We’d like to serve a certain group of users by notifying them only with a Group setting for Watching First Post on a specific Tag. This is easy enough to configure, except for the “only” part. I’m not finding such a setting.
Is there a way to automatically disable the Activity Summary for members of a group while leaving the default alone for everyone else?
Hi ToddZ 
As far as I know, the only way would be to change the settings of these users with a rails script (warning as usual, anything done via the rails console can go wrong if not done correctly).
And it is not (easily) possible to automatically disable the setting when a user is added to a group.
The easiest way I can think of would be to use the Automation plugin to trigger a Zapier webhook when a user is added to a group. Zapier could then be configured to make a PUT request to Discourse to update the user’s preferences.
I haven’t tried this exact scenario yet, but it should work.
Interesting, thank you – I had not explored the Automation plugin yet.
Since using webhooks with Zapier requires an eternal $20/mo subscription, I might be able to sell my team on funding a custom Automation instead.
Since Automation triggers for User added to group and User removed from group exist, seems like an additional script could toggle the Activity Summary user setting. Does this sound in-scope for Automation?
Thanks - I haven’t tackled the console or scripting yet, and it would need to be automatic to be practical. Sounds like the Automation plugin might be a path.
I don’t know if it’s something that would get added as a script to the Automation plugin, but if you are able to install custom plugins on your Discourse site, you could add it via a plugin.
I’ve been wanting to learn how to create custom automation scripts for a while now, so took this as the chance to do that. Please don’t use this as it is, but here’s an example of how to add an automation script for updating Activity Summary preferences when a user is either added or removed from a group: Create custom Automations - #6 by simon.
The reason for the warning is because I can imaging automation scripts going horribly wrong At the very least, the plugin needs some tests. I’ll try to get some feedback on the code and update it if needed.
Holy smokes, Simon, you’re amazing. “Great Contributor” doesn’t quite cover it.
I don’t currently have a sandbox to test this in, but spinning one up is on my list.
Meanwhile I look forward to hearing about some peer review…!