What Is the Roost?

The Roost is a discussion forum open to anyone involved in bird research and/or conservation in Canada. For more about the scope of The Roost, see the About page.

Users can initiate discussion by starting a topic - basically a post to which other users can reply. A topic can be a question, announcement, idea, or anything else that may be of interest to the community.

To help organize the community, topics are assigned to various categories. Categories can help you locate content that you are interested in. A category may be divided into subcategories to help focus content even further.

The Roost also has message and chat features through which you can interact with other users directly, and email notifications so you can stay up to date on community activity without having to check the site.

This page provides some basic information to help you get started with the Roost! If you are new to Discourse and want a more complete guide to the platform, you may want to visit Understanding Discourse for new users.

Signing Up and Logging In

You can view content on the Roost without logging in, but to participate you will need an account. The Roost is hosted by Birds Canada, so if you already have a Birds Canada account (for NatureCounts, Motus, or Birds Canada Learn) you can use it here, too.

If you do not already have a Birds Canada account, you will need to sign up. You can do that at [URL].

Navigating the Roost

The Roost’s homepage shows a list of recent topics, sorted from newest to oldest. This helps you begin your visit by catching up on recent activity. When you click on a topic, you will see the original post followed by any replies.

You can continue to explore simply by scrolling down through the topics, or you can have a look at a category that interests you. To do that, simply click ‘Categories’ above the topics list, or in the menu on the left.

The menu on the left also contains links to view your private messages (My Messages) and to view all of your own posts in one place (My Posts).

When you use The Roost, you will receive notifications for replies to your topics, topics you’re watching, and when users mention you by name. You can see those notifications by clicking the circle in the upper right corner with your photo (if you have one) or initial. This dropdown also contains a link to your profile settings, and various other shortcuts.

Your Profile and Emails

To access your account preferences and profile, click on the circle in the upper right corner with your photo (if you have one) or initial, then click the icon that looks like a person. Select ‘Preferences’ from the available menu.

On your Preferences page, you will see a number of tabs across the top. Under ‘Account’ you can edit your username and add or change your profile picture. Under ‘Profile, you can add information about yourself and set your timezone.

Under ‘Email’ you can tailor when The Roost sends you email notifications. The first two dropdowns on this tab allow you to decide whether or not you receive an email notification when somebody sends you a personal message on The Roost, or when certain other actions (listed on the page) occur.

The box at the bottom of the Email tab allows you to receive updates on activity in the community by email without visiting the website. You can receive summary emails anywhere from every 30 minutes to every 6 months. We recommend daily or weekly, but the choice is yours. If you don’t want to receive summary emails at all, simply uncheck the box above the dropdown.

Whenever you change or add something on the Preferences page, don’t forget to scroll to the bottom and click ‘Save Changes’. There are various other settings on your Preferences page, but most can simply be left on their defaults.

Posting a Topic

Before posting a topic, it’s a good idea to do a quick search to ensure someone else hasn’t already posted the same thing. You can do this using the search bar at the top of the page.

When you are ready to post a topic, simply click ‘New Topic’ in the upper right corner of the Topics or Categories pages. In the pop-up, you’ll need to enter a title, select a category from the dropdown, and type the content of your topic. You can include images in your topic by simply dragging or pasting them into the text box, or by clicking the image icon above the box.

You can also attach tags to your topic. These are keywords that help other users find your post, like ‘metadata’, ‘outreach’, or data-analysis’. To add tags, start typing in the ‘optional tags’ box. If a tag already exists, it will appear and you can select it. If it doesn’t, simply type the tag you want and click ‘Create’.

When you are done, simply click ‘Create Topic’. By default, you will receive notifications of any replies to your own topics.

Interacting with Topics and Categories

When viewing a topic that has already been posted, you can interact with it in several ways. You can reply by clicking the ‘Reply’ button under the post or the curved arrow to the right of the post. You can like or react to a post by hovering over the thumbs-up symbol under the post, then selecting your reaction of choice.

You can also tailor your notifications for the specific post you are viewing. Clicking on the bell icon to the right of the post (of the dropdown with a bell icon under the post) gives you different notification options for that post, and you can change your selected notification level at any time.

You can also set a notification level for entire categories. To do this, navigate to the category you are interested in, then click the bell icon in the upper right and select the option you’d like. This can also be changed at any time.

Some General Guidelines

Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect you would a public park. We, too, are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.

Help us make this a great place for discussion by always adding something positive to the discussion. The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.

You may wish to respond by disagreeing. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please keep the following guidelines in mind:

• Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.

• Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.

• Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.

• Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.

If you see bad behavior, don’t reply. Replying encourages bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention. If there’s a critical or urgent issue that can’t be handled by flagging, contact the moderators.

In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.