We designed and want 42topics to be simple, and extremely to use. So while using 42topics, if you need to read this documentation, there has been some problem with how we want this to work. Tell us in the forum, and we will get to work fixing this. That said here is all you should need to know about 42topics.
Why 42topics? Why not 99topics?
Because 42 is the ultimate answer. Because at 42topics, we want to create topics about topics about life, the universe and every topic. And frankly, 42 is just way cooler than 99.
What is a topic?
Topic is a way to club related links together. Let’s say you are interested in Indian History, then you can find if some one has created a topic on Indian History, and join it. Or create it.
What is this voting stuff? Why should I submit stories?
Before we can recommend links to you, we need to know a little about you, right? So when you vote up a story, we know that you like stories of this kind. When you vote down a story, we will know that you do not like such stories, and will try not to show them to you.
Submitting stories is how we get to know which stories are good, and should be included when we want to show stories to other people. Submitting stories also tells about which stories you will like, so it helps you as well.
What are tags?
Tags help you classify stories. Say you submitted a story to Indian History, but want to classify this as war, or peace, you can do this using tags. Later when any one wants to read a story about war, they can see all stories which have been tagged as war. Cool, no?
What does subscribing to a topic mean?
When you first login to the site, then we show new stories from the topics you are subscribed to. Subscribing basically tell the system, “Ok buddy, I am interested in this area. Show me some stories from this area.”
What are related links?
We try to find stories which are related to a submitted story. You can read them by going to the related tab, for example here.
What are recommended links?
Depending upon the stories you have liked, disliked, and submitted, 42topics tries to find other stories which you will like to read. This depends on what other stories you liked, how many other people liked this story, when was this story submitted, and a slew of other factors. You can read your recommended links here.
Can I read the stories in a feed reader?
Sure we make sitewide feeds, and per topic feeds available. Read them in your news reader.
What are public, member and private topics?
Any registered user can submit, and vote in public topics. In member topics, users can vote after they have subscribed to a topic. A user can neither vote, submit or subscribe to a private topic. Only members of a private topic can invite other users, to their private topic.
I still have question.
Sure. Ask them in our support forum, and we will be glad to help.
