New Forum Guide - Syntax & Features

General Discussion
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Greetings Heroes of Sanctuary!

I am WyomingMyst. I am one of the forum MVPs but I often post in Overwatch forum community. The Overwatch forums got upgraded to the Discourse forum platform last year and I spend a lot of time posting on the Overwatch forums. The new forum platform is great and has many wonderful features which have been hinted at already. I am here to give a handy guide to key forum syntax and features you can expect on the new forum platform.

Expanded Forum Syntax

There is an expanded selection of forum syntax you can use on the new forums. Much of it is available to any user of any trust level (more on trust levels below). In addition to the BBCode syntax we had on the older forums, we can now use a good selection of markdown syntax and HTML tags. I have the entire guide to most commonly used syntax in this section here:

Post in Italics

_Post in Italics_

[i]Post in Italics[/i]

<i>Post in Italics</i>

Post in Bold

_Post in Bold_

[b]Post in Bold[/b]

<b>Post in Bold</b>

Post in Italics Bold

_**Post in Italics Bold**_

[i][b]Post in Italics Bold[/b][/i]

<i><b>Post in Italics Bold</b></i>

Post in Strikethrough

~~Post in Strikethrough~~

<strike>Post in Strikethrough</strike>

Header 1

# Header 1 (note the space between H and the # sign)

<h1>Header 1</h1>

Header 2

## Header 2 (note the space between H and the # sign)

<h2>Header 2</h2>

Header 3

### Header 3 (note the space between H and the # sign)

<h3>Header 3</h3>
Tables Are Cool
col 1 is Left Aligned
col 2 is Center Aligned
col 3 is Right Aligned 
| Tables  | Are | Cool  |
| ------------- |:-------------:| -----:|
| col 1  | is | Left Aligned |
| col 2  | is | Center Aligned |
| col 3  | is | Right Aligned |

HMTL Table formating also works here too! 
(<table>, <tr>, <td>, etc)
[quote]
Posting a Quote block
[/quote]

When quoting a post in the new forum platform, use your mouse to highlight the text you wish to quote and click the pop-up Quote button. There is no full post Quote button in the post control panel.

Posting a Code Block. Use a code block when typing out large 
amounts of code information.
[code]
Posting a Code Block. Use a code block when typing out large amounts of code information.
[/code]

~~~~
Posting a Code Block. Use a code block when typing out large amounts of code information.
~~~~

Posting a Code Line

`Posting a Code Line`

Use a code line to post a URL as most users will be at “Trust Level 1” or less. Note that other Blizzard forum trust levels do not pass over into the Diablo forums. So for example, if you are trust level 3 in the World of Warcraft forums, you will not be trust level 3 here. Attempting to post a URL without wrapping it will result in an error.

Trust Levels

Trust levels are a participation system on the forums. The more you post, like, reply, read, and visit the forums, the more you work your way to a higher trust level. Increased Trust levels grant additional privileges. Everyone who is new starts off at Trust Level 0 but will quickly climb by reading and visiting the forums within their first few days.

TRUST LEVEL 0

Trust level 0 users cannot:

  • Flag posts
  • Post more than 3 topics
  • Post more than 10 replies

TRUST LEVEL 1

Get to trust level 1 by…

  • Entering at least 5 topics
  • Reading at least 30 posts
  • Spend a total of 10 minutes reading posts

Users at trust level 1 can…

  • Post unlimited topics and replies
  • Edit wiki posts (more on Wiki Posts Below)
  • Flag posts

TRUST LEVEL 2

Get to trust level 2 by…

  • Visiting at least 15 days, not sequentially
  • Casting at least 1 like
  • Receiving at least 1 like
  • Replying to at least 3 different topics
  • Entering at least 20 topics
  • Reading at least 100 posts
  • Spend a total of 60 minutes reading posts

Users at trust level 2 can…

  • Create links and video embeds to trusted websites like Blizzard websites, YouTube, or Twitch
  • Have an increased “like” count.

