# How are people feeling about Discourse?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [November 25, 2020, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428 "2020-11-25T16:40:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 10

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2020, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/181 "2020-12-31T19:50:12Z")

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> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#):
>
> > [@GreenWyvern](#):
> >
> > Click on the search icon at the top, and check ‘Search this topic’. Enter @Username
> 
> That didn’t work for me, but using the username without the @ works so that’s all good.

Without the @, it’ll just be looking for the text, so if, e.g. you search for GreenWyvern, it’ll find any opost where somebody just mentioned that name, not posts by that person. If @whatever didn’t work on your test case, you almost certainly misspelled the name you were looking for.

As @puzzlegal has complained about, Discourse is zero help if you can’t spell the name perfectly without help.

> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#):
>
> I’m guessing that I can find the commands by checking one of the boxes and looking at the command, then later I can just type it in without having to configure the panel.

Exactly. That’s how the rest of us learned about “in:first” and the other syntaxes.

Again the gotcha is that when you configure the panel, the corresponding search command syntax text is _supposed_ to transfer to the search input box. But may not. Pay attention and it’s easy to learn what’s right and how to catch it when it pulls a stupid.

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**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:** [December 31, 2020, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/182 "2020-12-31T20:02:27Z")

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> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Without the @, it’ll just be looking for the text, so if, e.g. you search for GreenWyvern, it’ll find any opost where somebody just mentioned that name, not posts by that person. If @whatever didn’t work on your test case, you almost certainly misspelled the name you were looking for.

Thanks for that heads up. I was wondering how to filter out those other posts. I was using your name for the search. Your username isn’t that hard to spell. And I swear it wasn’t working when I typed in your name using lower case letters. But it’s working now, so the lower case letters wasn’t the problem. I can’t figure out what I did wrong, but it’s working now, so yay!

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**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/183 "2021-01-01T05:58:22Z")

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All of my Ignores have timed out. Now I have to go and Ignore them all again, every few months.

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**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/184 "2021-01-01T06:13:56Z")

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Not sure if its the new browser or the ‘infinite scroll’, but I’m not happy what it does to my 'History" when I go to delete it.

What???

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**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/185 "2021-01-01T06:26:04Z")

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The Log-Out button has suddenly disappeared.

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**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/186 "2021-01-01T06:36:56Z")

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> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> All of my Ignores have timed out. Now I have to go and Ignore them all again, every few months.

Where it says ‘Select a timeframe’, you can scroll down and select ‘Forever’.

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**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/187 "2021-01-01T06:42:47Z")

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> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> The Log-Out button has suddenly disappeared.

Click on your avatar at the top, then on the ‘preferences’ icon on the right (person’s head). It’s under that.

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**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/188 "2021-01-01T06:43:49Z")

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> [@Gatopescado](#):
>
> Not sure if its the new browser or the ‘infinite scroll’, but I’m not happy what it does to my 'History" when I go to delete it.

Where are you going, and what does it do?

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**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/189 "2021-01-01T06:47:25Z")

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> [@GreenWyvern](#):
>
> Where are you going, and what does it do?

Joke answer: Divorce Court, Incriminate me

Real answer: every post shows up as a ‘thing’ in history. To delete them, ahh well, nevermind.

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**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/190 "2021-01-01T06:55:21Z")

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> [@Gatopescado](#):
>
> every post shows up as a ‘thing’ in history.

But what do you mean by ‘history’? Your [activity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gatopescado/activity)?

How would you delete that? How would you like posts to show up, instead of ‘things’? 🙂

Do you perhaps mean your watched posts?

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**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/191 "2021-01-01T06:59:51Z")

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I mean my internet activity. Stuff I prowl on the net. The Dope shows up pages and pages of every post that I scroll thru.

Gotta really search and find the stuff I wanna delete. But then again, the doctrine of 'Hidden in Plain Sight" applies also.

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**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/192 "2021-01-01T07:11:03Z")

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Oh, you mean your browser history. Yes, it does that on some browsers.

Every time it loads a page in infinite scroll, it takes that as another history item. I don’t think there’s anything that can be done about it.

I never use my browser history, anyway. I use the ‘reopen closed tab’ list if I want to go back to something, and that has only one entry per tab.

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/193 "2021-01-01T15:41:03Z")

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> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> The Log-Out button has suddenly disappeared.

Feature, not bug:

> [@](#):
>
> "Relax, " said the night man,  
> "We are programmed to receive.  
> You can check-out any time you like,  
> But you can never leave! "

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/194 "2021-01-01T15:59:46Z")

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> [@GreenWyvern](#):
>
> Oh, you mean your browser history. Yes, it does that on some browsers.
> 
> Every time it loads a page in infinite scroll, it takes that as another history item. I don’t think there’s anything that can be done about it.
> 
> I never use my browser history, anyway. I use the ‘reopen closed tab’ list if I want to go back to something, and that has only one entry per tab.

Interesting. Which browsers are that? I would have thought that changing the URL without polluting the history would have been implemented in all browsers by now.

