I am new here… Well, I’ve been around, sorta lurking for a couple of weeks… But I am finding that navigating Discourse is a bit confusing. “Latest” shows the topics with latest conversations, sorted by when the last reply was added. But I have yet to figure out how to determine if I am caught up or not on a topic. I like “New” because it removes the topics from the list as I read them, so I know when I am caught up, however, “New” doesn’t seem to show all the topics. (ie, when I look under Latest, I see things I haven’t read yet that don’t show under New).
So I’m asking, what’s the best way to stay current and know what I’ve read/missed on the conversations? I’m more used to the “conventional” type of forums…
Welcome to the forum, @realm174
One of the ways to keep track of things can be following certain categories or topics. You should be able to see an option like this one:
either on the top-right of the screen if you’re watching a category or at the bottom of a topic.
If you select “Watching” you will be notified whenever someone posts something in that category/topic, including new topics.
With “Tracking” you will track the new topics, but not newer posts unless someone mentions you or answers to you on existing topics.
Whenever you have unread posts on these tracked categories/topics, they will appear listed under “Unread”.
That for me is a tricky question to answer. Since I mainly use the Latest to go through and check on what threads I am interested in or are new to see if interests. That also includes answering to best of my ability and knowledge, since I am just another member like yourself. But I try in the very least if I know something, and even if I don’t sometimes point that out as well…
There are many ways to go about doing so; which is the settings section that will get the general notifications are markings for threads you want to follow. Also in threads themself that you want to pay more attention to there is a drop-down button to set how you want to go about it in things.
I am still getting use to the style, but find it actually ease of use for long as I have been here. If I want to only see things of a specific section I would go there through categories button at top.
It I am sure will vary from person to person how they have things setup, but the main thing is to I guess go with it and adjust as you go and find what works for you within how it is laid out.
@Relyss Thanks! That will certainly help. At least, I can follow only the categories I am interested in, so that should shorten the list a bit
@Tamorr I’m sure once I start experimenting and clicking around, I’ll find my way through the maze as well. I’ve just been afraid I would click something and make something disappear (for me) that I didn’t want to and wouldn’t know how to bring it back. But I think now that I understand a bit more the options (which I never actually noticed until they were pointed out at me), it might help a bit more.
I also see that under “Latest”, the threads are of a different color (one bolder than the other) if there’s any updated posts in there or not. Sadly, however, the difference in color between bold and not is so subtle on my monitor that it’s actually hard to distinguish. Is that a setting (colors) I can change somewhere?
you can change the settings for “new” in preferences
The default is it is considered new if it was posted in the last 2 days, and then it gets removed from your new list. Possibly why you aren’t seeing them there if you haven’t checked the discourse in that amount of time.
Not that I am aware of unfortunately. Not had much notion for myself to look until just now. Doesn’t appear to be. I am kind of use to those sort of things, tendency to notice subtle things since I was child… How I was raised and learned. Have an artistic eye or well an eye for color is one way to put it, but that is me.
Hey there @realm174! I’m a few hours late to the party here, but I wanted to chime in regardless. Your mentioning that the difference between the black and gray coloring is hard to distinguish on your monitor is concerning to me. While I have not heard of problems with the colors before, it is possible the Discourse devs have. Going to ping @system and @system from the Discourse team for you, they may want more details…
Also want to clarify what @Relyss said above about notification types. First, this is all regarding watching/tracking categories. What this means is for each and every new topic created in a category, your selected notification type will be applied. This is not applied retroactively to existing topics.
When you are watching a topic, you will receive a notification (blue circle on your user avatar) for every new post, including the first post (aka new topic). Additionally, the topic will appear in the “unread” section, and you will receive an email ~15 minutes after the notification assuming your email preferences are set to the default.
When you are tracking a topic, you will not receive a notification or an email. The topic will simply appear in the “unread” section whenever there is a new post.
For normal topics, they will simply be displayed in the latest view, sorted by order of most recent reply.
For all topics you have not muted, you will receive a notification if someone replies directly to your post, or mentions your name. If you are also watching the category, you may get multiple notifications (1 for the reply itself, another for the mention/quote).
Finally, by default, you will be watching any topic you create (like this one), and tracking any topic you reply to.
