This site is running Discourse—forum software that’s open-source, like Wordpress (which I use for my webcomic site.)
Cool features I’ve discovered
Here are some cool things I’ve discovered you can do here that you can’t do with Disqus:
- Actually have real topics and threads with notifications you control, instead of a stream of random comments under a page
- Powerful composing capabilities like full Markdown support, an edit window that saves as you go, and a Revision History (!) for each post/reply
- An edit window that allows you to scroll through all the other comments (Replies) in the Topic (thread) while you are composing without losing your place—super-helpful when referencing what other people have said.
- A built-in Trust System (New User, Trainee, Full Citizen, Superhero, Team Leader) that grants you more abilities, the more you participate constructively on the site. (You also earn Badges for being particularly helpful!)
- Personal Messages (PM) - a way to talk to other readers here one-on-one. (Please note, though, that there is a reason these are called Personal, not Private Messages. As Admin, I do have the ability to read them if necessary, so don’t use it to share passwords or whatever.)
- The ability for me to add additional features for y’all through Plugins, such as Blur Spoiler: this is my secret message. (Just click the blurred text to reveal.) Want to hide your own Spoiler text? Click the
gear icon in your tool bar when composing a post or reply to get a menu of options. - You can create Polls
- You can Bookmark individual posts to refer to later (like this one!)
- There’s an advanced Search function—just click Options when using the
on the top right. (Full Citizens can even create Saved Searches in their user preferences that send them once-a-day notifications.) - Keyboard Shortcuts (just hit ? on your keyboard to see the list)
- Reply-by-email
- Chrome browser notifications (and I think Firefox too). Enable Live Notifications in your user preferences.
- And lots more!
Let’s have fun exploring!
I know it’s going to create some friction to ask those used to commenting on the webcomic page to create an account here for their comments—so I’m going to keep both commenting systems for now. But, I have to say, this community site has so many nice features, I think it’s probably worth the little bit of extra friction.
Please explore using this site and let me know in a Reply to this post what cool features you find useful!