Is the FAQ a joke?
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I'm not entirely sure this FAQ answers any question frequently asked by any TDWTF member ever .... Also the link syntax is super weird.
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Question: What the fuck does it mean when a thread (uh, I mean, "topic") have a greyed-out name? It just seems completely random.
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I have no clue. Maybe that nobody is reading it?
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This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion Improve the Discussion Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree Your Participation Counts If You See a Problem, Flag It Always Be Civil Keep It Tidy Post Only Your Own Stuff
Filed under: [they don't know us very well, do they?](http:.)
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AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Filed under: they don't know us very well, do they?
QFT. That FAQ is pretty much the antithesis of these forums.
Filed under: Oh wait, you're serious
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It looks to me like it might be Discourse boilerplate. Not only is it generic "play nice" blah blah, the TOS it links to has stuff about automatically renewing your subscription and charging the payment method on file.
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Question: What the fuck does it mean when a thread (uh, I mean, "topic") have a greyed-out name? It just seems completely random.
I'm not sure. I think it means you have read everything. I thought the black topic names meant there had been some activity, like somebody liking a post, while you weren't looking, but I could be completely wrong.
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Question: What the fuck does it mean when a thread (uh, I mean, "topic") have a greyed-out name? It just seems completely random.
It appears that light grey links means you have "visited" the topic. Source: https://meta.discourse.org/t/accessibility-improve-contrast-of-text-styling-in-default-css/14632
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You don't like the FAQ? Fine. What do you think the FAQ should say?
Please be very detailed with the questions, and answers. Also spellcheck.
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#Q: What should the FAQ say?
A: Be very detailed with the questions and answers. Also spellcheck.
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What do you think the FAQ should say?
I have no opinion on what it should say, but the entire thing should a palindrome.
Filed under: Notlob, string == reverse(string}
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A pun
Filed under: Monty Python reference reference
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QFT. That FAQ is pretty much the antithesis of these forums.
What FAQ? I don't see any questions there...
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Alex,
I had been expecting something that explains how to use the forum (since that's what most of our questions seem to be).
I'm just guessing at questions here, though some are ones I have legitimately.
Q: How do I quote multiple users in a single reply?
Q: Can I perform nested quoting?
Q: What do all the indicators on the Topic list mean?
Q: Can I view only one category at a time?
Q: How do I go to the beginning/end of a Topic?
Q: How can I tell where I am in the discussion?
Q: How can I get back to where I left off in a discussion?
Q: Is pagination possible? I don't like infinite scrolling.
Q: How do I change notification settings?
Q: How do I do common things like bold, italic, add links, format code in markdown?I can probably come up with more if I thought about it longer.
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I had been expecting something that explains how to use the forum
I'd have thought that those sort of questions would be covered in a generic Discourse FAQ that individual installations could simply point to, with the installation FAQ's addressing questions more related to the nature of the site it's on.
Sadly a google search for [discourse faq] doesn't seem to help much...
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Well, but if you fork and override a bunch of functionality but don't change the FAQ, that would seem problematic. I would more expect it to just come with a "stock" faq since they are trying to reinvent how forums work.
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True, but the problem with your list of questions, given the experience of the Admins of this installation, none of us has sufficient experience with Discourse to adequately answer some of them...
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I'm just guessing at questions here, though some are ones I have legitimately.
To be quite honest, some of these are obvious or nearly obvious just by looking and maybe clicking on one or two things.
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I completely agree, but given the threads that have popped up bitching about what seemed pretty obvious (the go to top, bottom, etc. stuff). It's clear that there's something that makes it not easily discoverable so a, "well here is how to do what you've asked, but go check the FAQ, it has a bunch of other stuff you might find useful as well" couldn't hurt.
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To be quite honest, some of these are obvious or nearly obvious just by looking and maybe clicking on one or two things.
But FAQ is the only thing remotely resembling anything like "help" that I see right now. I hate places that use custom markup languages but don't give you any sort of easy to get to cheat sheet. WYSIWYG buttons don't cover everything, especially gotchas like, "You have to put in an extra newline here or it won't work."
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There don't seem to be any decent resources on some of those questions, which is frustrating.
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I hate places that use custom markup languages but don't give you any sort of easy to get to cheat sheet.
absolutely
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Q: how do I set syntax highlighting for code blocks? (Answer is over in the thread I created in meta asking this - on mobile so I'm too lazy to deal with linking it)
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I thought the black topic names meant there had been some activity, like somebody liking a post, while you weren't looking, but I could be completely wrong.
No, I was wrong. Some topics I have just finished reading are black, and some are gray/grey. As Morbs said, completely random.
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No, I was wrong. Some topics I have just finished reading are black, and some are gray/grey. As Morbs said, completely random.
It's gray if you've visited the link. For topics, that means the last post in the topic you have read is the one you clicked on.
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No, I was wrong. Some topics I have just finished reading are black, and some are gray/grey. As Morbs said, completely random.
Yeah; assuming the color of the link had SOME relation to whether it contained unread posts was an error I made also. As Ben L says, it's not entirely random, but in the context of a forum being updated in real-time it might as well be.
I don't get why we can't just have a icon to the left of the topic saying whether it contains unread posts or not, you know, like CS did. Whether or not I have the topic "followed", I still want to know this information. Contrary to what Jeff Atwood thinks.
EDIT: We need some kind of initialism to communicate the idea that Discourse has broken something that worked correctly in CS. Maybe ECSGTSR for "Even Community Server Got That Shit Right" but it's not very memorable.
