# Tech tip Tuesday: Discourse terminology

**URL:** <https://rcop.michaeljfox.org/t/tech-tip-tuesday-discourse-terminology/169>\
**Category:** Community Updates\
**Tags:** meta, how-to\
**Created:** [August 22, 2023, 2:42pm UTC](https://rcop.michaeljfox.org/t/tech-tip-tuesday-discourse-terminology/169 "2023-08-22T14:42:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![maya.sanghvi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/michaeljfox/user_avatar/rcop.michaeljfox.org/maya.sanghvi/32/19_2.png) [@maya.sanghvi](https://rcop.michaeljfox.org/u/maya.sanghvi)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2023, 2:42pm UTC](https://rcop.michaeljfox.org/t/tech-tip-tuesday-discourse-terminology/169/1 "2023-08-22T14:42:28Z")

</div>

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](https://rcop.michaeljfox.org/u?order=Affiliation).