A lot of help forums have some “sticky” topics that always sit at the top of the list, either implicitly or explicitly encouraging newcomers to read them before they make their first post. Topics range from guidelines for using the forum through to how to resolve FAQs. Is it worth considering here?
michael
This forum does have sticky topics. For example, there is a “Welcome to the Panorama Form” post that comes up first for any new users, or anyone that isn’t logged in. This post is permanently stuck to the top. But Discourse is smart enough not to have “sticky” topics stay at the top after you’ve read them. I’ve also been sticking various posts to the top of their category for a limited time (Discourse allows you to specify how long they are stuck), for example whenever there is a new release I have that post stick to the top for a week or so. But again, once you’ve read it, that post is no longer sticky for you, so this mostly will only effect users that visit sporadically. If you visit every day, you probably won’t notice that any posts are sticky. You might notice that some posts have thumbtacks next to them, those are the sticky posts (I’m not sure if those thumbtacks show up for everyone though, maybe I only see them because I am the admin and/or because I’m the one that made them sticky).
In a similar vein, consider “liking” a post you think others should see. This feature hasn’t been used much so far. To “like” a post, click the heart icon. I believe that if more people “like” a post Discourse will tend to move it up in the rankings in the Top Posts list.