# Disabling the new Discourse Markdown editor **URL:** \ **Category:** Forum Guide & Feedback\ **Created:** [August 17, 2025, 6:53am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/disabling-the-new-discourse-markdown-editor/44310 "2025-08-17T06:53:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2025, 6:53am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/disabling-the-new-discourse-markdown-editor/44310/1 "2025-08-17T06:53:03Z")
There doesn’t appear to a way switch the new WYSIWYG markdown editor off? It’s driving me mad, I’m used to writing raw Markdown 😉 I think there is a setting that enables users to toggle it on and off? > **[Test our new composer!](https://meta.discourse.org/t/test-our-new-composer/352347)** > > We have been working on a new rich text editor mode for our composer so that it’s easier to write on Discourse. We’re now ready to start testing it out to get more feedback from our community on this feature! Our implementation builds upon the... ---
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2025, 10:55am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/disabling-the-new-discourse-markdown-editor/44310/2 "2025-08-17T10:55:31Z")
@chris thanks for calling this out. I’ve changed " Default composition mode" from Rich Text to Markdown. The admin configuration in the announcement don’t match what I see. How does seem now? ---
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 8:06am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/disabling-the-new-discourse-markdown-editor/44310/3 "2025-08-19T08:06:35Z")
Thanks @gundalow I think giving users the ability to write raw markdown makes sense on this site! It is a shame that you no longer get the preview when writing raw markdown but I don’t think this is an option any more. However it probably makes sense to default to Rich Text for people? On other Discourse instances I help run we have _Rich editor_, _Enable the rich editor so all users can switch between the current Markdown mode and the new rich text editor for more intuitive and user-friendly composition._ ticked, is this an option on this instance? ---
**Author:** ![utoddl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/utoddl/32/249_2.png) [@utoddl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2025, 10:18am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/disabling-the-new-discourse-markdown-editor/44310/4 "2025-08-19T10:18:35Z")
The left-most button in the composition window ribbon toggles between “MD” and “A” (rich text). I hadn’t noticed before, but that works great. And I’m seeing the preview pane in “MD” mode. 👍 ---
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2025, 7:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/disabling-the-new-discourse-markdown-editor/44310/5 "2025-08-22T19:49:29Z")
> [@chris](#): > > _Enable the rich editor so all users can switch between the current Markdown mode and the new rich text editor for more intuitive and user-friendly composition._ ticked, is this an option on this instance? @chris do you have the URL or full setting name for that option? ---
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2025, 9:30am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/disabling-the-new-discourse-markdown-editor/44310/6 "2025-08-24T09:30:55Z")
Do you have the `rich_editor` option at this URL? ```txt https://forum.ansible.com/admin/site_settings/category/all_results?filter=rich_editor ``` I do with self-hosted instances running version `3.5.x`, however with `3.6.x` there is a `default_composition_mode` with the description: > Set the default mode for your community’s composer. Rich text mode provides a more modern, familiar writing experience for most users, while Markdown mode may be suitable for more technical audiences. Members can use a toggle in the composer toolbar to switch between modes. This should be at this URL: ```txt https://forum.ansible.com/admin/site_settings/category/all_results?filter=default_composition_mode ``` I think defaulting to _Rich text_ probably makes sense on this site as often new users fail to get the formatting right and experienced users will be able to toggle to _Markdown_ if they want. ---
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 12:15pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/disabling-the-new-discourse-markdown-editor/44310/7 "2025-09-02T12:15:01Z")
> [@chris](#): > > ```auto > https://forum.ansible.com/admin/site_settings/category/all_results?filter=default_composition_mode > > ``` @chris Both the URLs only return `Default composition mode`, which is currently set to “markdown”. If I view the page source, it says `Discourse 3.6.0.beta1-dev Discourse 3.6.0.beta1-dev`, Ansible has Discourse as a managed service. ---
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 12:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/disabling-the-new-discourse-markdown-editor/44310/8 "2025-09-02T12:41:20Z")
Defaulting to the _Markdown_ editor is fine for me, but perhaps it should be changed so the default is _Rich text_ for the new users who struggle with formatting their posts with code blocks? — I’m happy to click to manually switch the mode. ---
**Author:** ![utoddl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/utoddl/32/249_2.png) [@utoddl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 2:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/disabling-the-new-discourse-markdown-editor/44310/9 "2025-09-02T14:22:34Z")
Drifting off-topic, but I’ve often wondered… Acknowledging that editing other peoples’ posts is generally _Not Good™_, has there been any discussion about what level of trust would be required to edit posts that contained un-tripple-ticked or not 4-space-indented yaml? With yaml in particular, where indentation is so important, reading yaml-as-markdown is unpleasant. While the ideal would be for users to be given a clue and fix their posts themselves, the rest of us suffer in the mean time. I waffle on the idea myself; curious how others feel about it. ---
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 2:26pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/disabling-the-new-discourse-markdown-editor/44310/10 "2025-09-02T14:26:59Z")
I often simply don’t read posts with bad formatting, it’s too painful! I think this is a discussion worth having. ---
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 3:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/disabling-the-new-discourse-markdown-editor/44310/11 "2025-09-02T15:01:11Z")
> [@utoddl](#): > > Drifting off-topic, but I’ve often wondered… I think this is on topic. > [@utoddl](#): > > Acknowledging that editing other peoples’ posts is generally _Not Good™_, has there been any discussion about what level of trust would be required to edit posts that contained un-tripple-ticked or not 4-space-indented yaml? With yaml in particular, where indentation is so important, reading yaml-as-markdown is unpleasant. While the ideal would be for users to be given a clue and fix their posts themselves, the rest of us suffer in the mean time. I waffle on the idea myself; curious how others feel about it. From a technical point of view - Trust level 3 can edit other people’s post title - Trust level 4 can edit other people’s complete post Educating our Forum users would be good. I wonder if having a forum post with bad/good/best examples (rendered and raw-markdown) we could link to could help. I might have updated a few forum posts a long time ago, though not since. Considering that first time posts are held for moderation, is this education something that could be done by moderators, ie having a line to copy-paste in if there is bad formatting. Though I’m mindful that we need to find the balance between improving the Forum and not burning people out. ---
**Author:** ![utoddl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/utoddl/32/249_2.png) [@utoddl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 4:16pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/disabling-the-new-discourse-markdown-editor/44310/12 "2025-09-02T16:16:44Z")
In my profile _summary_ "↡Expand"ed page ([Profile - utoddl - Ansible](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl/summary)), it says my trust level is “regular”. How does that map to the numeric scale (less than 3 apparently)? At one point I had a fairly friendly boiler-plate message I would send to first-time posters who had messed up their yaml embedding. I can probably dig that up if it would be helpful. ---
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/disabling-the-new-discourse-markdown-editor/44310/13 "2025-09-02T16:23:55Z")
@utoddl you are TL 3, try editing the title of this thread, mouse over it and a pencil should appear at the end, click it to edit the title and category.