# Apply "mailing list mode" per category

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/apply-mailing-list-mode-per-category/47772
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [7월 25, 2016, 5:36오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/apply-mailing-list-mode-per-category/47772 "2016-07-25T17:36:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 19

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### Author: ![mcwumbly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/mcwumbly/32/103861_2.png) [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [3월 29, 2017, 4:46오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/apply-mailing-list-mode-per-category/47772/19 "2017-03-29T04:46:19Z")

</div>

I wonder if we just got it wrong to begin with assuming that the notification settings per-category would map cleanly to the notification settings per topic at all.

Consider, for example the “watching first post” setting.

My hypothesis is that a lot of the category-level settings are really there because it’s for users who _don’t_ visit the site often, but _do_ want to hear about some particular subsection of the forum.

In which case, I’d be willing to bet we could just _eliminate_ the existing Tracking and Watching options for categories, whilst adding the “mailing list” mode per category. (regardless of what the name is).

So you’d end up still with 4 settings instead of the current 5:

- mailing list mode / “email me every post but don’t notify me”
- email me about the first post
- normal
- do not show this category in New or Latest

In addition, or perhaps as an alternative, I could see a preference (default on?) that says:

clear notifications that I’ve already been emailed about

This avoids the email tracking complexity while setting clear expectations.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/apply-mailing-list-mode-per-category/47772)._