# Questions concernant les fonctionnalités de Discourse

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/questions-regarding-discourse-features/86015>\
**Category:** Product Support\
**Created:** [Avril 23, 2018, 7:52 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/questions-regarding-discourse-features/86015 "2018-04-23T07:52:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

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**Author:** ![eLinda](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/elinda/32/122377_2.png) [@eLinda](https://meta.discourse.org/u/eLinda)\
**Post date:** [Avril 23, 2018, 7:52 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/questions-regarding-discourse-features/86015/1 "2018-04-23T07:52:33Z")

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Hi,  
I’ve been using computer conferencing systems and forums since the early 1980s, and am one of the founders of online education in the world.. I teach online, engage students in collaborative learning and teamwork online, as well as conduct research, publish my studies, and have also built the Learning Theory Collaborativism. Generally, over the past 30 years we have discovered that calculating time spent online is not necessarily a great indicator of the quality of engagement. But if you do use it in a comparative way (user v. group) it can have some value.

Far better is comparing the # of messages or message volume/pp in a particular period. Comparision of the individual to the group discourse is also helpful.

Best of all, I believe, is to study the quality of the messages/discourse. I’m personally far more interested in discourse analysis, not just the quantity of messaging. Of especially important and interest is to code the transcript to sstudy if there a demonstrative change over time (i.e., progress in the quality of the discourse, the arguments used, references made, the positions taken).

Hence I am concerned tht the nature of the “discourse” in this forum is quite primitive (or perhaps I have not yet really seen its full features). Here is a brief list of features that I feel are essential…are they in the software? Are they easy to build in? 1. Are messages in a topic numbered? 2. Can I search by key word? chronology? reverse chronology? subject? sender? 3. can I sort the messages into various perspectives? 4. How are replies linked to comments? 5. Can I easily see/sort # of messages by sender? 6. Can I include a space for a keyword by each sender?

Can someone help me, pls? Thank you very much.

Cheers, Linda

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