Here are a few quick tips to get you started with using Discourse.org, the platform powering this forum. For information on writing posts yourself, check out this post.
How the Forum is Organized
With Codecademy Discuss, conversations are organized as follows:
Category→Sub-Category→Tag→Topic→Post
You can think of each of these as:
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Category= a broad subject matter -
Sub-Category= a more specific sub-section of that subject matter -
Topic= a name for a conversation within that subject matter -
Post= an individual entry in a topic or conversation -
Tag= a method to sort subject matter even further
That’s why this post, providing quick tips on the forums to help new members of the community, is filed under General (category) → Getting Started (subcategory) → Quick Tips for Using Forums (topic).
Check out our Categories page to see what conversations are out there. This forum is for talking about learning to code, so you’ll notice that all of our Categories concern coding: for anything considered “off topic,” head over to our #community:Random subcategory.
How to Navigate the Forum
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For topics related to a certain section within a course:
Go to → #get-help →the course→ choosesectionfrom the tag menu
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For search (
), your user page, or the hamburger menu (☰), use the icon buttons at upper right. -
Selecting a topic title will always take you to the next unread reply in the topic. To enter at the top or bottom, select the reply count (“Replies”) or last reply date (“Activity”) instead.
- While reading a topic with many replies, use the progress bar on the right for full navigation controls. Quickly jump back to the top by selecting the topic title. Press ? for a list of super-speedy keyboard shortcuts.
How to Reply to a Post
To get started replying to posts, please check our guide on how to write good posts. Good posts are far more likely to start conversations and get answers!
- To reply to the topic in general, use
at the very bottom of the topic. - To reply to a specific person, use
on their post. - To reply with a new topic, use
to the right of the post. Both old and new topics will be automatically linked together.
Your reply can be formatted using simple HTML, BBCode, or Markdown:
This is **bold**.
This is <b>bold</b>.
This is [b]bold[/b].
Want to learn HTML? You’ll learn and use HTML through many Codecademy courses including HTML and CSS. If you want to learn Markdown, you can get a quick refresher here and read more on Markdown with DaringFireball.
To insert a quote, select the text you wish to quote, then press any Reply button. Repeat for multiple quotes.
To notify someone about your reply, mention their name. Type @ to begin selecting a username.
To use standard Emoji, just type : to match by name, or use the traditional smileys ;)
:smi
To generate a summary for a link, paste it on a line by itself:
To read guidelines about how to post in these forums, check out this post in the New User Resources section.
Reacting to Posts
There are action buttons at the bottom of each post:
To let someone know that you enjoyed and appreciated their post, use the like button. Share the love!
If you see a problem with someone’s post, privately let them, or our staff, know about it with the flag button. You can also share a link to a post, or bookmark it for later reference on your user page.
Manage Your Notifications
When someone replies to you, quotes your post, or mentions your @username, a number will immediately appear at the top right of the page. Use it to access your notifications.
Don’t worry about missing a reply – you’ll be emailed any notifications that arrive when you are away.
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All topics less than two days old are considered new.
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Any topic you’ve actively participated in (by creating, replying, or reading for an extended period) will be automatically tracked.
You will see the blue dot and unread number indicators next to these topics:
You can change your notifications for any topic via the notification control at the bottom of the topic.
You can also set notification state per category, if you want to watch every new topic in a specific category.
To change any of these settings, see your user preferences.
Getting Promoted Within the Community
As you participate here, over time you’ll gain the trust of the community, become a full citizen, and new user limitations will be lifted. At a high enough trust level, you’ll gain new abilities to help us manage our community together.
We believe in civilized community behavior at all times. You can read some more quick guidance on “dos and don’ts” of Codecademy Discuss in this post by one of our moderators.