Wider community members can register for an account on the community forum by using the Sign up button and choosing their preferred method (email, oauth, etc.).
For GitLab team members it is recommended to use the with GitLab oauth method. This will authenticate against GitLab.com as oauth provider, prefill the profile being created, and later serve as oauth login. This method also grants additional permissions, see the administration section for users below. Alternatively, manual sign-up using the gitlab.com address and setting up 2FA will work as well.
Our Community Code of Conduct applies to the forum platform. When in doubt, flag posts which violate the Code of Conduct or are inappropriate in other ways (spam, advertising, etc.). Moderators can review the posts and take action while the posts are hidden from public viewing.
Discourse provides a general FAQ for users.
Consider using some of the following resources to help get answers to questions:
In the GitLab Community Forum, most tech support and troubleshooting assistance comes from community members volunteering their time and knowledge to help others.
If you see a community member volunteering their time to help another community member, give their reply a :heart: to show appreciation for their contribution.
If any GitLab team member sees a forum post that is inappropriate, abusive, spam, or a violation of our code of conduct, please flag the post by clicking the flag icon. If immediate action to hide or redact private information is required, flag the post and then ping one of the admins in the #developer-relations Slack channel.
The moderation privileges should only be used to pin topics or make (global) announcements. Moderators share different responsibilities, and categories. If you need help or guidance, please reach out in the #developer-relations Slack channel.
Discourse implements an intelligent spam prevention system, which leads to users and posts behind hold for review. The same workflow applies when users flag a post manually. Items for review are indicated with a red count in the upper right menu, and can be access directly with the Review section.
Delete User > Delete and Block User. This also deletes the post.New user typed their first post suspiciously fast, suspected bot or spammer behavior.
Delete User > Delete and Block User.Me too.#coc-violations in Slack.Edit the post and follow the Code of Conduct Templates to replace the text.When the user account looks suspicious, these tips can help with verification:
whois <IP address> and also verify the ASN and its ISP. Sometimes a google search unveils them belonging to a fraud friendly environment, or other insightful details.Click this link to view the Moderator Quick Start guide.
This guide explains Moderator permissions, expectations, and best practices.
Below is a list of actions only forum Moderators can take in the Discourse platform. For this reason, at this time only GitLab Staff members are granted Moderator status.
Mark a response as an "accepted solution" in a situation where a single reply effectively answers or resolves a forum thread. Only the original poster and moderators have the ability to mark an answer in a forum thread. Please do this freely! It helps with SEO, and it helps our users know what questions have been answered.
Instructions
Click the ellipsis in the small grey toolbar on the post > click the checkbox.
Sometimes users will accidentally post private information like license or API keys, emails addresses, etc. Publicly identifiable information needs to be redacted from the forum. You can also use this tool to redact inappropriate language or other Code of Conduct violations.
Instructions
If you need to edit a user’s post for whatever reason, please private message the user in the forum letting them know that you have done so, and the reason why.
Click the ellipsis in the small grey toolbar on the post > click the pencil icon.
Instructions For Sending a Private Message
message button on the user card to draft private messageThe edit history diff is only visible to moderators.
For the sake of anonymity, only Forum Moderators can see the email address associated with a forum user’s account.
*Instructions
show button in the user’s profileThis is not exclusive to Moderators, but you can use the Staff Category to draft new knowledge share articles, initiatives, whatever you need! You will notice the little lock symbol next to private categories.
We do not delete topics and posts in the forum, mainly due to the fact that this action can destroy trust. There are always exceptions to this rule - a good example is when spam posts sneak in. If you feel something needs to be deleted, you can always reach out to admins in private or in the #developer-relations Slack channel and we can talk it through!
Instructions
Click the ellipsis in the small grey toolbar on the post > click the trash can icon.
It’s not uncommon that moderators will feel the need to move new posts out of old threads, or move posts to their own topic altogether. Please move new posts out of old topics when users try to bring topics a year or older back to life.
Instructions
select post in dropdownselect+below or select depending on how much of the conversation you want to movemove to Fill out the popover accordinglymove to new topicHow and when to edit forum posts.
Generally, we do not edit other peoples' posts. If we see something that can be improved, we should reach out to them privately to ask them to change it. This helps us build trust with our community and with the GitLab team, since it shows them that they have the creative freedom and autonomy to post what they like on our forum.
That being said, there are instances when moderators can edit posts directly. Here are some examples and how to do it:
How and when to mark a solution in a thread.
How and when to delete a forum post or topic.
Follow the relevant workflow depending on the question:
Community response situations include preparing a forum topic as a draft in the Internal category.
Team members need to sign-up for a forum account in order to create a topic. The Internal category allows team members review and edit the draft together without it being available to the public.
After a forum topic is created in the Internal category, team members have the ability to edit the title, tags, description, post timestamp, and category.
