Having used Discourse for ~1 year, I’ve underestimated category notification levels, both in terms of how much there is to comprehend, and how much they influence the user experience - too low, and things seem dead, but too high, and people (and spam filters!) get snarky at the quantity of emails. I…

There’s some Notification info in the New User Guide that may be useful. Maybe some links to the sections in Preferences where you can change the settings may be good? (you can make them generic for your site by adding ‘my’ instead of u/username - eg https://meta.discourse.org/my/preferences/notifi…

Thanks @JammyDodger . This is great info, that will be very helpful in training up our users. I think I’ll still add in more info about category level notifications, but you’ve definitely made my task easier. Thanks for taking time with the links.

Thanks for your table, it will be very useful. I’ve not done much of anything to communicate the use of notification levels in my community, and find because our visitors are more infrequent, many are missing out. I don’t find a screenshot of the different levels helps much, I struggle to understan…

[image] Questions About The Notification System Broadly speaking, discourse only sends you a notification when someone is speaking directly to you. That is: they replied to your post they quoted your post they mentioned your @username they linked to your post As far as arbitrarily being notifi…

I’ve continued to struggle with this one, in terms of how to understand the differences myself, then word the descriptions in ways that users can understand, and guide them in the right way. Also, initially mis-understanding our audience and the ways they’d interact with our Discourse install meant …

You need to decouple notifications from emails. A user may be watching a category but have email notifications turned off. The descriptions here are sound: [image]

Ah. Yes, you’re right, I need to separate out whether emails are turned on or not. Thanks for that. I’m not sure about the default descriptions though. As someone that’s been (very part-time) running our install for a few years, it’s taken me a long time to get my head around these various distinct…

That’s fair enough – I have lived and breathed Discourse for so long that I have warped judgement when it comes to some things. :slight_smile: @mcwumbly may have further comments, but in the mean time are you aware that you can edit the text on your own site to say whatever you like? Go to /admin/…

[image] HAWK: @mcwumbly may have further comments Prior to joining Discourse, when I was running a community, I was also exploring ways to try to make these settings easier to understand. I did share some ideas about this here long ago: What is a notification?

[image] HAWK: are you aware that you can edit the text on your own site to say whatever you like? Yes, thanks, have been doing that (with some questionable changes prior to really understanding them myself, and I think now some better and more accurate info - listed earlier in this thread).

Notification levels - understanding and communicating category notification levels - #12 by JammyDodger - Support

Topic		Replies	Views	Activity
Configuring Default Notification Settings for Users Site Management notifications , explanation , users	11	3152	February 20, 2026
Change notification level with a link Feature notifications	11	2575	January 29, 2026
Engaging users with email notifications of posts Support	3	2370	February 16, 2018
Discourse Notifier Plugin	8	2447	February 13, 2022
Please better describe the relationship between emails and notifications Feature	5	1032	January 13, 2021

Configuring Default Notification Settings for Users

Site Management

notifications , explanation , users

11

3152

February 20, 2026

Change notification level with a link

Feature

notifications

11

2575

January 29, 2026

Engaging users with email notifications of posts

Support

3

2370

February 16, 2018

Discourse Notifier

Plugin

8

2447

February 13, 2022

Please better describe the relationship between emails and notifications

Feature

5

1032

January 13, 2021

Notification levels - understanding and communicating category notification levels

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