If you’re new to this discussion forum, here are a few quick tips and tricks to get you started:
Navigation
The navigation controls are at the top of the screen.
Here you can click
- Categories to view the category forums.
- Topics to see the latest posts to the forum.
- Tags to find related topics and discussions.
- Groups to join our communities.
- Users to view and message our members.
- Events a list upcoming events
- Calendar to see events in calendar views
- Messages to view your personal and group messages
- FAQ to view our community guidelines and help.
For search, the menu, or your user page, use the icon buttons at the upper right .
While reading a topic, use the timeline on the right side to jump to the top, bottom, or your last read position. On smaller screens, select the bottom progress bar to expand it.
(If you have a physical keyboard, you can also press ? for a list of keyboard shortcuts.)
Reading
The discussions are organised into Categories and Topics. The Home page shows both the Categories on the left and Latest topics on the right of the screen. You can also use the navigation links to view the Top most popular topics, Latest most recent, New
Clicking on the title of the Topic from the topic list will open posts that users have made under that Topic thread. By default this will always take you back to your last read post in the topic. To enter at the top ? or bottom ? instead, select the reply count or last reply date.
Topics above the light red line are new or updated since your last visit. If you have read all the way to the end of a topic, its title will be light grey instead of black.
Replying
Press any Reply button to open the editor panel at the bottom of your browser. Continue reading (and even navigate to different topics) while you compose your reply; minimize the editor for more room. Drafts will automatically be saved as you write.
Quoting
To insert a quote, select the text you wish to quote, then press the Quote button that pops up. Repeat for multiple quotes.
Mentioning
To notify someone about your reply, mention their name. Type @ to begin selecting a username.
Emoji
To use standard Emoji, just type : to match by name, or traditional smileys ;)
Oneboxes
To generate a summary for a link, paste it on a line by itself. To start a topic with a link, paste the link into the title field.
Formatting
Your reply can be formatted using simple HTML, BBCode, or Markdown:
This is <b>bold</b>.
This is [b]bold[/b].
This is **bold**.
For more formatting tips, try our 10 minute tutorial.
Actions
There are action buttons at the bottom of each post:
- To let someone know that you enjoyed and appreciated their post, use the like button. Share the love!
- Grab a copy-pasteable link to any reply or topic via the link button.
- Use the … button to reveal more actions. Flag to privately let the author, or the site staff, know about a problem. Bookmark to find this post later on your profile page.
Notifications
When someone is talking directly to you — by replying to you, quoting your post, mentioning your @username , or even linking to your post, a number will immediately appear over your profile picture at the top right. Select it to access your notifications .
Don’t worry about missing a reply – you’ll be emailed any notifications that arrive when you are away.
Preferences
All topics less than two days old are considered new, and will show a new indicator.
Any topic you’ve actively participated in — by creating it, replying to it, or reading it for an extended period — will be automatically tracked on your behalf, and will show an unread post count indicator.
You can change your notification level for any topic via the notification control at the bottom, and right hand side, of each topic. (Notification level can also be set per category, look for the notification control on the upper right of each category page.)
Feedback
If you have found this tutorial helpful, please click the like heart icon button below.
We would like to hear any feedback from you as you use the site, and any suggestions you may have. Please post any replies in this Support and Feedback category.
Thank you for reading our tutorial. We look forward to having you contribute to the site.