Getting Started on Discourse

How do I personalize my profile page?

1.click on your image in the top right corner of any forum page
2.select “preferences” in the drop-down menu
3.on this page you can upload a profile picture, background image for your profile page, and “user card background” (which is the image people will see when they click on your avatar while in the forum), and adjust how frequently you receive notices from the site…
4.to edit your personal information scroll down a bit and click the link called “Edit Personal Information”.

How Do I change My Password

1.click on the link at the top of the home page that says “Need to change your password?”
2.follow the instructions above to the page where you can edit personal information, then click “Settings” on the top-left of the page titled My Account.

How do I start a forum discussion?

1.Click on the button on the right side of any page in the forum
2.write your post in the popup box that appears, select a title, category and subcategory for the post to go in.
3.when you have completed your post, click “+ create topic” in the blue box at the bottom of the page. If you change your mind and decide not to post what you have written, just click “cancel”.

How do I reply to a post someone else has created?

There are several ways to reply to a post!
1.The button at the bottom of the thread replies to the overall topic. Your reply will show up at the end of the current list of replies.
2.The button after each individual post replies to that particular comment / person. Your reply will show up at the end of the current list of replies, but will have an indicator to show that it is intended as a reply to a specific comment in the discussion. Another indicator will appear directly under that comment to show that it has received a reply. Click on either indicator to see full details of the discussion.
3.Highlight text with your mouse or finger in a post. You will see a button appear above the highlighted text. Click that and a text box will appear in which you can create your reply, with the quote. This is another good way to reply to a specific comment someone else has made.
4. appears to the right of every comment when you move your mouse over it. Use this when you want to go on a crazy tangent that may or may not relate to the topic at hand. They’ll get automatically linked together.

How do I send a private message to another member of the community?

There are two different ways to send a private message on Discourse.
1.Find the member you want to write to by typing his/her name in the search box, click on their name to go to their profile page and then select at the top-right of the page.
2.Within the forum, click on the avatar of a member to whom you wish to send a private messages, then click “Message” on the right side of the profile card that shows up for that person:

How can I call a friend’s attention to a post I want them to see?

Whether it’s a forum post that you wrote yourself or one that someone else created, you can alert a friend to it just by replying to the post with your friend’s username preceded by an “@” sign, thus: @so-and-so. That person will receive a notification containing a link to the post you want to bring their attention to.

How can I let the forum moderators know if I think someone has posted something they shouldn’t in the forum?

Flag it!!

Below every post and comment you will see this row of icons. They allow you to “like”, link, “flag” or reply to the post. When you click on the flag icon you will see a popup box allowing you to specify why you are flagging that post. It looks like this:

When 3 or more members flag the same post:

  1. It is immediately hidden.
  2. The post author will see: “Your post was flagged by the community. Please see your private messages.”
  3. The community at large will see: “This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden. View hidden content.”
  4. The forum moderators will see the actual post, as posted, in a dimmed state to indicate it has been hidden for others.
  5. A very friendly private message is sent to the author of the post, describing what happened, in the friendliest imaginable language, and letting them know that for {flag type} a considered edit of any kind is enough to un-hide the post. Alternatively, the moderators can send the author of the post a message requesting s/he change the post or simply remove it, as deemed appropriate by the Admin team