# Apply "mailing list mode" per category

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/apply-mailing-list-mode-per-category/47772
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [July 25, 2016, 5:36pm 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:** 36

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![erlend\_sh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/erlend_sh/32/119475_2.png) [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2018, 11:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/apply-mailing-list-mode-per-category/47772/36 "2018-03-19T23:16:01Z")

</div>

I’m confused, what will be the difference between “enabling category-specific mailing list” and Watching a category?

I still stand by this:

> [@erlend\_sh](#):
>
> Mailing list mode isn’t feasible on a large forum. That’s why you move to Discourse when your mailing list grows unsustainably large!
> 
> Past that tipping point, the superior workflow is to Watch the categories that you want to follow. In mailing list land (see Mozilla’s lists for example) the comparable workflow would be opt in to however many mailing lists you want/need to follow.
> 
> Strictly hypothetically speaking, maybe we’d be better off doing away with “mailing list mode” as this special different-from-the-rest mode, and replacing it with an easy way to “Watch all categories”, which can be granularly changed from there.

..provided we make sure no old topics are missed:

> [@Watching/Tracking old Topics](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-old-topics/51606/7):
>
> Perhaps, one thing that is “cheap” that we could do. If a topic in a tracked category is bumped, add it back to “new” for whatever the new duration is. Still would feel somewhat odd.

---

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