This will be the first in a series of Discourse quick tips (Tech Tip Tuesdays) to help new members who are joining the community (and older members who may want a refresher). Hopefully these posts help you learn about new functionalities or remind you of an aspect of Discourse you can use. Feel free to comment if there’s a help topic that you’d like to see!
We thought we’d start with the basics – some Discourse-specific nomenclature to clarify what is meant by a post, Topic, Category, etc.
Topic: A Topic is started by an original post and includes all subsequent replies to that post. Topics are organized into Categories and have a Topic title. You can think of this as a “thread,” and it’s organized in chronological order.
Post: Each time a user creates a message, it’s referred to as a post. These are what comprise a Topic, and can be moved from one Topic to another.
Original Post: The first post in any Topic. You can create an original post by clicking the “+ New Topic” button.
Category: Content on Discourse is organized into Categories. Every Topic is created into a Category. As a user, you can choose which Categories you want notifications from.
Tag: Across the Discourse, there are different Tags that specify the content of the post with a higher level of resolution than a Category. There can be several Tags on one post, and tags can only be created by DCoP moderators.
User: Any registered account creates a new user on the site. In order to post, like, flag, or otherwise engage in the Discourse site, you have to be a registered user. You can find a list of users in the Contributor Directory.