Using the Forum: General Use

Ellibereth · December 20, 2018, 9:55pm

This guide is sourced from the following, with modifications: https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-new-user-guide/96331/1

Mafia-specific use guide here: Using the Forum: Mafia-specific

1. Browsing the Forum

Topic lists

By default, the Discourse homepage will show all Latest conversations in the community, along with our Categories on Desktop, but you can filter this list in a number of ways:

By tag: in the menu line, click the ‘all tags’ title and a list of all the tags are used will appear.
By level of activity: if you click on ‘Top’ the conversation topics will be listed in order of most activity (views and replies) for a specific time period. You can choose whether this is for all time, or select a specific period such as quarter, month, week or just today.
By what’s ‘New’ to you: new topics are those created in the last 2 days that you have not opened yet to keep the list fresh and relevant. New topics show a small blue dot next to the topic title
By what topics are “Unread”: unread topics are those that you have previously opened and read for at least 4 minutes, and that have new posts (replies) submitted to them. Unread topics show a number in a blue circle indicating how many new posts are in the topic.

See who is participating

There are several ways to see who is involved in topics.

On the homepage you will see a selection of avatars (profile pictures) of:

the user who started the topic (always the first photo);
a selection of the most active participants;
and, who created the most recent post (usually the last photo).
in some cases, the first photo has a blue border or blue halo to indicate that the original poster is also the most recent poster

The box at the bottom of a topic OP tells you; who created the post and when, gives a count of the replies and views in this topic to date, and a display of the avatars of the participants.

For Search, the Menu, or your User page, use the icon buttons at the upper right .

Theme Selection

You can switch between our themes by opening the hamburger menu, going to the section that’s second to the bottom, and clicking on a theme you’re not using. The theme you are currently using is marked with an asterisk.

Keyboard Shortcuts

There are a set of Keyboard shortcuts/hotkeys that you can use to navigate the forum. A complete list of them is linked from the bottom link in the Hamburger menu.

4. Reading Topics

Keep scrolling

Click a topic title and read down the list of replies in chronological order, following links or previewing replies and quotes as you go. Use your mouse or keyboard hotkeys to scroll the screen, or use the timeline scroll bar on the right which also shows you how far through the conversation you’ve read. On smaller screens, select the bottom progress bar to expand it.

Jump back in

Selecting a topic title will take you to your last read post in the topic. To enter at the top ↑ or bottom ↓ instead, click the reply count or last reply date.
Topics above the light red line on a list are new or updated since your last visit. If you have read all the way to the end of a topic, the title will be light grey instead of black.

5. Taking Part in Conversations

Replying

Press any Reply button to open the editor panel at the bottom of your browser. You can continue reading (and even search or navigate to different topics) while you compose your reply.

To reply to a specific post in a topic, clicking the grey Reply button at the end of each post and your reply is linked to that post.

Your post will include a new link in its header with an image to show what this is ‘in reply to’ - clicking this link displays that previous post for context next to your reply
The original post includes a count of replies at the bottom - clicking this link displays the content of the replies

Quoting

To insert a quote, select the text you wish to quote, then press the Quote button that pops up. Repeat this for multiple quotes even from different posts and different users. The quoted text will point to their original source.

To quote an entire post, click on the button to the far left of your composer editor panel.

If you’re replying to one person, it may suffice to not quote them and just Reply to their post.

Drafts

Drafts will automatically be saved as you write. If you minimise the editor or navigate to a different topic, the editor might disappear. To open a draft, return to the topic you were replying to or click the highlighted bar at the bottom of your browser, and the editor will reappear with your draft.

Mentioning

To notify someone about your reply, mention their name. Type @ to begin selecting a username. This search will also search the name fields in case you don’t know a particular username.

Emoji

To use standard Emoji, just type : to match by name, or traditional smileys ;)

Alternatively, click on more to see a complete list of emoji to select from.

Oneboxes (Link Previews)

To generate a summary for a link, paste it on a line by itself. To start a topic with a link, paste the link into the title field.

Formatting

Your reply can be formatted using simple HTML, BBCode, or Markdown:

This is <b>bold</b>.
This is [b]bold[/b].
This is **bold**.

For more formatting tips, try our 10 minute tutorial.

6. Actions and Reactions

There are action buttons at the bottom of each post:

To let someone know that you enjoyed and appreciated their post, use the like button.
Grab a copy-pasteable (permalink) link to any reply or topic via the link button.
Use the … button to reveal more actions. Flag to privately let the author, or the site staff, know about a problem. Bookmark to find this post later on your profile page.

7. Notifications

When someone is talking directly to you — by replying to you, quoting your post, mentioning your @username , or even linking to your post, a blue number will immediately appear over your profile picture at the top right.

When you have been sent a Personal Message you will receive this in your Inbox and a green number will appear over your profile picture to the left.

Click your profile image to scroll through all your notifications .