# Make watching a category more prominent for users
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-watching-a-category-more-prominent-for-users/205956
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [October 13, 2021, 2:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-watching-a-category-more-prominent-for-users/205956 "2021-10-13T14:25:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@alehandrof](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alehandrof)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2021, 2:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-watching-a-category-more-prominent-for-users/205956/1 "2021-10-13T14:25:06Z")
I’m interested in making watching categories a more prominent option for users.
- I realize I can style the notification button on a category, but it would remain just a small, somewhat obscure icon. I haven’t been able to figure out how to make a more obvious target.
- Is it possible to add a notification button for each category on the `/categories` page? That would also serve as an overview of what the user is tracking.
- Finally, is it possible to make a user watch the first post of a category?
Any help for accomplishing the above, or other suggestions for making it easier for people to manage their category notifications, would be much appreciated!
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### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2021, 5:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-watching-a-category-more-prominent-for-users/205956/2 "2021-10-13T17:34:49Z")
> [@alehandrof](#):
>
> you can sign up to be notified of future events and discussions on this topic: LINK
I’d find this useful too. The email notifications have links to an action page (for want of a better word) - unsubscribe from the topic etc. Something like that but for category watching would be good.
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### Author:  [@lucasbasquerotto](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lucasbasquerotto)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2021, 6:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-watching-a-category-more-prominent-for-users/205956/3 "2021-10-13T18:41:49Z")
> [@alehandrof](#):
>
> you can sign up to be notified of future events and discussions on this topic: LINK
The problem I see with that is that it would probably turn into a CSRF attack vector (someone could post a link somewhere that executes some action in discourse, and anyone who clicked would have that action applied to their account, if they are authenticated in the discourse site pointed by the link). The link could be masked as a short link too, like `bit.ly/some-key`.
In most cases (or all?), GET requests should not change state. That said, such a problem (CSRF vulnerability) could be avoided, or at least mitigated, if the link requires a token generated by a moderator (or admin), to execute a specific action (related to the token), but I don’t know if it justifies the effort, although in cases like you pointed it may be useful (especially for people that don’t know how to navigate the internet very well).
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### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2021, 6:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-watching-a-category-more-prominent-for-users/205956/4 "2021-10-13T18:46:20Z")
> [@lucasbasquerotto](#):
>
> anyone who clicked would have that action applied to their account
I can see the potential problem here. Would a “splash screen” (again I don’t know the right word) help? Like when you click on the email notification link it doesn’t automatically do anything - it gets you to choose what to do.
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### Author:  [@lucasbasquerotto](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lucasbasquerotto)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2021, 6:48pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-watching-a-category-more-prominent-for-users/205956/5 "2021-10-13T18:48:59Z")
That’s a possible solution, like what happens for unsubscribing from emails.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2021, 6:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-watching-a-category-more-prominent-for-users/205956/6 "2021-10-13T18:54:07Z")
> [@alehandrof](#):
>
> Is it possible to add a notification button for each category on the `/categories` page? That would also serve as an overview of what the user is tracking.
That could be good. I bet lots of people never even look at a category page (looking only at categories/latest, and individual topics).
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### Author:  [@alehandrof](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alehandrof)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 7:29am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-watching-a-category-more-prominent-for-users/205956/7 "2021-10-14T07:29:43Z")
I’d be perfectly happy with a link that takes users to the forum where a dialog asks something like this :
> **Do you want to watch the first post for CATEGORY?**
>
> You will be notified of new topics in this category but not replies to the topics.
>
> Yes / No [buttons]
Edit: and it looks like the API already allows this (without the dialog) for topics: [Discourse API Docs](https://docs.discourse.org/#operation/setNotificationLevel)
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### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2021, 3:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-watching-a-category-more-prominent-for-users/205956/8 "2021-10-14T15:09:24Z")
> [@alehandrof](#):
>
> Is it possible to add a notification button for each category on the `/categories` page? That would also serve as an overview of what the user is tracking.
Looking at this again… “Preferences - categories” has this overview, but lets you add categories to the five possible notification statuses. Essentially what we are thinking of would be the same thing, but the other way round, letting you add notification statuses to the list of categories. I think that might be more intuitive,
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### Author:  [@alehandrof](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alehandrof)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2023, 9:38am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-watching-a-category-more-prominent-for-users/205956/9 "2023-09-27T09:38:01Z")
It’s two years later and I’m still interested in everything I mentioned in my OP. I haven’t seen any movement on any of those features. Have I missed anything – perhaps a plugin or theme component?
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2023, 9:43am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-watching-a-category-more-prominent-for-users/205956/10 "2023-09-27T09:43:26Z")
A few weeks after you started this topic the [Categories Tracking Toggle](https://meta.discourse.org/t/categories-tracking-toggle/207150) #Customization > Theme component was published. But you participated there, so it is nothing new.
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### Author:  [@pacharanero](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pacharanero)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 1:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/make-watching-a-category-more-prominent-for-users/205956/11 "2026-01-30T13:36:02Z")
I have recently created a TC which allows Staff to create a “Watch This Category” button, in any post. I’m using this in my Discourses to make Watching more discoverable for the less-techy users.
> [@Discourse Watch Category Button](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-watch-category-button/394656):
>
> discourse2Summary Watch Category Button adds a marker span that becomes a “Watch this category” button in posts.hammer_and_wrenchRepository [https://github.com/pacharanero/discourse-watch-category-button](https://github.com/pacharanero/discourse-watch-category-button)open_bookNew to Discourse Themes? [Beginner’s guide to using Discourse Themes](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beginners-guide-to-using-discourse-themes/91966) Install this theme component information_source This theme component uses the logged‑in user’s session to update category notification levels; no API keys are required. Features Add…