# Cool stuff in Discourse - Basics, tips, tricks, your favorite features **URL:** \ **Category:** Site Feedback\ **Created:** [March 7, 2021, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-stuff-in-discourse-basics-tips-tricks-your-favorite-features/937378 "2021-03-07T05:50:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-stuff-in-discourse-basics-tips-tricks-your-favorite-features/937378/1 "2021-03-07T05:50:32Z")
Here are some basic tutorials. Basic new user guide. > **[Discourse New User Guide](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-new-user-guide/96331)** > > Welcome! As a new user of Discourse, we hope you will find this site intuitive and clearly structured, but here is some guidance to get you started: Basic Terms Used by Discourse (Nomenclature) Here are some very basic terms that will be helpful... This is also listed in TubaDiva’s OP for the tips and tricks stickied thread in ATMB > [@Problem children / punch list for fixes / TIPS AND TRICKS](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-children-punch-list-for-fixes-tips-and-tricks/911044): > > Hi there, and welcome to the new and improved Straight Dope Message Board. This thread is to report problems that you encounter as you navigate the board. If you see a problem already reported you do not need to report it again. We will keep you informed as we find bugs and work through problems. Already on the list: Old spoiler tags do not work and are visible. Old quote tags do not work and show in plaintext. Newly made quotes and spoilers tags are operational. Work is ongoing on fixes… Shorter tips list with pictures for people getting started from the Discourse blog. Very basic with instructions on posting and quoting, etc. > **[Discourse New User Tips and Tricks](https://blog.discourse.org/2016/12/discourse-new-user-tips-and-tricks/)** > > Getting going in an online community can be overwhelming, especially if you’ve never used the platform before. If you’re new to Discourse, here are a few quick tips and tricks to get you started: SDMB member **GreysonCarlisle** posted a getting started manual with a table of contents for easy reference. > [@We're All Here. Now What? (Basic Tutorial)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-here-now-what-basic-tutorial/911081): > > Table of Contents Note: this post was made before the transition. Any or all of it may already be wrong, outdated, or muddleheaded. I’ll try to update as necessary. I have a bunch of pretty pictures to go along with it, but images take forever to upload tonight Important: Discourse is always infinite scroll. There is currently no (good) way to add pagination or a nested view. Sorry. Basic Tutorial (Took it out. Ran out of characters.) [Setting the Default View](#heading--defaultview)[Setting Up Notifications](#heading--settingupnotifications)[T…](#heading--themeandtextsize) There’s also this Discourse reference for moderators > **[Discourse Moderation Guide](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-moderation-guide/63116)** > > So you’re a moderator on a Discourse forum - congratulations! As a forum moderator, it’s your role to help oversee the forum, ensuring that users and content are in line with your TOS, FAQ, and other published rules/guidelines. Discourse comes... Those are the getting started reference sources. I’ll add more individual tips in the next and following posts. Please add any helpful tips or tricks you’ve found and any features you like about Discourse. ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-stuff-in-discourse-basics-tips-tricks-your-favorite-features/937378/2 "2021-03-07T06:06:23Z")
Here are some individual feature tips. Some info. on the OneBox feature. It lets you link items with a preview. > [@I love the OneBox feature!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-love-the-onebox-feature/912299): > > Just put a URL by itself on a line, and it automatically creates a box with the relevant info and image. You can even put YouTube videos inline in a post. Quick, easy, and a huge improvement in the quality of posts! News articles: Wikipedia: YouTube: [[Friday Afternoons (Cuckoo) - Benjamin Britten.] ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTMLWuY36KQ) Works great! grinning For the more technically savvy, you might be able to reduce white space with this hack. > [@A hack to reduce whitespace and scrolling](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hack-to-reduce-whitespace-and-scrolling/912224): > > Using the browser extension Stylish, I created a basic style to reduce whitespace and the need for so much scrolling. This could be a little tricky to set up if you are not technically inclined. It essentially hacks the CSS in your browser to compress the gaps between posts. For better or worse, it hides the Reply bar at the bottom of each post. If needed, you can quickly disable/enable the style from Stylish to show/hide the Reply bar. This is a Before and After picture which demonstrates the … For people looking for something similar to the “subscribed list” feature, this might help. > [@Very happy with Discourse](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-happy-with-discourse/919602/48): > > It is rarely used but [https://boards.straightdope.com/posted](https://boards.straightdope.com/posted) is similar to what you’re asking for. Just because you posted in a topic doesn’t necessarily mean you are watching or tracking it, but it usually does. For people looking for the “find” feature, here are some tips. If the thread is short enough, ctrl+f works in the browser. For longer threads, this could work, depending your browser and set up. > [@How are people feeling about Discourse?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/299): > > Strange. It highlights the term for me. Perhaps it depends on which theme you are using? I’m using SD Light. Another alternative: Press Ctrl-P, when not editing, to open a print window. Cancel the printing, which leaves you with the full text of the thread in one window. Search normally via Ctrl-F. Some search tips. You can narrow your search by several options in the options menu from the hourglass search feature. > [@How are people feeling about Discourse?