surfaced in list view (xyz answered n minutes ago, etc)
- search with limited options (simple search, advanced can be accessed, like on google)

There is certainly more, these are just initial ideas. I think I’d try to strip out pretty much all that is possible and keep the bare minimum to allow people to do the things an « average social media user » is likely to be familiar with. Roughly: publish, like, comment, include a link or a photo, fill in profile, check notifications.

How best to go about this technically, I don’t know. It might be possible to cobble together a kind of proof of concept with the various components mentioned above.

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