Latest Sidebar overwhelmed by topics from one category

We’ve got a super active beginner community, and our welcome PM drives new users to an Intro category where new users are invited to create their first topic.

On heavy days, we can get several hundred new topics and replies to this category.

My question revolves around the “Latest” sidebar, which is displayed on /categories. The sidebar can get overwhelmed with only topics/updates related to the Intro category on days where we get inundated with new users.

What, if anything, can be done to reduce the visibility of a single category within the Latest feed?

Also, can anything be done to put less emphasis on reading the topics within the Intro category (or any category for that matter), as it relates to calculating trust levels? I’ve had some TL2 users complain that reaching TL3 is made harder by having to read through all of the Intro topics and replies, which, given the subject matter that we cover (financial education), doesn’t exactly benefit them directly. Maybe reduce the TL time window?

Thanks!

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You can try the Suppress from Latest plugin, it would help here, you can also mute that category for all users, so they don’t get notifications or see the category as they use the community. This post explains in detail the difference between the 2 features I mentioned above.

You should be able to adjust the Trust Level settings such that users need less topics entered and posts read to get to each Trust Level? You can search for requires topics in the Admin Settings, and look in the Trust Level section (/admin/site_settings/category/trust) to see the relevant settings.

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