Thanks for visiting our Getting Started page! If you are new to Discourse and want to learn more about navigating, posting and replying to topics, setting your notification preferences etc. check out this Discourse New User Guide. Below is some info about how the FIC forum is organized and how you can contribute.
Categories
Check out the ‘Categories’ drop down to find the list of categories available on this forum. The FIC forum has the following public categories:
- Discussion
- This is where all the action is and where we hope you’ll be spending most of your time. There are a variety of tags available to describe your posts and search for others, and feel free to request a tag that you think would be helpful in organizing discourse on the forum. The tagging structure can be updated to match the needs of the community as they arise. See more about this in the ‘Tags’ section of this doc.
- Meta
- This is a place to learn about using this forum, make suggestions, give feedback, discuss any potential changes, interact with moderators, report other users etc.
- Small Talk
- This is a place to post information unrelated to intentional community or the running of this forum. If you post something in ‘Discussion’ that departs from the main mission/vision of the forum a moderator may move that topic to the ‘Small Talk’ category. There are no tags here so these topics will appear in chronological order. The category is searchable just like the others.
- Courses
- This category is open to those who have participated in a course through Learn.ic.org. If you are a member or alumni of a particular course you will have access to the tag group for your section where you can discuss course content.
- Announcements
- This is a category hosted and managed by FIC. Everyone can read this category and respond to topics, but only forum and FIC staff can post here. Check here for updates on Intentional Community News, New Courses, Bookstore updates etc.
Tags
The FIC forum has opted to utilize tags as the primary means of organizing conversations. Tags are available to you when you post a new topic, and you are able to search by tags in a variety of ways:
Search a keyword with the search function in the top right corner:
Search for a keyword within the ‘all tags’ drop down:
OR Browse all the available tags on the tag page:
Posting a new topic
We are excited to build this space with contributions from members! First take advantage of the Search to discover if the topic you are thinking of posting has already been addressed. If you don’t find the topic you are looking for please Start it! Just click the ‘New Topic’ button at the top of the topic feed to get started:
Tagging
When posting a new topic you will have an opportunity to add a variety of tags. Choose the category where you would like to post your topic–usually this will be ‘Discussion–and then one or more tags relevant to your topic. You can search the tag menu for the descriptor you want to add:
Try searching for a few synonyms as well. You can add as many tags as you feel are relevant and necessary. Moderators and admins might also add tags to your topic afterward if they see somewhere else it is relevant.
Tag Requests
If you don’t see a tag that you would like to apply to your topic you can also request that a new tag be made. Search and add the tag ‘tag-request’ to your post and at the bottom of your post include:
“Tag request: Name-of-tag” and any amount of explanation you think necessary.
This request tag is followed by moderators and will cue a discussion about adding your tag to the forum! If the tag is created it will be added to the post by an admin.
Now you’re ready to join the conversation on the FIC forum!
If you haven’t already, check out our Introduction and Code of Conduct before you jump in.
Have fun! Make friends! Say stuff!