This may be useful for anyone
Translated to English, no images or links allowed, sorry!
Welcome! As a new Discourse user, we hope you find this site intuitive and clearly structured, but in any case, here are some pointers to get you started.
Basic Terms Used by Discourse (Terminology)
Here are some very basic terms that will be useful to keep in mind when using Discourse or while reading this guide:
- Topic: This is the collection of messages grouped into a conversation with its own meaning, having a title, appearing in a category, starting with an Original Post, and including all replies in chronological order.
It may also be called a “thread,” but Discourse uses the term “topic” because “thread” is used to refer to linked elements that can go in many different directions (and is also confusing in programming terms). - Post: Each element of a topic is called a post (or entry). Each post has its own author and can be moved to a different topic if necessary, or even become the start of a new topic.
- Original Post (OP): The first post of any topic. This post is key as it determines the focus of the topic, and the title and categories are linked to it.
- Category: The primary means for organizing topics. Each topic is placed in exactly one category. Categories have permissions that can restrict which users can create, reply to, and view their topics. You can also set your notification preferences by category or even mute them, as explained below. Categories are a concept similar to “forums” on other sites.
- Tag: A marker placed on a topic that describes it. While a topic can have only one category, it can have multiple tags. New tags can be created by some users. You can read more about the differences between tags and categories in this link.
- User: Discourse sites can be private or public; in the latter case, they can be read by anyone, but registration is always required to create posts and record any action such as marking as favorite, linking, tagging, and reporting. Therefore, most of the site’s activity is based on registered Users.
Click here for the complete Discourse Terminology (under construction).
Navigating the Forum
Topic List
By default, the Discourse welcome page will show Recent conversations in the community, but this list can always be filtered in various ways:
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By category: In the menu bar, click the label “all categories” to see a list of all categories.
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By tag: In the menu bar, click the label “all tags,” where a list of all used tags appears.
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By activity level: If you click on “Top,” conversation topics will be listed in order of highest activity (views and replies) for a specific time period. You can choose whether this is permanent or select a specific period such as a fortnight, month, week, or just today.
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By what is “New” to you: By default, new topics are those created in the last 2 days that have not yet been opened, to keep the list fresh and relevant. New topics show a small blue dot next to the topic title.
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By what topics are “Unread”: By default, unread topics are those that have previously been opened and read for at least 4 minutes and have new posts (replies) submitted. Unread topics show a number inside a blue circle, indicating how many new posts are in the topic.
Seeing Who Is Participating
There are several ways to see who is participating in topics.
On the homepage, you will see a selection of avatars (profile images) of:
- the user who started the topic (always the first photo);
- a selection of the most active participants;
- and, the person who created the most recent post (usually, the last photo).
- in some cases, the first photo has a blue border or halo to indicate that the original “poster” is also the one who replied most recently.
The box at the bottom of the OP says: who created the post and when, provides a count of replies and views for that post to date, and a view of the avatars of the most frequent participants.
Navigation Tools
- To Search, access the Menu, or the User Page, use the buttons in the top right corner.
Read Topics
A healthy community needs its members to publish new content, but this activity is not everything. Reads are the true indicators of how healthy a community is. What is the point of posts that have no reads? Discourse encourages and tracks reading habits so that community managers can maintain a healthy balance.
Keeping the Scroll
Click on a topic and scroll down the list of replies in chronological order, following links or previewing replies and quotes as they appear. Use the mouse to scroll the screen, or use the timeline bar on the right, which shows how far you have read in the conversation. On small screens, select the progress bar at the bottom to expand it.
Entering a Topic
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Entering a topic by clicking the title will take you to the last read post of that topic. Instead, to access the beginning or end of said topic, click the reply counter or the date of the last reply, respectively.
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Topics above the light red line in a list are new or updated since your last visit. If you have read the entire conversation to the end of a topic, the title will appear light gray instead of black.
Related Topics
On some occasions, conversations are clearer if topics are split and posts are moved to more appropriate topics, or if two related topics are merged. If a post is moved, a link will appear allowing readers to jump to that comment wherever it has been moved, and the person who published it will be notified.
At the end of the OP, you will also see the list of related topics that link to the one you are reading.
Participating in Conversations
Replying
Press any Reply button to open the editing panel at the bottom of your browser. You can continue reading (and even search or navigate to different topics) while composing your reply.
Discourse displays all posts in the order they were published. This means you don’t have to chase multiple message threads. However, it provides you with many ways to follow the context of conversations.
To reply to a specific post, clicking the gray Reply button at the end of the post will link your reply to that post.
- If your reply is the next one published after the post you are replying to, it will appear in chronological order.
- If yours is NOT the next one, then two things happen after publishing the post:
- Your post will include a new link in its header with an image showing that it is ‘in response to’ - clicking the link will show the previous post to provide context near your reply.
- The original post includes a reply count at the bottom - clicking this link shows the content of the replies.
Drafts
Drafts are saved automatically as you type. If you minimize the editor or navigate to a different topic, the editor may disappear. To open a draft, return to the topic you were replying to or click the highlighted bar at the bottom of the browser, and the editor will reappear with your draft.
Quoting
To insert a quote, select the text you want to quote, then click the ‘Quote’ button that appears. It is not necessary to quote a whole message; being specific helps. Repeat this for multiple quotes, even from different posts of different users. The quoted text will point to the original source.
Mentioning
To notify someone about your replies, mention their name. Type ‘@’ to start selecting a username. This search will also look in name fields in case you don’t know a particular username.
Emoji
To use -standard emojis-, just type : to select by name, or use traditional “smileys” ;)
Alternatively, click ‘more’ to see a full list of emojis to choose from.
Oneboxes (Link Previews)
Read details about this feature at:
To generate a summary of a link, paste it on a separate line. To start a topic with a link, paste the link inside the title field.
Formatting
Your reply can be formatted using HTML, BBCode, or -Markdown-:
This is in <b>bold</b>.
This is in [b]bold[/b].
This is in **bold**.
For more formatting tips, -try our 10-minute tutorial-.
Actions and Reactions
There are action buttons at the bottom of each post:
- To let someone know you liked and appreciated their post, use the like button. Share the love!
- Capture a copy-paste link (permalink) to any reply or topic with the link button.
- Use the … button to reveal more actions. Report to privately inform the author or the site team about an issue. Mark as favorite to find this post later on your profile page.
Notifications
When someone talks directly to you - replying to you, quoting your post, mentioning your ‘@username’, or even linking to your post, a blue number will immediately appear over your profile image in the top right corner.
When you have been sent a private message, you will receive it in your Inbox, and a green number will appear over your profile image on the left.
Click on your profile image to browse all your notifications.
You can optionally receive these notifications as push notifications in your desktop browser or on your Android device. Simply allow the site to send notifications through your browser when it asks for permission.
Don’t worry about missing a reply—a confirmation email will be sent with any notification that arrives while you are away.
If you wish, you can be notified about other things happening on the site, either at the category level or at the topic level.
Topic Notifications
You can change your notification levels for an individual topic via the notification control at the bottom, on the right, of each topic.
Category Notifications
The notification level can also be set by category. To change any of the defaults, check user preferences, or visit the category page, and use the notification control located above the topic list, on the right.
Tag Notifications
The notification level can also be set by tag. To change any of the default values, check your user preferences, or visit the tags page, and use the notification control located above the topic list, on the right.