# Discourse User Documentation

**URL:** <https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/discourse-user-documentation/91>\
**Category:** Knowledge Base\
**Tags:** discourse, documentation\
**Created:** [12 October 2021 19:55 UTC](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/discourse-user-documentation/91 "2021-10-12T19:55:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![johnwalker](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/user_avatar/scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/johnwalker/32/17415_2.png) [@johnwalker](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/u/johnwalker)\
**Post date:** [12 October 2021 19:55 UTC](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/discourse-user-documentation/91/1 "2021-10-12T19:55:59Z")

</div>

[Discourse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_(software)) is the software upon which SCANALYST runs. The software is designed to be intuitive and relatively easy to figure out, sharing many conventions with other discussion board systems. However, as with any complex system, there are features which may not be apparent at a glance that can improve its utility. Here are documents which explain key features to new users and those interested in improving their familiarity with the system.

- [Discourse New User Guide](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-new-user-guide/96331)
- [Discourse New User Tips and Tricks](https://blog.discourse.org/2016/12/discourse-new-user-tips-and-tricks/)

Discourse supports three kinds of mark-up for writing rich text posts and comments: a limited subset of HTML, BBCode, and Markdown. Markdown is a popular system of near-plain-text markup which has become common on sites such as GitHub. Here are some resources.

- [Markdown Reference](https://commonmark.org/help/)
- [Ten Minute Markdown Tutorial](https://commonmark.org/help/tutorial/)