Discourse, the software running this forum, can be a bit intimidating if you haven’t been on something like this before.
But don’t worry, you can learn the most important bits very quickly.
Categories, Topics, and Posts
If you’ve come from Discord, you know its structure of themed channels where people chat by making posts.
Discourse has a very similar structure, with one extra layer, like so:
- Categories: Like channels, the server admins make and arrange these. There’s also sub-categories nested within categories.
- Topics: Anyone can start a topic inside a category that they have access to, by clicking New Topic, choosing a category, naming the topic, and writing the original post for that topic (the OP)
- Posts: Just like posts in Discord, these are the content that fill up the topics.
Right now, you’re reading the OP of the How to Navigate and Use Discourse topic in the Help and Site Feedback category.
How to Navigate 
Browse the latest topics by:
- clicking the Decay & Rebuilding logo at the top, or
- clicking “Topics” in the sidebar (bring up the sidebar by clicking on this
symbol at the top of the screen, or - clicking here
This shows a list of topics in order of which ones have the most recent posts.
Use the Categories button to explore by subject.
If you get lost, click the site logo to go back to the main topics screen, and find your way from there.
For search, the sidebar menu, or your profile and notifications, use the icons at the top right.
Join the conversation 
- Reply to any topic, or start a new one.
- Format your posts using the tools in the composer, or using Markdown.
- Show appreciation by using the
Like button. - Watch out for notifications - when someone replies to you, quotes you, mentions your
@usernameor links your post, a number appears over your profile pic at the top right. Click it to see what’s up.
- Send private messages by clicking on a user and clicking on Message or Chat.
Get Help
For help, you can:
- Check the Help & Site Feedback category, make a new topic or reply to this post to ask a question.
- Mention @staff in a post or message them with a question.
Get started
This should be enough to get you started. Go post something!
Let me know below what else you want to know.