Follow Category Button

[Discourse]

	Summary	Follow Category Button replaces the bell icon on category pages with a user intuitive “Follow” button
	Preview	Preview on Discourse Theme Creator
	Repository	https://github.com/discourse/discourse-follow-category
	Install Guide	How to install a theme or theme component
	New to Discourse Themes?	Beginner’s guide to using Discourse Themes

Install this theme component

As this is an official theme component maintained by the Discourse team, support, bug, ux, and feature requests can be made in the respective categories here on Meta, and tagged with the appropriate theme component tag. Click on a link below to get one started.

 Support  Bug  UX  Feature

What Does It Do?

The Follow Category Button theme component replaces the traditional bell icon on the categories page with a more intuitive “Follow” button.

Here’s how it works:

• Follow Button: Users can now see a “Follow” button instead of the default bell icon.

  

• Change Notification Level: Clicking the “Follow” button will automatically change the category notification level to “Watching First Post”, optimizing for a sane default.

  

• Dynamic Button Label: Once a user follows a category, the button label updates to “Following” to provide a clear indication of the user’s notification status.

  

Why Use It?

This component aims to improve user interaction with categories by making it more apparent and user-friendly to follow important discussions with a click of a button and optimizing for sane default.

Settings

Translation	Default
follow_category_button_title	Follow
category_options.notifications.title	change notification level for this category
category_options.notifications.watching.label	Following
category_options.notifications.watching.title	Watching
category_options.notifications.watching.description	You will automatically watch all topics in this category. You will be notified of every new post in every topic, and a count of new replies will be shown.
category_options.notifications.watching_first_post.label	Following
category_options.notifications.watching_first_post.title	Watching First Post
category_options.notifications.watching_first_post.description	You will be notified of new topics in this category but not replies to the topics.
category_options.notifications.tracking.label	Following
category_options.notifications.tracking.title	Tracking
category_options.notifications.tracking.description	You will automatically track all topics in this category. You will be notified if someone mentions your @name or replies to you, and a count of new replies will be shown.
category_options.notifications.regular.label	Follow
category_options.notifications.regular.title	Normal
category_options.notifications.regular.description	You will be notified if someone mentions your @name or replies to you.
category_options.notifications.muted.label	Muted
category_options.notifications.muted.title	Muted
category_options.notifications.muted.description	You will never be notified of anything about new topics in this category, and they will not appear in latest.

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Last edited by @JammyDodger 2024-06-12T17:35:31Z

Check document

Perform check on document:

[Jay91 (Jay Abie)]

This will work perfectly with user custom feed.
like you show only the posts from the categories you are subscribed to as homepage feed.

[tpetrov (Toni Petrov)]

Can this be done for tags also?

[hoangphuctran93 (Hoàng Phúc Trần)]

Please add follow bell on category page.This helps users quickly follow a category, similar to how social networks are doing

[Moin]

Have you already seen this

Categories Tracking Toggle

Summary Categories Tracking Toggle places a toggle button on each category on the categories page, which allows users to quickly toggle between “mute” and “normal” tracking states. It is particularly useful for sites that use the mute all categories by default site setting. Preview Preview it on theme-creator.discourse.org Repository Link https://github.com/discourse/discourse-categories-tracking-toggle New to Discourse T…

[hoangphuctran93 (Hoàng Phúc Trần)]

thank you, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time ^^ really happy that discouse always updates useful features and listens to everyone’s opinions.

[denvergeeks]

To me (if I hadn’t read this post) this Follow button is confusing.

I think it would be more clear if the button text also made reference to what you would be following if you click it – something more like

Follow This Category or Follow the Xyz Category or just Follow Xyz

Or, the button text could be configurable in the settings.

[Moin]

@denvergeeks

Or, the button text could be configurable in the settings

It is. You can change all the strings in the theme translations section

[jrgong]

@Moin

It is. You can change all the strings in the theme translations section

I don’t see the theme translations dropdown, is that not available on 3.2.2 stable?

[Moin]

Probably not. I think it was added in March.

[Jagster (Jakke Lehtonen)]

At the moment there is visible buttons from this component, and buttons of Discourse, at same time. I think either is enough, not both