One of the problems I have long had with a default installation of Discourse has been how it organizes and compartmentalizes data. Internally I am confident that the database has all of the necessary data to present a more structured access to forum posts.
The “All Categories” option in the sidebar gets close, but it might be better if we can configure this to be the default landing experience instead of the full-fat thread view. I believe much of this can be configured through the admin panel.
Can you sketch out a rough idea of what you have in mind? I personally only ever look at the “firehose” view, at least right now, and I’m not sure what sort of layout would make the most sense. Obviously Discourse has eleventy zillion settings, so there are plenty of options for customization.
Yeah I’ll work on a list of suggestions
Ok, so, I set up a free discourse instance to try and explore. It felt like it may have been limited as an encouragement to buy a paid tier.
That said, I personally would prefer a more structured view when I first load the forum. In that vain, I suggest going into the admin panel > interface+layout >
Default Home Page = Categories
Desktop Category Page Style = Category only
Mobile Category Page Style = Category only
Fixed Category Positions = checked
Show user menu avatars = checked
Interface color selector = Display in header
Also, there are quite a few plugins which I believe come with a default installation of Discourse under Admin > Plugins > Installed Plugins… I identified several which seem like they may be of use here. I don’t know if they are enabled already or not so I’m just dumping a list:
It’s quite likely there are some 3rd party plugins we could benefit from, but I haven’t gone down that rabbit hole yet. I can’t even enable all of these on my free test forum.
OK, I made those UI/UX changes – obviously since they are just defaults anyone who prefers a different landing experience can easily change it.
Most of those plugins are enabled by default in self-hosted instances. I don’t have “Math” installed, apparently – what does that one do?
It adds latex syntax for discussing mathematical formulae.
I doubt it would get used often, but being a CAD application I can foresee possible uses.
From what I read, the github integration is definitely worth setting up. apparently it can be configured to sync with the issues/pr sections of the repo and allow users to read/comment from either location in sync. It would be a nice thing for individuals who refuse to use github but would otherwise participate.
Regarding Math – It turns out it was installed, and enabled, so it should already work here. Regarding the GitHub plugin, it’s on, but I don’t have it set up to do the backlinks from GitHub PRs and issues to this forum. And in today’s developer meeting, @kadet felt pretty strongly that we shouldn’t do that 
.
Now I’m curious about his reasoning.
Michael K Johnson (a FreeCAD user - johnsonm on GitHub) also runs a Discourse server. He may be willing to offer some guidance. I too am used to discrete separate between subject areas, and it seems that Discourse keeps offering me items from other sections. I would love a way to have “stronger walls” between different areas when I’m viewing messages.
In its current state, Discourse is starting to grow on me more as I use it and get familiar with it.
It would be nice if we could start promoting use of devtalk more.