[HOW-TO] Use This Forum Effectively



The move to a Discourse forum format has upset the balance for some out there so I’ve decided to make what will hopefully be a simple and easy to read guide for those who want to know how to make the most of it. Topics covered will range from simple navigating of the forum to how to best take advantage of its features, like searching for threads or advanced editing of your topics and replies.

Note that this isn’t a discussion thread for your views about how much you like or don’t like the forum change and I will request mods to move out any such subjective ramblings. Please keep discussion centered around questions you may have ‘on how something works’ or ‘feedback on the guide’ itself.

So lets begin.



This guide is a Work-In-Progress



Forum Navigation





The old numbered page view format is gone and in its stead we have infinite scrolling and many either just don’t like it or perhaps just have difficulty grasping how to navigate it.

Regardless of that I will try to shed some light on the best ways to get to, or find, what you are looking for.


Default 'Latest' View




1

The root forum address will always bring you to the Latest category view, as shown below highlighted in orange:

Clicking the large Crate logo in the upper left, on any page throughout the site, will always return you to this view.




2

Just below the category selection area, you have a thread list showing all the latest active threads. You can click on the Replies, Views, and Activity headings to sort the list.

This applies to any other category and sub-category views that display such a thread list.




3

Sometimes you might see that the above sorting options have disappeared and in their place is a lighter blue banner notifying you of new or updated topics. Clicking it will refresh the list.

This applies to any other category and sub-category views.

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New topics will have a small dot next to their title…

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…while topics your tracking options are following that have new replies ‘you haven’t yet read’ will display a numbered indicator.

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Next to your Latest category heading may also be two new category headings named New and Unread:

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These two can appear and disappear from this section depending on if you’ve cleared these notifications out by either reading or dismissing them.






'Categories' View




1

Clicking on the Categories heading will bring you to this view:

Here we have (currently) three sections. The top is, obviously, the Grim Dawn section. In the middle, less obviously, we have the Future Projects section. And last is the Off Topic section.

Currently the Grim Dawn section is the most heavily populated and active, followed by the Off Topic section. Both of these sections contain the majority of threads/posts.

The Future Projects section will likely change, or morph, into new game sections in the future, to one day have their own forum category. We know for sure that a city builder style game is in the works and possibly due for release next year in 2020.




2

Clicking into one of the Main categories above will bring you into a view listing each categories ‘sub-categories’:

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Going into each category and subsequent ‘sub-category’ always defaults to a ‘Latest’ view of that section. As you can see each ‘sub-category’ contains a section to the right of it listing the three latest active threads for that ‘sub-category’.




3

Instead of using the ‘Category’ button you can also use the ‘all categories’ drop down just to the left of it to select one of the main category headings:

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It also has a ‘Search’ field within the dropdown which you can use to call up one of the sub-categories if you like:

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4

Each category and sub-category has a ‘tracking’ options button where you can individually tailor the notification level for each section to your liking:






'Top' View




1

The Top category, available in every category/sub-category, lists the top topics -threads- of each section/view you happen to be in. This can be adjusted to cover a time period, as shown in the photo below. It can be further sorted by clicking the Replies, Views, and Activity list headings, also shown.






'Crate Tracker' View




1

Pressing the ‘Crate Tracker’ button:

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…brings you to this screen:

By default it shows you the ‘Crate_Employee’ Activity group view with a focus on the latest ‘Posts’ made by anyone designated a member of the ‘Crate_Employee’ group.

You can change the focus from ‘Posts’ to ‘Topics’ to instead list the latest threads created by Crate_Employee’s.

You may also choose to change focus to ‘Mentions’ of the ‘Crate_Employee’ group, currently there are none listed as noone has mentioned the group as a whole yet.




2

To mention the entire group in a post -or reply-, type in: @Crate_Employee

This will notify every member of this group of the mention.




3

You may also send the group a ‘Message’:




4

You can also switch from ‘Crate_Employee’ group to the ‘Playtester’ group and the ‘Registered_Users’ group.

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You can likewise mention the ‘Playtester’ group with: @Playtester
…and mention the ‘Registered_Users’ group with: @Registered_Users

Unlike the ‘Crate_Employee’ group you cannot mass-send either of these two groups PM’s (private messages).






Test






Test






9 Likes

One question for you, powbam.

Is the option to jump to the next Crate employee post within a thread still available with the new forum structure? If it is, I haven’t found it yet. If you’ve already covered this then the failure is mine as I didn’t get it when reading through your guide.

