# Procedurally nullify notifications for a group
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/procedurally-nullify-notifications-for-a-group/291976
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** notifications
**Created:** [January 17, 2024, 5:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/procedurally-nullify-notifications-for-a-group/291976 "2024-01-17T17:37:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Frully](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Frully)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2024, 5:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/procedurally-nullify-notifications-for-a-group/291976/1 "2024-01-17T17:37:19Z")
TLDR: Feb 2024 Google is changing their acceptable spam ratio to 0.3%. I want to reduce outbound email volume to avoid getting flagged. (3 spam flags/1000 emails will get your domain blacklisted). I need to procedurally change ‘watching first post’ for certain groups.
My nonprofit is a physical organization that uses discourse to facilitate member/community engagement. In particular, we opt new members into mandatory notifications regarding our organization (meeting agendas, votes, and critical updates. We’re legally allowed and obligated to send these emails).
- Currently: Our member portal adds new discourse users via API, and assigns them to ‘current\_members’ group so long as they are in good standing.
- Current members’ group is set to Categories: Watching First Post: Official Announcements.
So far so good.
- When they quit/expire, we (api) move them to ‘former\_members’ for a variety of permissions. When members expire/quit/etc, we keep their account active as a ‘public non member’ permission level so they can still engage with the community.
- Goal: Remove the watch-first-post elective on group-add.
> **Screenshots**
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> Group settings assign no watch.
>
> 
> Group member still has watch.
- Moving to a group seems only to be additive. Is there a way to designate ‘remove’ tracking based on group add?
- Is there a way to remove track settings that were added by group membership? (ie on group leave, undo whatever was added).
Alternatively, we could use @ tagging, but it would super easy to accidentally abuse. Having the groups manage the notification level would be easiest.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2024, 4:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/procedurally-nullify-notifications-for-a-group/291976/2 "2024-01-18T16:51:08Z")
> [@Frully](#):
>
> Is there a way to remove track settings that were added by group membership? (ie on group leave, undo whatever was added).
I think that’s what to do. Remove those watched categories when they leave. You can [Reverse engineer the Discourse API](https://meta.discourse.org/t/reverse-engineer-the-discourse-api/20576) to find the API call to change their watched categories.
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### Author:  [@Frully](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Frully)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2024, 5:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/procedurally-nullify-notifications-for-a-group/291976/3 "2024-01-18T17:05:44Z")
The trouble is I have hundreds of users in this boat. Setting it up for future is bonus but having an explicit null empty list would be a great feature.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2024, 5:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/procedurally-nullify-notifications-for-a-group/291976/4 "2024-01-18T17:40:08Z")
Then a rails command that removed watches for the users from the expired group might be a solution. I can’t remember if changing the setting for the group will offer to apply it to all members. You might give that a go (make the expired group watch the category and then remove that watch?)
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### Author:  [@Frully](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Frully)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2024, 9:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/procedurally-nullify-notifications-for-a-group/291976/5 "2024-01-18T21:39:30Z")
I’ll give that a shot. I know the addition of a watch will offer recursive. I couldn’t find a way to remove a watch that wasn’t there. You’re right it might be a matter of adding and removing.
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### Author:  [@Frully](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Frully)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2024, 2:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/procedurally-nullify-notifications-for-a-group/291976/6 "2024-01-19T14:09:05Z")
> [@pfaffman](#):
>
> make the expired group watch the category and then remove that watch
This is the magic. Adding to a group that lacks the flag doesn’t assert removal of the flag - that would be a nightmare to maintain…but retroactively applying the flag and then removing the flag to the group works as a decent workaround if I only have to do it annually-ish.
#feature-request - ability to assert a ‘nullify’ category or tag on group add would be sweet.
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2024, 2:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/procedurally-nullify-notifications-for-a-group/291976/7 "2024-02-18T14:09:22Z")
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