# How are people feeling about Discourse? **URL:** \ **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:** 11\ **Page:** 26
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2021, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/501 "2021-09-12T00:06:02Z")
Once I got used to the infinite scroll, which did take some doing at first, I found that with the aid of the sidebar I can keep oriented in a thread much better and more easily than I could (or can on other boards) with separate pages. I suspect this may have to do with subtle differences in the way people’s minds work. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2021, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/502 "2021-09-12T01:02:34Z")
I don’t have much trouble keeping oriented in either style. It’s really just that a thread that says “274 unread posts” looks like work, in a way that 7 new pages doesn’t. And i found it easier to skim past a few pages than to skim through all those posts. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2021, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/503 "2021-09-12T01:18:21Z")
Agreed on paging being good for skimming. Paging also allows the native browser text search, which is far superior to discourse’s homebrew text search. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2021, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/504 "2021-09-12T01:22:58Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Paging also allows the native browser text search, which is far superior to discourse’s homebrew text search. That’s true. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2021, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/505 "2021-09-12T04:52:03Z")
A useful feature in navigating long threads is the # shortcut. Just press # (when you’re not in the editor) and you can enter either a post number, or a date to jump to. [![](https://i.ibb.co/NKY7XbQ/jumptopost.png) ](https://i.ibb.co/NKY7XbQ/jumptopost.png) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2021, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/506 "2021-09-12T11:57:55Z")
I use that all the time to get to the start or end of a thread. I don’t find any other options terribly useful. I also find it’s a little flakey, and doesn’t always work. That is, the “move to” menu doesn’t always open when i attempt to trigger it. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2021, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/507 "2021-09-12T15:18:46Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I use that all the time to get to the start or end of a thread. I don’t find any other options terribly useful. It doesn’t work for you to click on the date or time at the top and bottom of the scroll bar? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2021, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/508 "2021-09-12T16:30:51Z")
I mostly use this in my phone, and there are no dates on the scroll bar. But i can click on the numbers at the bottom of the page. (Even on my laptop, i need to put Discourse in a very wide window to get the discourse scroll bar, which i find very annoying.) ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2021, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/509 "2021-09-12T16:52:27Z")
Ah. My phone’s a flip phone chosen for water and drop resistance, and for ease of carrying in pockets. The screen is so tiny that it would be effectively impossible to use this board on it (it’s actually close to impossible to do anything online at all, but that’s not what I use it for.) And due to my eyesight I prefer a wide separate desktop-size screen and window for nearly everything, anyway. A lot of this does seem to depend on how one’s reading the boards. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2021, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/510 "2021-09-12T18:38:59Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > You can also do footnotes1 like this. > > 1 My footnote That’s great. I hated that the asterisk wouldn’t work without fiddling. > [@GreenWyvern](#): > > A useful feature in navigating long threads is the # shortcut. > > Just press # (when you’re not in the editor) and you can enter either a post number, or a date to jump to. This is also very useful. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Skypist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skypist/32/169_2.png) [@Skypist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skypist)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2021, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428/511 "2021-09-16T01:17:45Z")
Still hate Discourse. Everything about it. It’s ugly, awkward, difficult to navigate, and infinite scrolling is the worst. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-people-feeling-about-discourse/926428.md?page=25)