Hi, My Discourse shows unread counts as numbers (e.g., “71 unread”) in the sidebar (Navigation menu sidebar) I want to display them as a dot instead, like on meta.discourse.org. Is there a setting in the Admin UI to do this, and if so, where is it? Thanks! [The image is a screenshot of the Discourse interface displaying a list of categories for post navigation, including Documentation, Community wiki, Announcements, Support, Bug, UX, Feature, Data & reporting, Community, Plugin, Theme, and Theme component. (Captioned by AI)][This image shows a menu from Nhãsg.com.vn, featuring options related to learning materials for TPHCM, such as exam questions, conceptual questions, annual study plans, and practice problems. (Captioned by AI)]

There is also a site setting to configure the default for the option in the user preferences Lilly showed you [image]Configuring the default sidebar for your users default sidebar show count of new items The setting controls how new items are shown in the sidebar: Dots/Badges Counts [Sidebar showing blue dots next to "Topics", "My posts", and various categories and tags] [Sidebar showing numerical counts like "X unread" and "1 draft" next to items]

[Header dropdown category count. (Captioned by AI)] UPDATE / SOLUTION: I found the solution! I managed to achieve this by setting the following option to 0: Header dropdown category count (This option is described as “How many categories can be displayed in the header dropdown menu.”) Setting this option to 0 made the numerical count disappear and display as a dot (or hide the count, achieving the desired minimalist effect) in the sidebar. Thank you!

this is actually a user preference setting in /my/preferences/navigation-menu [Screenshot 2025-06-07 at 10.57.50 PM] [Screenshot 2025-06-07 at 10.58.00 PM]

How to change unread count to a dot in navigation sidebar?

Product Support

Lilly (Lillian ) June 8, 2025, 5:52am 3

this is actually a user preference setting in /my/preferences/navigation-menu

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How to change unread count to a dot in navigation sidebar?

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