The discussion revolves around the “Focused” tab on the home page, a feature that aims to provide users with a more personalized feed. franciscom introduces the concept, explaining that it displays a mix of latest/popular topics from followed categories, topics based on user activity, and recent topics from followed users. Justin_Vega appreciates the idea, while merefield suggests exploring the Follow plugin, which enables user following and provides a Discovery list.
sam recommends setting the “mute all categories by default” site setting, allowing users to opt-in to category tracking, and notes that this can result in a more focused latest feed. franciscom clarifies that the idea is related to category tracking, and merefield mentions a plugin that allows users to select favorite categories, although it’s currently broken.
codinghorror questions sam about the importance of the “mute all categories by default” setting, suggesting it should be part of the setup wizard if it’s a crucial choice.
What does Focused tab mean
Focused Tab is a new way to get a closer look to interests you really want to 
!
How does Focused tab work
It is a tab that displays:
Yeah, it is similar. It would be good having a more personalized Feed!
As part of the solution, take a look at the Discourse Follow
This adds to vanilla discourse the ability to follow users and provides an additional Discovery list that shows a Topic List filtered by authors you are following.
Note, for certain communities opt-in is a better default than opt-out when it comes to category tracking.
Setting the mute all categories by default site setting, switches the forum to a mode where people need to opt-in vs opt-out
You would set it so people have certain categories default tracked, and then users can opt in to what they are interested in and have a very focused latest feed.
FYI @mcwumbly I think you were kind of interested in this problem in the past.
I meant this, but on the category side
If Sam’s suggestion is not good enough, there is this plugin, currently broken:
I did offer to fix it if funded by someone in the community.
Shouldn’t this be part of the setup wizard if it is so important as a choice @sam?
