A user adiertschik requested a feature to automatically set new users as “watching” a specific category upon signup. sam confirmed this is planned for Discourse 1.4. erlend_sh asked if this could be applied recursively to subcategories or set during category creation — currently, it cannot. watchmanmonitor noted the core functionality for new users is already implemented via this commit. They also clarified that while recursive watching isn’t available yet, users can be made to watch a category by default if they belong to a specific group — though this requires group membership and doesn’t apply universally to all users. watchmanmonitor linked to a related thread for further discussion on group-based watching. In summary, automatic watching on signup is in progress, recursive or category-creation-time defaults are not yet supported, and group-based defaults offer a partial workaround.
Hey,
I’m looking for a way to add every new user as a “watcher” in an updates category automatically as he/she signs up for our discourse instance.
All I could find were instructions on how to run a specific piece of code to change it for existing users in the database: Setting defaults to enable mailing list mode-Temporary Solution
So, I’m thinking of writing one myself.. Is anyone else working on something similar? Any tips/how2s/things I should know?
This is already planned as a feature for 1.4.
Allow you to set default watching / tracking etc for all users.
Can this be set recursively for a category?
What about when you’re setting up a new category? Can you set a default watching/tracking status then?
(If that’s the case then you can basically do it recursively as well, with a workaround: by creating a new category, set default to Watch, and then migrate an old category into that one).
The OPs’ questions is solved for all new users in this commit.
So, we’re 1/2 way there, IMO.
Nope @erlend_sh sure can’t do recursive yet.. and wow would Iike to see that.. here’s a thread on the matter.
One more note for the OP
@adierteschik - it’s OK to have everyone in a discourse watch a given category.. they’ll only get emails (or see it at all) if they are in a group that gives them permission to access it.
With that, I think this topic can be closed.