Is it possible to set a default notification schedule for new users joining the site? For example, can we set as a default that notifications are only sent during office hours, and allow users to relax that if they really want to?
There is no way to configure that right now, and I don’t think it’s on the roadmap either. We have talked about having a richer experience for new users, with more prompts to learn about features such as this.
It would be a neat feature. One reason we are transitioning to discourse is to improve work life balance, so would be nice to set as a default for staff.
At the risk of going off topic briefly: Out of interest what platform are you transitioning from? (I did look at your Topic history briefly to check if you’d already stated it)
You should be able to achieve this with some external scripting; I’d do it by creating a webhook that’s called upon user creation, and then using a service like Integomat or Zapier to update the new user’s preferences.
Here are some relevant resources to get you started:
Email mostly
We also use moodle for student facing info, but the idea is to use discourse to capture and document responses to queries as well as creating a community.