One of the most significant annoyances I’ve heard from two members of my immediate family, when I’ve had the pleasure of listening to them triage their mail, is that when they register for a new Discourse forum, they are automatically registered to be sent activity summaries via e-mail. The obvious cause of this is that the forums want to ensure that they don’t lose users to being forgotten by them. However, this is a sly tactic that irks even me, because I always forget to disable it when I register. The reason I post at Meta is that this is so universally enabled, I presume it must be the default preference. Is it, and can this be reconsidered?

There are a couple of other topics currently discussing this where you might consider weighing in: Please don’t autosubscribe me to summary emails - Feature Why do Discourse installs enable digest email for all users? - Support

@ToddZ, thanks. I’d mark that as the solution, if the plugin were available.

Receving periodic digests of non-followed shouldn't be the default. Are they?

Product Support

ToddZ October 29, 2025, 6:12pm 2

There are a couple of other topics currently discussing this where you might consider weighing in:

Please don’t autosubscribe me to summary emails - Feature
Why do Discourse installs enable digest email for all users? - Support

Topic		Replies	Views
Why are weekly summary emails on by default? Feature activity-summary	7	979	May 29, 2025
Please don't autosubscribe me to summary emails Feature activity-summary	9	1068	October 29, 2025
2 questions - what is this thing called? And can I enable it for users by default? Product Support	1	410	February 25, 2023
Why do Discourse installs enable digest email for all users? Product Support	24	948	September 21, 2025
Option to always receive Activity Summaries even when you've been on the forum Feature activity-summary	20	4766	June 27, 2024

Receving periodic digests of non-followed shouldn't be the default. Are they?

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