TRUST LEVEL 3

Get to trust level 3 by…

  • Must have visited at least 50% of last 100 days
  • Must have replied to at least 10 different topics
  • Of topics created in the last 100 days, must have viewed 500 topics
  • Of posts created in the last 100 days, must have read 20,000 posts (both starting posts and replies)
  • Must have received 20 likes, and given 30 likes.
  • Must not have received more than 5 spam or offensive flags (with unique posts and unique users for each, confirmed by a moderator)
  • Must not have been suspended (including forum suspensions or in-game account actions of any Blizzard game)

Trust Level 3 users can

  • Create Wiki Posts (more on that below)
  • Post animated gifs, images, compatible video embeds, and links to any website

For regular users, even if you are Trust Level 3 on the Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, Starcraft II, or BlizzCon forums, your forum stats and trust level will be different here.

Other Forum Features

Dev and Blizz Tracker Feeds

Blizzard representatives will still display in Blue. Forum MVPs will be in their jade green text as from before. Now the cool thing about Blizzard posts is that you can now track for recent posts by clicking on the Blizz Tracker feeds. This allows you to see only the developer posts in the threads they post in in a streamlined feed. Simply click on the title of the post to navigate to that thread.

Dislike Button Removed

The old forums had the dislike button which did not exactly do what was intended. The old dislike button was originally intended for posts that were primarily troll posts (eventually hiding them). However, the dislike button was often used to mark a post that the person simply disliked for whatever reason.

Flag a post to alert a moderator

The forum post report form is now gone since you simply flag a post that you believe violates the forum Code-of-Conduct. Simply click the flag icon then choose from one of the four options provided as needed. The post is then flagged for review by a moderator. You have a few minutes to undo the flag if you wish. Note that threads may be automatically locked for 24 hours if they receive enough flags among all posts in that thread.

DO NOT USE THIS FEATURE TO SIMPLY DISLIKE THE CONTENT OF THE POST. To help control unwanted flag spam for the moderators to sift through, all users have a very limited number of flags per day they can issue. So only flag posts that are in violation.

Post Images and Embedded Content

As mentioned before, Trust Level 2 users can post select links and embedded content from trustworthy sources such as YouTube or Twitch. At Trust Level 3, you have access to posting links and content from any domain of the world wide web. To post an image or a video embed of a YouTube Video or a Twitch Clip, Video or Stream. Simply copy the shareable URL of that content in its own line of text. Note that image content that is too large in file size may be prevented from displaying in the page (it used to be 3 MB but I know they have increased it from that).

If you are not authorized to post a link, you will not be able to complete the post with that link in there, however if you need to post a link if it is urgent, there is a little workaround. Simply wrap the link between two tick marks (`) to bypass the restriction and a code text line of the URL will display (but is not clickable). Here is the syntax for these advanced features:

This hyperlink will take you to the StarCraft 2 official website’s home page.

[This hyperlink will take you to the StarCraft 2 official website's home page.](https://us.diablo3.com/en/)

<a href="https://us.diablo3.com/en/">This hyperlink will take you to the StarCraft 2 official website's home page.</a>

[url="https://us.diablo3.com/en/"]This hyperlink will take you to the StarCraft 2 official website's home page.[/url]

Posting an image or animated gif with a caption

Study hard Leah!

![Study hard Leah!](https://media.giphy.com/media/3oz8xZnWxRal1r1zYA/giphy.gif)

<img src="https://media.giphy.com/media/irfYatKOyiW2PNSBOk/giphy.gif" alt="Study Hard Leah!">

[img="Study Hard Leah!"]https://media.giphy.com/media/irfYatKOyiW2PNSBOk/giphy.gif[/img]

If you post a link, image, animated gif, video, or streaming video, in its own line on your post, the post will try to embed or preview that content directly. Here are a few examples:

http://www.diablo3.com

http://www.diablo3.com

https://gph.is/1b2Ji8B

https://youtu.be/Y9mUe5vHYzs

Wiki Posts

Trust level 3 users can change their post to become a Wiki Post. This means once activated as a Wiki anyone can edit it. This can be helpful in making community strategy guides. Simply click the wrench icon on your own post and select the link to turn on the Wiki Post. Here is one such example of a WIKI post I currently maintain in the Overwatch forums:

ANDROID PROGRESSIVE WEB APP

The new forums are extremely mobile-friendly and if you have an Android device, you may be prompted when signing in offering to install a shortcut icon to your Android Home Screen. This will allow you to access the forums outside of your native web browser on your Android device. (This is not a full app by definition and still uses Google Chrome as the underlying browser platform.)

