# Introducing simple mode for Discourse Doc Categories
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-simple-mode-for-discourse-doc-categories/403366
**Category:** Announcements
**Tags:** doc-categories
**Created:** [May 21, 2026, 12:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-simple-mode-for-discourse-doc-categories/403366 "2026-05-21T00:33:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@saquetim](https://meta.discourse.org/u/saquetim)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2026, 12:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-simple-mode-for-discourse-doc-categories/403366/1 "2026-05-21T00:33:26Z")
Doc categories are designed for a specific kind of content: reference material that readers come back to, scan quickly, and link to often. To support that, we’re introducing a new **simple mode** for the [Discourse Doc Categories](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-doc-categories/322376) plugin, which gives documentation a focused, reading-first experience while keeping the full topic available one click away.
## A reading-first topic view
When simple mode is on, opening a doc topic puts the document itself in the spotlight. Replies stay one click away behind a toggle on the OP:
> Show 12 comments / Hide comments
Click it, and the full discussion appears in its usual place, ordered and rendered exactly as it always is. Click again to collapse it.
A couple of details worth calling out:
- Linking directly to a reply (`/t/slug/id/4`) auto-expands the topic, so anyone arriving from a share link or notification lands on the post they were sent to.
- New replies that arrive while the topic is collapsed get counted into the toggle label, so you can see at a glance when something new has come in.
## A documentation-shaped topic list
Inside a doc category, the topic list is also simplified: columns focus on the title and when it was last updated, with the `Activity` column reading as `Updated`. Readers can scan titles and spot what’s fresh at a glance.
The result feels closer to a knowledge base: a clean list of articles, each one a click away.
## Enable it on your site
Simple mode is shipping as an **experimental** upcoming change. Head to the upcoming changes page in your admin area (`/admin/config/upcoming-changes`) and look for **Doc categories simple mode** to opt in.
The change only applies to topics inside categories configured as doc categories, so the rest of your site is untouched.
## We’d love your feedback
Simple mode is early, and we expect to keep iterating. If you turn it on for your docs, please share what’s working, what feels missing, and any rough edges you run into. Your feedback will shape where this goes next.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2026, 7:16am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-simple-mode-for-discourse-doc-categories/403366/2 "2026-05-21T07:16:12Z")
This looks good. I recently asked a question on a “Docs” category topic before realising there already had been posts ([Backup discourse from the command line - #37 by Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/t/backup-discourse-from-the-command-line/64364/37)) but that’s not the end of the world!
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2026, 12:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-simple-mode-for-discourse-doc-categories/403366/3 "2026-05-22T12:16:04Z")
I have shared some feedback [here](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-re-enable-the-toc-on-docs-and-how-do-i-toggle-translation/403003) because this topic didn’t exist back then. It’s probably redundant to link to this here, but so far no one has responded to it.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2026, 4:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-simple-mode-for-discourse-doc-categories/403366/4 "2026-05-24T16:39:29Z")
The tags overlap the number of edits and the date when the topic was posted:
In [safe mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/53504?silent=true), which disables the modification on doc-category topics, the number of edits, the date, and the tags are all readable:
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2026, 3:52am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-simple-mode-for-discourse-doc-categories/403366/6 "2026-05-28T03:52:11Z")
I created the first reply on a topic in a doc category. It felt a little confusing that my reply wasn’t visible after posting it. I think that after publishing the reply, comments should be unhidden automatically.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2026, 11:44am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-simple-mode-for-discourse-doc-categories/403366/7 "2026-07-01T11:44:09Z")
Looks like this was fixed
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2026, 5:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-simple-mode-for-discourse-doc-categories/403366/8 "2026-07-04T17:03:18Z")
Today I noticed that I really miss seeing the subcategory information when looking at #Documentation
Sometimes I am not sure in which category the topic is, so I don’t visit a specific subcategory. But of course I have an idea in which categories I expect it, and in which I don’t.
Also the subcategories clearly separate the target audience - for example #Documentation > Hosted Customers and #Documentation > Self-Hosting or #Documentation > Site Management and #Documentation > Using Discourse. This information is missing when the category is hidden so it’s harder to decide whether this might be the right guide for you.
 