Outlier

Communications

Discourse
Basics
 Course 1 What is Discourse

Overview
Channels vs Categories

2 Discourse Basics
Categories
topics
Organizational Features
Notifications - Tracking
Calendar Function
Badges & Trust Level

3 Advantages of Discourse
WHAT IS DISCOURSE

Discourse is an open-source forum platform designed to foster online

discussions and community building. It offers a modern approach to
online forums, incorporating various features such as a modern interface,
real-time updates, with modifiable notifications, rich text editing for your
posts and robust moderation tools.
CHANNELS VS CATEGORIES
While Discourse does not specifically use the term channels, the concept
can be understood through its category and subcategory structure.
Channels are essentially specialized categories tailored to specific
discussion needs. For instance:
Public Channels: Open categories where any registered user can view
and participate in discussions.
Private Channels: Restricted categories where only selected users or
groups have access, useful for sensitive topics or team discussions.
Special Interest Channels: Categories dedicated to specific interests,
projects, or themes, allowing focused discussions among interested
members.
Similarly to how it was done in Slack, each project will have its own
categories to work with.
Discourse
Basics
 WHAT IS DISCOURSE - CATEGORIES

Categories serve as the main organizational units within

a Discourse form, similar if not the same as Channels in
Slack.
Hierarchy: Categories can contain nested
subcategories, allowing for detailed structuring of
topics.
Permissions: Similarly to Slack, once you have
project permissions, you will have access to a
project's Discourse Category.
View: You might have multiple categories available
to you, and you can modify the top categories
always seen in this view.
WHAT IS DISCOURSE - TOPICS

Topics are individual threads or discussions within a category. Each topic

starts with an initial post and includes all subsequent replies, forming a
conversation. Features of topics include:
Linear Discussion: Replies to a topic are displayed in chronological
order, making it easy to follow the conversation.
Rich Content: Posts within topics can include text, images, videos,
links, and other media, supported by Markdown for formatting.
Tags: Topics can be tagged with keywords, aiding in categorization and
searchability beyond the primary category structure.
Likes and Replies: Users can like posts and reply directly to them,
which can create sub-discussions or "branches" within the main topic.
 WHAT IS DISCOURSE - TOPICS
These are
all different
Topics.
As you can
see the first
2 are
pinned to
the top of To the right of
the page. each Topic
you can see
Each Topic information
can have about it, such
different as how much
Tags, people have
making interacted
Topics on with it and
the same when it was
subject posted.
easy to
find.
ADDITIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL FEATURES
Pinning: Important topics will be pinned to the top of a category,
always readily available.
Archiving: Old or inactive topics can be archived to keep the forum
clean and focused on current discussions.
Notifications: You will A pin will always
keep a Topic at
be subscribed to the top of the
categories but the way Category's page.

you receive notifications

about new posts and
updates can be
configured to your own
preferences.
ADDITIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL FEATURES

Bookmark this
React with Copy a link to Topic - displayed
Flag this Topic
emojis to a Topic this Topic in the Saved
section
DISCOURSE - NOTIFICATIONS
Types of Notifications: You can receive notifications for a variety of
events, such as:
Replies to your posts.
Mentions (when someone uses @username).
Likes on your posts.
New direct messages.
Invitations to topics or private messages.
Posts in watched topics or categories.
Delivery Methods: Notifications will appear by default in Discourse as
an icon in your notification bar if they are online, or as an email if they
are offline.
All notifications are customizable.
DISCOURSE - NOTIFICATIONS

Username

Select your preferred methods for receiving

notifications based on your preferences.
DISCOURSE - TRACKING

Discourse also provides several tracking mechanisms to help you keep up

with discussions
Watching: You can watch a topic or category, receiving notifications
for every new post.
Tracking: When you are tracking a topic or category, you will be
notified if someone replies to the topic, but not for every new post.
Watching First Post: You can choose to be notified only when a new
topic is created in a category.
Muted: You can mute topics or categories to stop receiving
notifications and hide these discussions from their activity feed.
DISCOURSE - TRACKING
DIRECT MESSAGES + CHATS

Username

Username
DMs in Discourse are more similar
to emails,
which you can reply to, as well as
the Chat system for quick
messages.
 CALENDAR FUNCTION

A cool feature in Discourse, is that any events created in a Category which

you are subscribed to, will be displayed in the Upcoming Events section as
a calendar view. Once you click on an event, the link to it will be there.
BADGES & TRUST LEVEL

Another cool feature is the Badges. You use the platform, you can earn
Badges for your activity, and even earn different Trust Levels to show
your engagement.
Advantages of
Discourse
ADVANTAGES

Discourse has more tools for ordering information. For example, all
project categories should have a pinned Topic with the main project
documents so they are easier for you to find. This includes:
Main Instructions
Frequently Asked Questions
Edge Cases
Tags will make it easier for you to find different Topic.
daily_announcements examples official*
instructions project_documents urgent*
meetings tips_and_tricks
*These two will automatically
technical_issues watercooler notify users with a notification or
non-technical_issues email when a Topic is tagged
with them.
ADVANTAGES

Notification configurations will make your experience customizable, to

receive as many notifications as you desire depending on the Topics or
replies posted.
Filtering and search also
has many advanced
filters to find
information in the
different Categories
and Topics.
ADVANTAGES

Upcoming Events: Members of a category can view its events and

their details, RSVP, and receive reminders, ensuring they stay
informed about important dates and activities.
Project Documents: A centralized space for organizing and sharing
project-related documents. This will display all the Topics with the
project_documents tag from all the categories you are a member of.
Saved: You can quickly revisit content you consider important,
without needing to search for it again.
 There is also a mobile app available.
Download Discourse hub, and in Discover enter the full
oulier.trydiscourse URL to find the Outlier Forums space.