# Improving our unsubscribe functionality
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-our-unsubscribe-functionality/41448
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [March 22, 2016, 11:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-our-unsubscribe-functionality/41448 "2016-03-22T23:44:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2016, 12:40am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-our-unsubscribe-functionality/41448/21 "2016-04-01T00:40:25Z")
I very much dislike the “just one more spam email” approach personally. I mean, is it really a catastrophe if
1. You forward a “digest” to one of your friends
2. Your friend hates you and wants to play tricks on you so she unsubscribes you
3. You no longer get digests
I think (1) happening is ULTRA rare, mixed with (2) which would be even rarer.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2016, 9:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-our-unsubscribe-functionality/41448/22 "2016-05-16T21:11:43Z")
One thing I am confused about: **this already works for digest emails!**
Watch me do it:
1. I got a “spam report” from our ISP that contained a digest email.
2. I looked in the digest email for the unsubscribe link, which was `http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/email/unsubscribe/ace3c9c3dbb48cd a1bc7e952e16805bdbd21276511ac254da3692f02ef1f9150` (roughly)
3. Opened that link in an incognito browser window, and got
So one click unsubscribe _already works_ right now today for this class of email, the digest email, which is arguably the most frequent one we send…
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### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-our-unsubscribe-functionality/41448/23 "2016-05-20T23:48:06Z")
No - it works if you aren’t signed in, but it doesn’t work if you ARE signed in to THE WRONG ACCOUNT.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2016, 12:02am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-our-unsubscribe-functionality/41448/24 "2016-05-21T00:02:12Z")
Yeah but that’s super _super_ _MEGA_ unlikely to be the case for the average person who wants to unsubscribe from a digest. Why would they ever have more than one account on the site?
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### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2016, 12:20am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-our-unsubscribe-functionality/41448/25 "2016-05-21T00:20:41Z")
Are you sure about that?
We keep recommending that admins create test accounts for testing what non privileged users see. And those accounts are the most likely to send a digest email to the email of an active forum participant.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2016, 12:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-our-unsubscribe-functionality/41448/26 "2016-05-21T00:31:38Z")
> [@riking](#):
>
> Are you sure about that?
Yes. Quite sure. I am very much double plus sure the average user who wants to unsubscribe from the digest, which you only get when you have been away from the site for a full week, does not have multiple accounts.
Not that what we have cannot be improved, of course!
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2016, 12:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-our-unsubscribe-functionality/41448/27 "2016-05-21T12:22:14Z")
> [@riking](#):
>
> We keep recommending that admins create test accounts for testing what non privileged users see
Are you suggesting that admins who create test accounts and cannot figure out how to unsubscribe is the population that you are concerned about?
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### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-our-unsubscribe-functionality/41448/28 "2016-05-21T18:39:56Z")
Well, I often forget to set the email settings. Then two weeks later, I get an email, remember, then it says “can’t unsubscribe” and that’s quite annoying.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-our-unsubscribe-functionality/41448/29 "2016-05-27T01:25:48Z")
Yes the digest thing works I stand corrected there.
Largest pain point I am hitting now is in some old sites I watched a category, cause once you are on that train, getting off the train is hellish. We can do a lot better there.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2016, 10:27am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-our-unsubscribe-functionality/41448/30 "2016-06-08T10:27:44Z")
This is on the 1.6 release list – to prompt when changing category watch state if you want to make it retroactive to all topics in that category.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2016, 2:07am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-our-unsubscribe-functionality/41448/31 "2016-06-17T02:07:45Z")
This is now complete per:
> [@Improved unsubscribe workflow](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-unsubscribe-workflow/45931):
>
> I am just rolling out an improved unsubscribe workflow per: This is included in: [https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/852860de6688668d6abe566cb1f4953fd13e2f35](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/852860de6688668d6abe566cb1f4953fd13e2f35) ##You can now unsubscribe from anything even if you are logged out! All unsubscription now happens via a centralized unsubscribe page This page always works, even if you are logged out. yes @riking I still force you to log out if you are logged in to the wrong account, by design The new page allows you to easily unwa…
closing.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2016, 2:07am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-our-unsubscribe-functionality/41448/32 "2016-06-17T02:07:49Z")
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