Allow Group Mentions in Post Edits to Trigger Notifications (Opt-In Setting)

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AI-generated summary

The discussion revolves around a feature request to allow group mentions in post edits to trigger notifications, with an opt-in setting. Ethsim2 explains that currently, email notifications aren’t sent when a @groupname is added via edit, even if the group allows mentions and members are set to “Watching.” They propose a per-group setting to enable this behavior, citing use cases like internal team alerts and workflow triage. JammyDodger initially reports that mentions in edits do trigger notifications, but Ethsim2 clarifies the issue is with email notifications not being delivered, despite the mention appearing in edit history. JammyDodger suggests the issue may relate to existing notification rules, such as avoiding duplicate emails for users who’ve already seen the post, and mentions alternatives like the Assign plugin or whispers for similar workflows.

1

Context

Currently, Discourse does not trigger notifications when a @groupname mention is added via editing an existing post, even if:
• The mention is valid and linkified
• The group allows mentions
• Group members have their notification level set to “Watching”
• The edit is made by a moderator or admin

This is consistent with how user mentions behave, and is intended to prevent abuse. However, there are legitimate internal/admin use cases where this limitation creates friction.

⸻

Proposal

Add an optional, per-group setting like:

“Allow mentions added via post edits to trigger notifications”
(Default: OFF)

If enabled:
• Discourse would re-evaluate any new @groupname added in a post revision
• Group members with the appropriate notification level would be notified just as if it were part of the original post

⸻

Use Cases
• Internal teams using private staff categories to alert specific groups (e.g. @support, @moderation-team)
• Forums with structured workflows where posts are triaged and tagged after initial submission
• Reducing the need to create follow-up posts solely to ensure a group is notified

⸻

Notes
• This setting would ideally be opt-in per group, to avoid accidental notification spam.
• It should only evaluate mentions newly added in the edit, not re-trigger all mentions.
• May be restricted to staff-only edits if security/privacy concerns arise.

2

i have applied a temporary fix

3

FWIW this works for me :person_shrugging:

My step-by-step in case I’ve missed something:

  • Ensure group is mentionable from the group settings
  • Create test post in a non-muted topic
  • Edit test post to add ‘@groupmention’
  • Check a group member’s notifications to see if they got a ping

I tried with both an edit within the grace period and an edit outside the grace period and both fired a ping as expected.

What am I missing?

2 Likes
4

i meant to say email notifications not just pings

Apologies for the confusion

1 Like
5

My test users in the group also received an email notification too.

If you check your email logs do they appear in /skipped with a reason?

1 Like
6

the desired email (less than 2 hours ago) didn’t land in Sent or Skipped logs

7

also i should note

A dark blue screen displays a Discourse update notification with details on the commit hash, last updated time, latest version, and Docker manager status. (Captioned by AI)
A dark blue screen displays a Discourse update notification with details on the commit hash, last updated time, latest version, and Docker manager status. (Captioned by AI)1206×900 116 KB

8

Ah, I think this is to do with not receiving a second email about something you’ve already received an email about (eg if Watching First Post).

Though the assign plugin would be perfect for these particular use cases if you’ve not already tried it?

Pings in whispers work well too.

9

yes many were skipped recently because user had already seen, i edited a post (outside grace period) on last post in topic recently and it triggered an email

10

weirdly, i don’t see that mention in the last post’s edit history