How to Discourse: tips and tricks

LyingDalai · January 13, 2023, 7:30am

I have edited countless of posts so that a bandcamp, soundcloud or youtube thumbnail is correctly displayed for every user to drop an ear…

Guess it’s time to create this thread so that everyone knows how to use Discourse.

_{I’d like this thread to be only tips and tricks, please, without additional comments of what it should or shouldn’t be.

Thank you for your comprehension, and don’t hesitate to drop your own knowledge.}

First trick : link alone ⇒ better integration in Discourse

When you want to drop a link, do it with no other character (including space or point): Discourse gives a better integration that makes it more likely for other users to pay attention to your link.

LyingDalai · January 13, 2023, 7:37am

Bandcamp links

Just make sure there is nothing else on the line, no other character including space or point.

https://tonyrolando.bandcamp.com/album/shared-system
⇒

while
! https://tonyrolando.bandcamp.com/album/shared-system
⇒
! Shared System | Tony Rolando

LyingDalai · January 13, 2023, 7:45am

YouTube links

Same as above, just drop the link with no other character on the line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I386M2XP6sg
⇒

If there’s at least a character it gives
_ 4utechre twitch stream 20-04-2020 - YouTube

Time tag

You can make your link point on a particular time of the video by adding a time tag such as &t=60s or t=1m

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3wmHScokrE&t=110s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3wmHScokrE&t=2m

Youtu . be links

They also work:

http://youtu.be/8WL-NNtNE3c
⇒

YouTube shorts

Beware of YT shorts links, their integration in Discourse is still not working very well…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/P3_Zs5bo1eo

is displayed like this:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/P3_Zs5bo1eo

It’s better IMO to grab the ID part (P3_Zs5bo1eo) and put http://youtu.be/ before

http://youtu.be/P3_Zs5bo1eo
⇒

LyingDalai · January 13, 2023, 7:49am

Soundcloud links

Those can get very ugly if grabbed on the phone.
https://on.soundcloud.com/RN8K5
⇒

In such case, try to grab the “share” link and remove whatever is after the question mark, including the question mark:

_{https://soundcloud.com/wiliwow/i-need-an-answer?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fwiliwow%252Fi-need-an-answer}
⇒
https://soundcloud.com/wiliwow/i-need-an-answer
⇒

LyingDalai · January 13, 2023, 8:19am

Elektronauts links

or any other forum link: here again, link alone on a line and it works:
https://www.elektronauts.com/t/cats/36310
⇒

LyingDalai · January 13, 2023, 8:38am

Markdown formatting

_{Beware: while used lightly it can make text more readable, overuse can get in the way pretty fast…}

Discourse use Markdown (invented by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz ) to let the user quickly format their text.
https://commonmark.org/help/

Bellow, I use backticks to get some Preformatted text
(you can use the button to get such backticks around your text)
You can also use triple backticks before and after a paragraph. It’s usually made to display code though.

*italic* ⇒ italic
**bold** ⇒ bold
***italic bold*** ⇒ italic bold
<big>big</big> ⇒ big
<small>small</small> ⇒ small
<sub>small but under the line</sub> ⇒ _{small but under the line}
~~strikethrough~~ ⇒ ~~strikethrough~~
[u]underlined[/u] ⇒ underlined

Discourse keyboard shorcuts

Just adding something I use all the time - keyboard shortcuts
you don’t have to remember them, you can access the full list by pressing [Shift+?]

LyingDalai · February 1, 2023, 10:29am

Online PDF files

If you want to share a link to e.g. a PDF manual, you can add the page number at the end of the link

https://cdn.www.elektron.se/media/downloads/octatrack-mkii/Octatrack-MKII-User-Manual_ENG_OS1.40A_210414.pdf#page=56

https://cdn.www.elektron.se/media/downloads/octatrack-mkii/Octatrack-MKII-User-Manual_ENG_OS1.40A_210414.pdf#page=56

I think it doesn’t always work on the phones though.

LyingDalai · March 10, 2023, 3:01pm

Spotify links

First, and mainly, one can’t use a Spotify link without being registered.

Besides, Spotify is not fair to artists.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek even exposed some controversial opinion on how artists should make music, and stated that “some artists that used to do well in the past may not do well in this future landscape, where you can’t record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough”.
Which, IMO, is both bloody insulting to musicians.
And music as an art form, considered here as a mere perishable “content”.

At last, Daniel Ek used $100M of the benefits he made as Spotify CEO to fund AI-powered military equipment, which this world desperately needs.

So, please, don’t use Spotify links on this forum.
_{And possibly even consider looking for another way to listen to music…}