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/178): > > Click on the search icon at the top, and check ‘Search this topic’. Enter @Username and after a pause of a second or two it will provide a dropdown list of their posts in the thread. You can click on one to jump there, and then go back to the search box and click on another. Also, if you see someone’s avatar anywhere in the thread, you can click on it, then on the filter button (‘x posts in topic’). It will then show only that person’s posts in the thread, which can be very useful. But it won’… More info on search. > [@How are people feeling about Discourse?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/179): > > ETA: @GreenWyvern ninja’d most of what I was had written but got interrupted before posting. So I’ll continue w just my conclusion. … Ref any of the user searches you need to be able to correctly spell the name of the poster you’re seeking. That’s sometimes a problem for people. All these options as @GreenWyvern explained are available from the advanced search page. Click the magnifying glass, then click “options” at the right of the popup. That brings up the advanced search page. All … If you click on a poster’s profile in the thread, you can click on the icon that says ‘X posts in this topic’, that will show that user’s posts in the thread. When you’re done reading those posts, you can do one of two things to clear the search. If you hit the ‘show all’ on the bottom of the page, it will go back to where you left off but add back all the posts. You can also go back to the person’s profile and ‘remove filter’. That will take you back to the top of the thread. What are your favorite tips and finds on Discourse? ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-stuff-in-discourse-basics-tips-tricks-your-favorite-features/937378/3 "2021-03-15T06:57:37Z")
**Some info. on post counts.** If you want to know the post count number of a post, click the time stamp in the top right corner. It will tell you the post count number. You can also find the post count number by looking at the url when you link it. The post count number is the number at the end before your username. > [@Inaccurate post count on threads](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inaccurate-post-count-on-threads/937393/3): > > This isn’t correct; post numbering is absolute (from the top of the topic down), never relative. To learn the post number of any particular reply (replies start at post #2 for what I hope are obvious reasons wink ) click or tap the timestamp on the post at upper right. [[Imgur] ](https://imgur.com/ZyjTqxP) The URL itself will give you a hint about this, e.g. https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topic-title/937393/2 t/topic-title/937393/2 937393/2 The topic ID is 937393 and that … **On starting new topics.** Discourse gives several options to start new topics. One is just to click the + new topic icon at the top right of the board when you’re at the menu screen. Another is to click the arrow next to the person/thread you’re replying to in the editor box. > [@Cool feature for splitting off topics](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-feature-for-splitting-off-topics/933767): > > I was watching an interview with codinghorror about Discourse online. He mentioned a feature that sounded pretty neat that’s not readily obvious. When you reply to a poster, if you hit the arrow next to the icon on the top left, you get a few options. One is to write that person a private message, another is to simply reply as usual and the third is to split the topic into a new thread - reply as linked topic. When you click on that, it automatically starts the message with a link to the cur… Another option to start a new topic is to click the new topic button when you’re looking at the person’s post number by clicking on the time stamp in the top right corner of the post. [For the mods.] **Slow mode and timed closure.** Slow mode stops sequential posting over a certain number in contentious threads. Timed closure allows the mod to close the thread for a specified time and open at another specified time. > [@Why close the Chivalry thread?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-close-the-chivalry-thread/937401/31): > > One thing the mods can maybe play with in this area is “Slow Mode”, designed for contentious topics. When activated, “Slow Mode” limits the number of sequential replies any given poster can make. To activate it, mods can use the wrench action at the topic level: [[Imgur] ](https://imgur.com/0IQi8Ah) Then decide what the time limit is, and the duration of Slow Mode snail → [[Imgur] ](https://imgur.com/3jtPaT8) It’s a tool in the toolkit, and we think it works very we… ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2021, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-stuff-in-discourse-basics-tips-tricks-your-favorite-features/937378/4 "2021-03-29T08:16:03Z")
Just saw this on twitter. You can pin your favorite bookmarks to the top of your bookmark list. > ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2021, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-stuff-in-discourse-basics-tips-tricks-your-favorite-features/937378/6 "2021-11-14T22:47:45Z")
Thanks for this – feel free to ask if anything in particular needs further explanation! ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2021, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-stuff-in-discourse-basics-tips-tricks-your-favorite-features/937378/7 "2021-11-15T14:56:59Z")
If you want to post in a really long thread that you haven’t read yet, but leery of posting something that’s already been posted (AND you’re too lazy to actually read the whole damn thing to find out), click on search, and then click on “on this topic”, enter some of your key words, and boom - it’ll instantly show whereelse in the thread those key words are - _if_ they exist, at all.