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Taiwen Jiang edited this page Mar 22, 2013 · 1 revision

Function Analysis

Description

A social forum with categories, topics, posts, users,

Definition

categories

A collection of topics(not tags, discourse doesn't have tag concept).

topics

A collection of posts.

posts

Conversation contents.

users

Users.

Differences from ancient forum system

Differences are mostly on this page.

  1. Conversations, not pages

A topic is displaied as a conversation, not blocks and pages.

  1. Get notifications when mentioned(@)

Besides, for you, every topic has a status, you can change it to anyone above.

Regular(default)

you will be notified only if someone mentions your @name or replies to your post.

Tracking

you will be notified of unread posts, @name mentions, and replies to your posts.

Watching

same as Tracking, plus you will be notified of all new posts.

Muted

you will not be notified of anything about this topic, and it will not appear on your unread tab.

  1. Context expandable

A topic can self-expand when reading, also, replies to a post is expandable above it.

  1. Remembers your last read post in a topic

When you open a post you have read, it will jump to your last read post.

  1. Reply while you read, reply a post or a topic

When you want to reply, you don't have to scroll down to the bottom of the page, just click the reply button.

  1. Reply to a post shows just above it, not reference in a new post

Reply in old forum systems will copy the whole content of replied post in the reply post.

  1. Reply as a linked topic

Replay somebody not in the original topic, but start a new topic.

  1. Real time updates

If a topic changes while you are reading or responding to it, new posts will appear automatically without refreshing the page. As new topics arrive, they appear at the top of the list.

  1. Moderation that scales with the community

As users participate on Discourse by reading and posting, they gain trust(become admin).

  1. Comprehensive API

Use MVC javascript framework to get json data.

Others

  1. Links automatically expand
  2. Invite friends
  3. Paste to share images
  4. Log in with anything(qq, sina...)