Heya.
I’m curious about the reason why you can’t post directly from the categories section instead of having to open the All categories panel ?
I think it has been made to avoid UI/UX misunderstandings. At the end of the day, it is all about convenience.
You can create a topic if you choose a single cat in the filter:
After that, you’ll get yourself a blue clickable button:
The thing is: when you create a topic, you should assign it to a specific category, you can’t create a topic without picking it to some category. So I think that’s just the logic behind it all. If you want to create a topic - you need to select a category at first in the filter, otherwise you won’t be able to do this since you’re being in all categories’ page.
It’s just an overview… there has to be something at the start page…
Actually i’m not aware of any forum where you can directly start editing any post… and in the end you have to pick a category anyway… 
Part of the confusion here may be that you can’t post in the top-level categories, like Artwork , but that you must select a child category first, like Finished Projects . There’s not really a way around that in Discourse.
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Wonder if you’re able to easily change the text that appears when you hover over the New Topic button? Could potentially be used to direct the user to use an appropriate sub category.
Yeah I can! Any suggestions?
Maybe better than “allowed” and an additional hint :
You can’t post directly in here, please choose a subcategory.
?
Choose child category in order to create post.
To create a New Topic, please post in the relevant sub category.
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Perhaps combining the three above:
To create a New Topic, please select a subcategory first.
(I think ‘child’ might be a bit too much IT speak?)
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To create a new thread, please, select a relevant category.