Note that I’m asking about navigating to crate posts within the thread I’m viewing as opposed to all posts on the forum via the Crate tracker.

Actually that is not a thing currently. I know that Zantai did actually mention looking into it tho and I hope they can make it work because it is a feature that I like also.

One thing you can do easily in the meantime tho is to open up the search and type in the devs name, like so:


image


Just make sure to have the ‘Search this topic’ box ticked for the thread you happen to be in and you will get a list of all posts by said dev.

Speaking of which - I do need to get back to adding onto the guide again and covering ‘Search’ bar usage is a big topic that needs to be done.

That isn’t a default feature of Discourse. We’ll have to write a plugin to add the button back from the old forum.

Thanks, guys. Appreciate you taking the time to educate me :slight_smile:

1 Like

So, Ceno helped format my pet guide so that I can write it directly into a forum post. But the linking various sections of the post to the Index and the “Back to Top” things do not work when clicked.

Also, whenever I try to edit the post, it gets forever stuck on “saving” and never actually saves. My current workaround for it is to

o) Cut out the Guide part
o) Save the post
o) Paste the Guide in notepad and make changes
o) Copy & Paste it back into the post
o) Save.

The above for some reason, works. Here is the post in question: The Carnival - A Guide to Pets

Anyone have any idea what is happening?

Edit: Also, is there any way to Colour or Bold the text displayed in the user card?

Hello Powbam, I have a quick question:

Have you already discovered a function where you can mark all forums as read, as in the old forum?

It’s a thing to be notified about topics that you follow, but I miss because I sometimes read something in non-subscribed topics, the function, then everything I do not need then set completely from white to gray, so you not only see new posts and responses by notification, but also visually.

Maybe the men of Crate can unlock something there, should it not be set at the moment …

Linking within is done like this:

<a name='ANCHOR'>This is the link ANCHOR point where you will come back to!</a>

<a href='#ANCHOR'>CLICK ME TO JUMP TO THE ANCHOR!</a>

^Note the # sign in the <a href> tag above.


This I’m not sure I can help you with as I haven’t seen that problem. Perhaps it is something on your end with internet or possibly it could be the devs messing with stuff in the forums behind-the-scenes?


I just tried and it does not seem to work. As far as on the ‘card pop-up’ goes, it refuses any such bold/italic type formatting. I’ll try testing it out more and if anything works I’ll let you know.

Unfortunately I have not seen any such method. So far the closest I have seen is in the ‘New’ category to ‘Dismiss’:


And in the ‘Unread’ category you get a further option after you click to ‘Dismiss’:


With that said… I’ve been wanting a means to ‘Mark as Read’ too.

Ah, single quotes. I was going with double quotes…

Ty :blush:

Actually, you can use single or double. I just tend to prefer single personally.

:slight_smile:

If you end up having trouble getting it to work just leave the code intact on the posts you are trying to make it work with and I’ll take a look and see if I can spot the problem.

Hm… here is the link to the post: The Carnival - A Guide to Pets

Hey @powbam since I noticed,that my trust level reached member statua now and can edit tags.But how can create new ones?

Ok see here:

The <a href="#linktotop"></a> should instead be <a name="linktotop"></a>

You also have NOTHING within the TAGS.

<a name="linktotop">WORDS MUST EXIST RIGHT HERE!</a>

Remember the <a name> tag is the ANCHOR point, the point you want the <a href> to GO TO.

Also, the <a name> should NOT contain the # sign.

Be sure the # sign is only present within the <a href> tag.

<a href="#linktotop">Once you click me I am taking you to the "linktotop" ANCHOR point!</a>

It should show, in that field there, the words ‘Search or create’.

1 Like

Thanks,but it’s showed to me just search,no create option.Maybe is because am on phone version,but definitely not seeing that.

I just checked mine (this) thread on the phone and I see the option to create even on mobile. Not sure if this is something wrong with the forum settings itself. Perhaps Zantai configured something wrong. You might have to PM him to find out if there is an issue out of our/your hands.

I think, part of the problem is that,even my status is member and not basic,I am yet to earn a badge for that.I will wait to see if it’s changed,don’t want to start any alarms prematurely.

So turns out I was bothering you with something unrelated.

Yes, that is possible but don’t quote me on it :slight_smile:

Ah, a lot of stuff were mixed up. Yup, works fine now. Thank you for all the help :heart:

1 Like