It was more than using his name, it quoted his post. You don’t need to read the thread contents to notify on that type of action.
Since we’re talking about costs, it’s worth noting that The Powers That Be could potentially migrate the site to a VPS provider like DigitalOcean or Vultr for a fraction of the current hosting price once we’re fully settled, the admins are thoroughly familiar with Discourse and the service agreement expires.
Hell, I was just feeling a mite peckish, and Discourse made me a sandwich!
It’ll also notify if you use the ‘@’ indicator. Like @Dinsdale.
Huh, you can change your vote by clicking the “Show vote” button.
I wish this were a feature in general elections.
That’s a problem for me. I can run my own vanity searches, tyvm.
I’m considering taking a six-month break, so when I come back, the Discobot will insert a little notice that says “kaylasdad99 hasn’t posted in six months. Let’s welcome him back!”
And then my actual post will say: “STFU, DISCOBOT! NOBODY ASKED YOU!”
Yeah, those notifications are stupid, but I was pleasantly surprised at how readily I could ignore them.
As vain as I am about some things, I’m not sure I ever ran a “vanity search” in 20 yrs. Just figured I wasn’t interesting enough for people to talk about if I weren’t right in front of them!
This actually bothers you?!? 
At this point, I kind of think you - and some others - are just looking for things to be annoyed at now. By all means, take a break. If you miss the community, come back. If not, enjoy whatever you’re doing in its stead.
I don’t know if this is a threadshit or not, but I’m kind of surprised at how much spirited debate this thread is getting.
Our new board on Discourse does exactly what it’s supposed to do. I can read what other people have to say. I can browse or search for specific topics that interest me. I can join or start a thread. All of these things are pretty easy to do. It looks fine. It’s free. What more do I need?
I felt exactly the same about the old board, until it started breaking down. Now it’s not broken, so I’m happy.
I am absolutely not interested in nitpicking every tiny feature and aesthetic of the site, as these are not what make the SDMB the SDMB.
There are some really good features on Discourse. I started typing a reply to a thread on my phone while I was in a cafe this morning. I decided that I wanted to write a longer post than was convenient on the phone so I stopped composing. When I got home I got on the computer, opened the SDMB, went to “drafts” under my username, and there’s the post I’d started. Really useful and well worth a bit of white space.
Here are some differences that change my user experience:
- In general, this site seems to prioritize “my experience” over “the board’s structure”. Many of the points below support that. That has some good points and some bad points, but it feels different. This place used to feel more curated, like walking around from lecture hall to lecture hall. Now it feels more like walking around in a large party where everyone is talking at once.
- The “main page” of Discourse doesn’t fit all the categories onto one screen, and has a list of new posts on the side.
- It’s awkward to navigate to a category.
- In the “category” list, only a few posts show up at a time. There’s a lot more vertical white space. And the “hover to preview the OP” only sometimes works. (at times I can’t predict.)
- It tells me if I’ve been quoted.
- If the admins allowed it, this site would handle edits really well, allowing other users to see what edits were made.
- It shows pictures in-line. (although you still need to link them off-site, due to administrator choices.)
- The infinite scroll means I don’t have a visual/spacial sense of where a post is. (There’s a visual indicator, but that will change as the thread grows.) Yes, there’s a post number. But I don’t remember numbers well. So that feels unfriendly if I want to return to a post or reference something in the past. On the other hand, it’s easy to get to “my last post”.
- And, of course, it looks different.
Indeed. After the first few days, I’m having difficulty finding anything I don’t prefer on the new Discourse board vs the vBulletin board. To me, everything is better. Like night and day better.
Thank you for that. I found it very helpful.
There is definitely something not right about the overall navigation. On the old site, I’d say “OK I’m off to Great Debates now.” and have a feeling of really being there. I’d have to make a conscious effort to go to a different forum. On Discourse, I’m continually wondering where I am.
Back to my original question, I don’t think there is any fundamental difference between and Discourse and vBulletin. There are plenty of annoying little differences but I expect most of those will either get fixed ( like the category list ) or we’ll get used to them (like not having a sense of where you are in a thread — though I went back reading dead tree books because I never got a sense of space from my Kindle).
It’s too soon for me to quite call it “not right” yet, but I also experience that when I hit one of the trending threads on the right. If I go into one of them, not only do I know what forum it is in, if I go back and browse into a forum, and then I go back to try to see that thread again, it’s dropped off in favor of another sometimes, causing me to go through the forums one by one if I want to find it.
Yes I agree with this. I don’t browse by forum anymore, I find myself going to new posts via links and recommendations and often have no idea which forum the thread I’m reading is in. It’s like the forums are an afterthought, tagged onto a thread.
On the other hand 
the quote function is excellent.
The forum name is at the top of the page, right under the thread name. You can click on it to go to the forum page.
Yep it is. That’s not the point. The layout of the old board encouraged me to browse threads from the different forums. I didn’t need to look for what forum a thread belonged to because I knew I was reading MPSIMS threads for example. This board encourages free movement between forums and that gives a different feel. It’s more like going to YouTube and bouncing from recommended video to recommended video.
I don’t dislike it, but it’s a distinct difference in feel. I suspect that posters who were in the habit of using the “new posts” feature of the old boards wouldn’t notice as much.
That’s me to a “T”.
Me too — I would read my subscribed threads then browse through new posts.