This tutorial covers how to access your User Preferences menu, understand what each option means, and modify them to fit your liking.
Summary
This document covers:
- Accessing the User Preferences menu
- Understanding User Preferences
- Managing User Preferences
Accessing the User Preferences Menu
There are three ways to do this.
-
Select your Profile Photo on the top-right hand corner of the forum and select the person icon, and then select
Preferences -
Enter the following in the URL bar:
https://forum.domain/my/preferences/account
For example, on Meta it would be:
https://meta.discourse.org/my/preferences/account -
Use the keyboard shortcut: G followed by P, then select
Preferences
Managing, modifying, and understanding your User Preferences
Once the User Preferences menu is opened, you are prompted to select various menus. Select a dropdown for details on each menu.
Account
Accessible URL:* https://Forum-Name/u/Username/preferences/account
Details:
- Username: This is your registered name on the forum, and is selected upon joining the forum. This can only be modified by a site moderator or admin.
- Profile Picture: This is the photo that shows on all of your posts and your user profile. You may have it set to system assigned (usually the first letter of your username) or as a custom photo. You may also have the option to have a Gravatar, which generates a username based on your email.
- Email: This is by default set to the email you used to join the forum. You can modify this email by clicking the
icon, or add a secondary email by selecting 
Add Alternate Email . (Your email is never shown to the public) - Name: You may enter your full name here if you choose. By default, this is not required. (If you are a site admin you can require this option)
- Title: If you are a member of a group or have a badge that has an option to be used as a title, it can be selected here. If you are a site admin or moderator, you can set a custom title for the user on their Admin page.
- Flair: If a group you are in has a flair, it can be added to your profile picture here.
- Custom Status: Allows setting a custom status - Explained here
- Primary Group: This allows you to set a one of your groups as “Primary Group”.
- Export Data: You may receive an archive of all of your data from the forum by clicking Request archive . Additional Info
Security
Accessible URL: https://Forum-Name/u/Username/preferences/security
Details:
- Password: In the event you forget your password on the forum, you may click Send Password Reset Email to follow the steps to reset it.
- Passkeys: A passkey is defined as “Passkeys are password replacements that validate your identity biometrically (e.g. touch, faceID) or via a device PIN/password.” You can create any passkey by selecting Add Passkey and following the steps provided. You can revoke any passkey at any time.
- Two-Factor Authentication: You can have a “second factor” when logging into certain forums, like a passkey. To manage, select the Manage Two-Factor Authentication and follow the steps. The “second factor” will be a one-time security code or a physical security key.
- Recently Used Devices: Any device that is logged into the forum is shown here. You can revoke any one by selecting the and selecting Log Out , or Not you? to reset your password and log out all of your devices.
Profile
Accessible URL: https://Forum-Name/u/Username/preferences/profile
Details:
- About me: You may enter any relevant information about yourself here. All markdown, HTML, and images are supported here. Most features that can be used in a topic can be used in your About Me.
- Timezone: Your timezone determines the dates shown on various places in the forum (for example, 2024-07-09T10:53:00Z). You can select this manually or automatically by clicking
Use Current Timezone . - Location: You can enter where you are located in the world in this box. It’ll show on your User Profile.
- You can enter any website here in this box. It’ll show on your User Profile.
- Profile Header: This is the image that shows at the top of your User Profile. You may upload it by clicking
or remove it by clicking the trash can. Profile headers will be centered, and by default will have a width of 1110px. - User Card Background: This is the image that’ll show on your User Card. You may upload it by clicking or remove it by clicking the trash can. Profile headers will be centered, and by default will have a width of 590px.
- Featured Topic: You can select any topic on your forum to feature on your user profile and card.
Emails
Accessible URL: https://Forum-Name/u/Username/preferences/emails
Details:
All emails will be sent to your primary email in Account.
Under this page you can select what you would like to be emailed for, and how often. The options for being emailed include:
- New Personal Message
- Quoted, Replied To, Mentioned, or watched topic/category/tag activity.
- Activity Summary
- All new posts (This will override the activity summary. You will receive multiple emails depending on how busy your forum is.)
The option to receive an excerpt of posts leading up to the one that triggered your notification is also present.
You also have the option to receive a Activity Summary when you haven’t visited which will include the most popular posts and topics. You can receive these every 30 minutes, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and every six months.
Notifications
Accessible URL: https://Forum-Name/u/Username/preferences/notifications
Details:
You can choose when to be notified of new likes under this page. Notifications of these are not sent to your email - they just show as a notification inside the forum.
You can also select to receive Live Notifications which will send notifications to your browser when you are active. This can be enabled or disabled by clicking Enable/Disable Notifications
The option to create a custom notification schedule is present. Notifications received outside this schedule will be paused
Tracking
Accessible URL: https://Forum-Name/u/Username/preferences/
Details:
Under this page, you can select when topics will appear under the New menu and when topics should be marked as tracking. The option to set a post to Watching/Tracking/Normal when you reply in it is also available.
You can also choose to select certain categories/tags as Watched, Tracked, Watching First Post, and Muted. These terms are defined below.
- Watched: “You will automatically watch all topics in these categories/with these tags. You will be notified of all new posts and topics, and a count of new posts will also appear next to the topic.”
- Tracked: You will automatically track all topics in these categories/with these tags. A count of new posts will appear next to the topic.
- Watching First Post: You will be notified of the first post in each new topic in these categories/with these tags.
- Muted: You will not be notified of anything about new topics in these categories/with these tags, and they will not appear on the categories or latest pages.
Users
Accessible URL: https://Forum-Name/u/Username/preferences/
Details:
You can ignore or mute any users under this page. When ignoring a user, an option to select when to remove the Ignored status.
Ignored users will “Suppress all posts, messages, notifications, personal messages, and chat direct messages.” Muted users will “Suppress all notifications, personal messages, and chat direct messages”
In addition, you can allow other users to send you Personal Messages and Chat Direct messages, or allow certain users to send you these.
Interface
Accessible URL: https://Forum-Name/u/Username/preferences/interface
Details:
You can modify and configure your theme and color scheme on the forum. In addition, you can also change the text size and the language the forum users.
Some languages do not have full translations and some text may still be in English.
The default home page can also be modified - when opening the forum, you can choose to either see the latest, hot, new, unread, or top topics first. You can also choose to show the categories instead of showing topics.
Under the “Other” section, you can modify any miscellaneous things related to the forum. (The option to hide your profile is under this menu.)
Navigation Menu
Accessible URL: https://Forum-Name/u/Username/preferences/navigation-menu
Details:
Under the sidebar, you can modify what to see when you have new or unread items.
You can link to a filtered list of new/unread items rather than seeing a full list, and choose to see a number of new/unread items instead of a 
.
Menus not listed here are enabled by plugins and are not default.
Any time you modify something inside of your User Preferences menu, you must click Save Changes to apply your settings.
