Use this section when you need to:

• contact another user directly or continue an existing conversation
• understand when to use messaging, page discussions, or the social feed
• manage notifications, favourites, and follows as awareness tools
• treat comments and reactions as part of the user workflow rather than as isolated extras

Main roles:

• Signed-in users
• Contributors
• Maintainers

Related sections:

• Discover research content
• Build your public profile
• Work in My Workspace

This chapter focuses on conversation and awareness rather than on formal collaboration structure. Collaboration in the stronger sense — shared folders, governed publication, metadata design, project membership — is addressed elsewhere. Here, the goal is lighter but critical: keep people informed, enable quick exchanges, attach questions to the right context, and avoid scattering research conversations across external channels unnecessarily.

A typical interaction flow:

• Discover a resource or project
• Evaluate content
• Ask a question (discussion)
• Contact user (messaging if needed)
• Follow item for updates
• Receive notifications

This creates a continuous interaction loop.

• Use discussions for content-related questions
• Use messaging for private communication
• Follow items you care about
• Regularly check notifications
• Keep communication clear and contextual

HORTUS communication tools:

• support collaboration directly inside the platform
• keep discussions tied to content
• reduce reliance on external tools

Users can:

• communicate efficiently
• stay informed
• engage with research communities