As long as such browsers exist, it seems odd that Discourse wasn’t set up with the obvious workaround, where you would use the #, or make it an option (the part following ?).

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/195 "2021-01-01T16:04:14Z")

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> [@GreenWyvern](#):
>
> > [@Siam\_Sam](#):
> >
> > All of my Ignores have timed out. Now I have to go and Ignore them all again, every few months.
> 
> Where it says ‘Select a timeframe’, you can scroll down and select ‘Forever’.

However, as I discovered, that last option may not display on your screen. The problem is that the option dialog doesn’t fit entirely on the screen. There are options below the screen you can’t see. The only way I can select them is to use the arrow keys on my keyboard, or actually type the word “forever” in the search box.

One annoyance I have with modern web design is how often developers seem to just assume that something will fit on the page instead of making sure it is visible, or just let the browser add a scroll bar if it goes offscreen.

Heck, in this case, I don’t see any reason not to just use an ordinary dropdown box, rather than creating your own with search.

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**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:** [January 2, 2021, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/196 "2021-01-02T10:43:54Z")

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> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#):
>
> I’m looking at your posts in this thread. They’re numbered from 1 to however many posts you did in the thread. I found the post I want, and now I want to know what post number it is in the thread and go back to the original thread view. How do I do that without losing your post in the thread?

I found out a partial answer to my question, not the part I was hoping to find, but maybe someone else might not realize this as I hadn’t so I’m posting it.

When I click on someone’s icon and find they have more than one post in the thread, I can click on the number of posts in the thread to get to their other posts. To get back to the original view of everyone’s posts, I just click on their icon again. Then hit remove filter. Unfortunately, that takes me back to the top of the thread. If I’ve saved a quote from one of the posts, I can look at the post number to go back there, but it doesn’t take me back there automatically…

I was stuck on the remove filter part before so I couldn’t get out of that view unless I searched for the thread all over again, so this is a partial help.

If anyone knows how to get back to the post I was viewing when I hit the remove filter, please share.

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/197 "2021-01-02T13:04:27Z")

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> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#):
>
> … If anyone knows how to get back to the post I was viewing when I hit the remove filter, please share.

Wow! I had not seen that filter feature. Today I learned something I’ll use every day here. Thank you!

As to your question snipped above I have two thoughts.  
  
  
The filtering technique works as you say. But you may instead be happier to use the search-in-topic feature to get the drop down of the user’s contributions and click from one to another of their posts that way. That leaves the other poster’s posts visible so you have the surrounding context. And completely avoids the problem of Discourse jumping to post #1 when the filter is removed.  
  
  
If you prefer the filter approach, here’s the least bad way I know to return to the previously filtered post you’d been viewing.

First off, notice the format of a Discourse URL. After the `https://boards.straightdope.com` part, it looks like this:  
`/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/196`

Where “t” means “topic”, the next hunk is the topic title, then the topic ID number and finally the post number. 926428 happens to be the ID number of this topic and 196 happens to be the number of your last post that I’m replying to that’s at the top of my browser window right now while I’m typing.

As you scroll up and down in a topic, the URL changes to show the post number of the post currently at the top of the browser window. There’s a short delay after you quit scrolling before the number updates. Try scrolling around in an topic without user filtering and pretty soon you’ll get the hang of how it behaves. Then try it in a topic with user filtering enabled.

So … When you’re ready to quit filtering and want to return to that post after removing the filter, make sure it’s the topic at the top of your browser window, look at the URL & take note of (or select and copy) the post number. Then click “remove filter”, then press “#” to open the [jump to post#] pop-up, and type (or paste) in the post number.

Viola!  
  
  
One last comment. Your user profile is hidden. Which (ironically) precludes others filtering on your posts in any thread. It would be nice to unhide that by going to your user profile \>\> Preferences \>\> Interface and uncheck the “Hide my public profile and presence features” item then [Save Changes].

Since you control what info you’ve entered into the various profile boxes and can leave them all blank if you want, there’s no actual privacy value to your profile being hidden. Fill out whatever you want to share and skip the rest.

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**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/198 "2021-01-03T02:15:51Z")

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> [@GreenWyvern](#):
>
> Click on your avatar at the top, then on the ‘preferences’ icon on the right (person’s head). It’s under that.

No, it used to be under that. It disappeared. But today, it’s back! Weird.

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**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/199 "2021-01-03T02:17:36Z")

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> [@BigT](#):
>
> However, as I discovered, that last option may not display on your screen. The problem is that the option dialog doesn’t fit entirely on the screen. There are options below the screen you can’t see. The only way I can select them is to use the arrow keys on my keyboard, or actually type the word “forever” in the search box.

I finally found “Forever.” You’re right, it was disappeared off my screen. I thought “Four Months” was the maximum I could Ignore anyone.

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**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/200 "2021-01-04T20:29:47Z")

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Welcome to Discourse: it is a moving target, so practice your lede.

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