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It's gray if you've visited the link. For topics, that means the last post in the topic you have read is the one you clicked on.
I thought I had it figured out, but as I tried to type in the explanation, I realized it still didn't match observed behavior. So I'm settling for "The link color is functionally meaningless."
Filed under: Fuck this; I have work to do
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It's gray if you've visited the link. For topics, that means the last post in the topic you have read is the one you clicked on.
Black means you haven't visited? Because I've visited all of the links and they are just randomly gray and black.
Also, I don't know if this is just me, but the "new post counter" no longer works. Initially it was clearing itself when I visited a thread, but now I can open a thread a half dozen times and it will still have a number next to it in a blue circle, despite having no new posts.
ECSGTSR
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The PM that every new user get covers much of that list (and it's editable in the admin section). Problem is, people don't read it. People don't really read anything...
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This isn't paginated, it's just a single PM message with text in it. Check your PMs -- you have it too. Did you read it?
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The PM that every new user get[s]...
I didn't get it - something to do with the import that Alex did from the CS userbase subverting that mechanism perhaps?
(I did get one for the non-admin user I created after the post you replied to however...)
This isn't paginated, it's just a single PM message with text in it. Check your PMs -- you have it too. Did you read it?
For the reason mentioned above, I'd be surprised if morbs got a copy.
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The PM that every new user get
I didn't receive any such message. Perhaps because our accounts were imports?
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AFAICT, I never got the bespoke PM either.
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Oh yes -- you may not have gotten the PM with the new user tips if your account was imported.
I created my account, and I have it:
I will post it as a new meta topic.
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For the benefit of those who were imported (and who care...) the (current text) of the welcome PM that you missed:
This private message has a few quick tips to get you started:
Keep scrolling
There are no next page buttons or page numbers – to read more, just keep scrolling down!
As new replies come in, they will appear automatically at the bottom of the topic.
How do I reply?
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To reply to a specific post, use the Reply button on that post.
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To reply to the overall theme of the topic, rather than any specific person or post in the topic, use the Reply button at the very bottom of the topic.
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To take the conversation in a different direction, but keep them linked together, use Reply as New Topic to the right of the post.
Who is talking to me?
When someone replies to your post, quotes you, or mentions your @username, a number ➀ will appear over a conversation button at the top of the page. Use it see who's talking to you, and where.
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To mention someone's name, start typing
@
and an autocompleter will pop up. -
To quote just a section of a post, select it, then use the Reply button that appears over your selection.
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To quote an entire post, use the Import Quote button on the editor toolbar.
Look at that post!
To let someone know that you enjoyed their post, use the like ♥ button at the bottom of the post. If you see a problem with a post, don't hesitate to use the flag button and privately let our staff know about it.
Where am I?
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To get back to the home page at any time, use the logo at the upper left or the back ← button on your browser.
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For search, your user page, or the sitemap, use the icon buttons at the upper right.
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While reading a topic, move to the top ↑ by clicking its title at the top of the page, or press the home key. To reach the bottom ↓, use the down arrow on the topic progress indicator at the bottom of the page, or press the end key.
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Use times as entry shortcuts. You can always enter at the top of a topic via the first post date, and the bottom via the last post date.
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The PM that every new user get covers much of that list (and it's editable in the admin section). Problem is, people don't read it. People don't really read anything...
I never got one to read. I go to Messages, hit All, and all I see is "no topics found".
You seem to have a lot of confusion over how your own product behaves.
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You seem to have a lot of confusion over how your own product behaves.
Yeah, everyone who writes software should know exactly how every possible configuration of database inserts performed outside of code they wrote works.
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Yeah, everyone who writes software should know exactly how every possible configuration of database inserts performed outside of code they wrote works.
Well it would be nice if he spent the 10 milliseconds actually checking that what he was about to type was accurate before saying it. "Sure the Home button works!" Well maybe TRY it first, huh? "Everybody got a PM!" Oh, it's just invisible right?
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Open source software: when it breaks, you get to keep both halves.
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Open source software: when it breaks, you get to keep both halves.
Silly me, and my old-fashioned beliefs that maybe you should test products before releasing them...
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We do, we just don't test enough against insane people.
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Jeff, meet Blakey.
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For the reason mentioned above, I'd be surprised if morbs got a copy.
Anyway, it was a joke. Please don't make me explain my joke.
Filed under: Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. With a nuke.
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Yeah, everyone who writes software should know exactly how every possible configuration of database inserts performed outside of code they wrote works.
I also expect that unsupported activites like directly inserting database tables to fully work and tested.
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Well at least you aren't being dismissive of your software's numerous flaws!
It must be great to be able to go through life with absolutely zero pride in your own work. I almost wish I could do that.
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We do, we just don't test enough against insane people.
Like people who use "Home" and "End" and would like the latest content not be be fouled up by old content?
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It must be great to be able to go through life with absolutely zero pride in your own work. I almost wish I could do that.
When I start to feel pride in my work, I just talk to our marketing department. That's when I find out that the only things they consider worthwhile in the product are the most trivial, shameful pieces. ("We really love that all of the Call to Actions* are 100px tall, bright red and rapidly flashing!")
And all of the challenging, ground-breaking, made-it-work-against-all-odds technical work I felt good about doesn't even make it into the brochure.
(*Yes, I know, but that's how they say it.)
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Like people who use "Home" and "End" and would like the latest content not be be fouled up by old content?
Well, Tom Wolfe did say you can't go home again..
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And the Doors say this is the End.