# Setting a user to watch first post on a category

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/setting-a-user-to-watch-first-post-on-a-category/125494
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [11 augustus 2019 om 23:35 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/setting-a-user-to-watch-first-post-on-a-category/125494 "2019-08-11T23:35:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![csmu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/csmu/32/124581_2.png) [@csmu](https://meta.discourse.org/u/csmu)
#### Post date: [11 augustus 2019 om 23:35 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/setting-a-user-to-watch-first-post-on-a-category/125494/1 "2019-08-11T23:35:42Z")

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Context: I’ve discovered setting watching first post on a category pretty much sorts out the request we have from one local community group to only have replies going to the author of the topic. There are over 200 members in the group so changing the watch first post for each member would be tedious using the UI.

I’m looking for pointers on how to achieve that in the ruby console.

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### Author: ![csmu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/csmu/32/124581_2.png) [@csmu](https://meta.discourse.org/u/csmu)
#### Post date: [12 augustus 2019 om 00:09 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/setting-a-user-to-watch-first-post-on-a-category/125494/2 "2019-08-12T00:09:08Z")

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Does setting default categories watching first post achieve the same result as setting each member to watch the first post for a category?

https://{site}/admin/site\_settings/category/user\_preferences?filter=watch

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/e/b/ebd94bf146b18c8692d8dfd1bf84865f995a2002.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![csmu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/csmu/32/124581_2.png) [@csmu](https://meta.discourse.org/u/csmu)
#### Post date: [12 augustus 2019 om 00:58 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/setting-a-user-to-watch-first-post-on-a-category/125494/3 "2019-08-12T00:58:49Z")

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This post pretty much sorts out what I wanted to do.

> [@(Obsolete) Set category tracking level defaults historically](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-set-category-tracking-level-defaults-historically/53165):
>
> warning Following the release of Discourse v2.4.0.beta7 (or if you have [this commit](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/b2f682f35eba0cc3f09588356ecf8d1dd824542f)), admins now have the option to set the category tracking levels of all existing users when setting the default category tracking levels in their site settings: Add a category to one of the following site settings, then select the green checkbox button. A modal window will pop up with the following options: play_button The old way using the console