I have my profile set so when I log in I click on discussion groups, then under that banner shows “Latest”, “New”, and “Unread” of the discussions that I have yet to read or updates to discussions that I have read or replied to recently.
I hope this helps. Here’s a picture I captured with the snippet tool.
zoe, thats the same way I look at this forum, as I described above. ie, I simply have “discussion Groups” set as my link in the browser, which takes me to the same page you showed in your graphic.
Discourse is about as diametrically the opposite from “random and confusing” as the folks who designed and wrote the code could make it. I am sure they gave … and continue to give … a lot of thought and refinement into deciding how Discourse functions. How to make a lot of information and capabilities available to you if you want it, while also not annoying you with it if you don’t.
One of the founders, Jeff Atwood, has had enough previous success as one of the founders of the Stack Exchange Q&A sites that he probably could have done just about anything else including just staying at home and playing with his kids. But he was frustrated with the lack of consistency and utility in all the discussion board platforms he bumped up against.
When I get frustrated and annoyed, I grumble a lot and then eventually forget about it and move on. If Jeff gets frustrated enough and he thinks he could do better, he founds a company and tries to do so. Or at least that’s my guess as to how Discourse probably came about.
Why don’t we try starting with the attempts to offer some insight into using the site and then move on from there. Has everyone read Emily’s Getting started on our New Website! post? Did it help? If not, which parts did not help?
What question do you have which you most want answered? What’s the second most vexing question?
Maybe we could help if we approached it this way it might be of some help?
Discourse does not use the label “inbox”. It refers to Personal Messages as “Messages” You can view them by selecting one the filter buttons under “Messages” on the left hand side of your profile page.
I think you are referring to the “topic progress” bar which appears on the lower right hand side when you are viewing a topic (aka “discussion”). It is supposed to change as you scroll up or down. It shows your current location relative to the posts in the “discussion”, so when you move from post to post in the discussion it changes to reflect that…
For example, when you are at the first post of thirteen in a discussion it shows
If you scroll down to the sixth post both the number and shaded portion change to show the new location.
The above examples show the usual, collapsed view of the progress bar. If you left click on the bar then it expands to expose the navigation tools.
If it expands “accidentally”, left click on the progress indicator at the bottom you to dismiss it.
I use it to quickly go to either the top or bottom or, occasionally, a specific post (number) in a discussion.
Thanks. By “loading” I mean when you do it the old fashioned way and use the scroll bar to quickly look through posts or lists of threads it loads as you go, kind of like it you are downloading a very large pic with slow internet.
I feel the same way, Roxanne. Earlier I brought up the list of topics the same way I always do and there were topics on top that hadn’t been commented on in 3 years. I re-booted and they were gone, then just now there they were again. I’m not ready to give up because this site has meant so much to me for so long. I wish it had never been changed. “If it’s not broken don’t fix it.” The techies might love it, and I don’t know what percentage of members that is, but a lot of us don’t fit into that category
the blue circle numbers are new replies to topics you are following. the green circle numbers are private messages to you. and @karen57 - we are going to allow users the change their names, they will just have to be unique
i am the same. i am stopping by way less just because i feel like things are all over the place. the more tech savvy and patient will be having an easier time, i suppose!
I am mostly lost but know that I’ll figure it out over time. I find that a lot of links don’t work but I know that they are still fixing things. I check in every day and participate in a few discussions. I will be glad when we mostly get new discussions in the lists rather than old ones. For the most part I think we will eventually be happy with the changes, but some of us old dogs will have to learn some new tricks…