39 Likes
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TY for an updated version for the D3 forums WyomingMyst! I love that you did it with Diablo related examples <3

10 Likes
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Except for the Overwatch one at the bottom of the post, but then again, shiny new forum = no wikis yet as nobody has TL3 capability outside of the MVPs. :wink:

Will be interesting to see if the guide makers ultimately use the wiki format to help keep things relevant down the line.

2 Likes
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Typo spotted. The bold example has underscore instead of double asterisk!

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Not entirely true. :wink: Check your permissions. I’ve made sure a few of our core community members who contribute meaningfully have been elevated to TL3. It’s taking me a while to get to everyone, as this is a manual process for me to copy over and I have to make sure they’ve posted on the new forums already, but hit me up if you think I’ve missed someone and I’ll investigate to make sure I’m lending power appropriately.

Thank you for copying this over, WyomingMyst! I was hoping that you would. It’s a wonderful guide and I know I found it immensely helpful in preparing our forums in advance of the launch. Thanks again!

8 Likes
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Mine is TL0. You can check using the .json trick by adding .json at the end of your name after clicking on it in any forum post. Not that I’d ever be as awesome as WyomingMist though. He’s a pro. Me…well, I’m just weird. :smiley:

Hopefully the post I’m working on will function properly for its intended use. One thing I do want to pass along, as it would help your CS/TS MVPs is that the tech area needs to either have auto-link parsing into plain text or some relaxation on the link restrictions so folks can post dxdiag reports without having to resort to pastebin, which half the players coming there have no clue how to do. :slight_smile:

Edit: Also, whyfor is MysticalOS listed as CS instead of Tech? Feels weird.

Edit 2: Someone to recommend for a TL3 would be EazyTarget#1303, as he does weekly guides for challenge rifts. Would probably make it slightly easier on him on the new forum software.

2 Likes
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I just updated it. It may require you to relog to kick in. :wink: Be good!

Because there is only one category now.

1 Like
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WyomingMist is listed as Tech though? Just pointing that out. :slight_smile:

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Yep, just noticed the same and checked on it. I feexed eet.

1 Like
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Oh noes. I hope I didn’t just get WyomingMist changed (was looking for the vice versa there). :open_mouth:

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You did not get him in trouble. WM is actually a Tech Support MVP for Overwatch but being the first to have the transition, and having a background in this sort of thing, he made great guides for all the rest of the games as the forums updated. IVrak was also doing things as was Nev. It does not really matter as all TS/CS are under the same program anyway.

Guide writers in particular should have some shiny trust levels so they can keep up the amazing work they do with the new Wiki format. There is a way to manually bump certain people, or so I am told.

As for groups, flags, and permissions, some of those are still being set up.

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You guys should just port over all the useful stickied threads from the old forum in here. a FAQ would be very helpful.

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Gonna bookmark this. I haven’t gone to fiddling around as much when I was on the Overwatch forums so this will be a great reference for when I’m posting something aside from a comment.

Thanks!

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If Blizzard ports the guide threads that are player created then the player can’t edit them anymore. For the player to retain control they need to migrate it themselves, or so I was told.

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I like all the links to the Diablo 3 homepage claiming to go to the Starcraft 2 ones.

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This is indeed correct. It is a situation Stoneblade ran into with his old Mac performance thread that got ported over on the WoW side. He couldn’t edit it and had to redo it as a new thread and then request the new one get stickied.

It’s a security feature to prevent improper use of forum features and serves as a safeguard for both Blizzard employees and regular posters alike.

Huh? I don’t see that here. Got anything more detailed we can check on to see what’s up?

1 Like
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As below - It in the last part of the guide, on how to add images and embedded content. I can’t direct quote it due to my current trust level :stuck_out_tongue:

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Oh, mybad. I totally misread that as stating the D3 homepage links themselves were linking to SC2. Oops. Didn’t realize it was about the guide up top here. So tired today… :frowning:

1 Like
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Thank you! Bookmarked, so I can explore these features in the future.