Configuring Email & Notifications

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Configuring Email & Notifications

1. Accessing Your User Preferences

  • From the Main User Menu:
    • Click on your profile picture (avatar) in the top-right corner of the Discourse interface.
    • From the dropdown menu, select the person icon (usually next to your username), then choose “Preferences.”
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2. Understanding the Preferences Page

  • Once in your preferences, you’ll see a left-hand sidebar with various sections.
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  • For managing how Discourse communicates with you, we’ll focus on these key sections:
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  • Email: Controls all email notifications you receive.
  • Notifications: Manages in-app and push notifications.
  • Tracking: Determines how you follow topics and categories, directly influencing your notifications and emails.

3. Tracking (The Most Important Section!)

  • Go to the “Tracking” section in your preferences.
  • This section is crucial because your tracking level for topics and categories directly impacts both your email and in-app notifications.
  • Understanding Tracking Levels:
    • “Watching”: You’ll receive a notification (both in-app and via email, depending on your general email settings) for every single new post in that topic or category. This is the highest level of notification and can generate a lot of alerts and emails.
    • “Tracking”: You’ll see a count of new posts next to the topic or category. You’ll generally receive in-app notifications for new activity, but typically not an email for every new post (unless other email settings, like Mailing List Mode, are enabled).
    • “Watching first post”: You will only be notified of the first post in a topic and then subsequent replies only if someone replies directly to you or mentions your username.
    • “Muted”: You will receive no notifications or emails from these topics or categories.
  • Setting Defaults: You can set default tracking levels for:
    • Categories: Define how you want to be notified about activity in entire categories.
    • Tags: Similar to categories, you can set notification levels for specific tags.
    • Topics you enter: You can set a default for how long you need to view a topic before Discourse automatically sets its tracking level.
  • How Tracking Affects Email Notifications:
    • If you have a category or topic set to “Watching”, and your general email settings allow for notifications, you will likely receive an email for every new post.
    • If you have a category or topic set to “Tracking” or “Watching first post”, you generally won’t get an email for every reply unless your “Mailing List Mode” is specifically enabled in the Email settings.
    • “Muted” topics/categories will generate no notifications or emails.

4. Email Settings

  • Navigate to the “Emails” section in the left sidebar.
  • Here you can control the types and frequency of emails you receive:
    • Personal Messages and Mentions: Choose whether to receive emails for new private messages, or when someone replies to your post or mentions your username.
    • Activity Summary: Get a digest of new content and popular discussions if you haven’t visited the site. You can set how often you receive this summary (e.g., daily, weekly).
    • Mailing List Mode: Enable this to receive an email for nearly every new post on the forum (or in categories you are watching). Be aware that this can result in a very high volume of emails.

5. Notifications (In-App & Push)

  • Navigate to the “Notifications” section.
  • This section primarily deals with push notifications (alerts that pop up on your device if enabled).
  • Notifications must be enabled separately on each device.