A sandbox topic to test editing is available here (internal).
Steps for bannering on Discourse:
Add+ buttonEdit CSS/HTMLAdd mini banner CSS:
.mini-banner__image {
height: 60.5px;
width: 720px;
background-image: url($mini-banner);
background-size: 100% 100%;
margin: 0 auto;
}
Click After Header and add this div to make CSS work
<div class="main-banner">
<a href="https://forum.gitlab.com">
<div class="main-banner__image"></div>
</a>
<a href="https://forum.gitlab.com/t/ci-cd-minutes-for-free-tier/40241" target="__blank">
<div class="mini-banner__image"></div>
</a>
</div>
The Discourse instance forum.gitlab.com is operated by the Discourse team on their SaaS platform. The Discourse platform was started as self-hosted instance in 2015, and later migrated to Discourse SaaS in February 2020. The domain is managed by the GitLab infrastructure team.
Updates and important security fixes are applied by the Discourse team. Technical owners can reach out to their support team. For business organization and subscription updates, please open a confidential issue in the Developer Evangelist Meta Project.
In October 2021, the Discourse forum exceeded 1 million monthly page views. More metric reports can be created using the Admin dashboard.
Discourse uses trust levels to grant more trust permissions to users as they evolve on using and engaging on the forum platform. This trust system also helps to keep spam users away, ensuring a safe place to discuss and help each other.
Please open a new issue in the Developer Evangelist Meta Project and share the user profile URL and a detailed reason why they should be promoted to trust level 4. Assign the issue to technical owners using this quick action: /assign @dnsmichi @sugaroverflow. Administrators will review and reach out to nominated community members.
GitLab team members who signup using oauth, will automatically be added to the gitlab-team group, granting trust level 3. This group does not trigger any @-mention notifications in forum posts.
Administrators can promote team members to trust level 4 manually, for example when needed for community response workflows.
The forum categories allow to group posts by stages and topics. Users can also subscribe to category notifications.
There are two categories serving a special purpose, they must not be removed:
Users can add tags to topics; higher trust levels also allow tag creation. Users can filter topics by tag, and subscribe to tag notifications too. This helps with specific workflows for docs and blog teams.
The tag group feedback includes the following tags:
docs-feedback is used by the technical writing team to invite for docs.gitlab.com feedback.blog-feedback is embedded on the GitLab blog footer as CTA for feedback.Administrators can modify the Discourse settings. Please open a new issue in the Developer Evangelist Meta Project to suggest, discuss and document changes. Note that plugins are installed by contacting Discourse Support.
The Only show overridden checkbox can be helpful to see modified settings. The most notable changes are documented below.
Admins can search for users, and verify the profiles when reviewing the moderation queue.
The groups are also managed in this section. Next to the default groups for trust levels and staff, custom groups have been created.
Discourse uses a gamification system where users can earn badges from forum activity, likes, and engaging with replies. The disco bot tutorial starts automatically for newly signed up users by sending them a direct message.
The trust levels also grant more forum permissions, and help prevent spam by limiting new users to a limited set to interactions.
Forum Spelunker is a custom badge which was granted to everyone helping answer and solve old forum topics in May 2020.
Requires an administrative login. Open an issue with mockup design before changing the design.
GitLab UsernameWorkflow for applying customizations:
Used by integrations, such as the GitLab Blog Bot.
The Discourse subscription plan includes many plugins by default. The most common workflows are questions with answers, allowing to select one as solution, solving the topic (discourse-solved plugin).
Most administrative tasks will be done from the Discourse Admin Dashboard. The dashboard provides metrics and dashboards for page views, user engagements, and community health stats.
Create a new issue in the Developer Evangelist Meta Project to document changes in settings, handle abusive behavior and other administrative tasks.
The Logs section provides an audit log of all actions.
To add an Admin:
Permissions sectionGrant Admin buttonPermissions > Admin? section on the user's profile admin should read YesNote: we would like to reserve only two or three Staff spots for forum Admins within our existing 15 total Staff spots.
If you want to add an Moderator:
Permissions sectionGrant Moderation buttonPermissions > Admin? section on the user's profile admin should read YesNote: we only have 15 Staff spots available with our current Discourse subscription. Please check with an Admin if you want to grant, or want to receive, moderator status.
As a provisioner, follow these steps to deprovision a GitLab team member who is being offboarded:
gitlab-team groupIf the team member wants to keep their account as a wider community member, follow these steps:
Admin button on the right.Primary Email / Secondary Emails do not contain a @gitlab.com email address.2: memberEngagement drives engagement, so the more the GitLab team engages with our wider community, the more they are likely to engage with us, and with others. By setting the example of providing thorough answers, we can build our forum up as a place of knowledge share and collaboration. See the Forum's 2020 strategy slide deck for more.
Join #developer-relations.