# Unlisted topic updates go to "Send me an email for every new post" setting users
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/unlisted-topic-updates-go-to-send-me-an-email-for-every-new-post-setting-users/27257
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** unlisting
**Created:** [6 april 2015 om 16:26 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unlisted-topic-updates-go-to-send-me-an-email-for-every-new-post-setting-users/27257 "2015-04-06T16:26:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jesselperry](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jesselperry)
#### Post date: [6 april 2015 om 16:26 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unlisted-topic-updates-go-to-send-me-an-email-for-every-new-post-setting-users/27257/1 "2015-04-06T16:26:52Z")
While unlisted topics don’t get sent out on digest (correct behavior for sure IMO)…
Users with the “Send me an email for every new post (unless I mute the topic or category)” preferences checked get every update to an unlisted topic, even if they have not participated in the topic.
**Repo:**
1. User B has “Send me an email for every new post (unless I mute the topic or category)” setting on
2. User A posts new topic, User B gets email about new topic
3. Admin unlists topic
4. Subsequent posts to topic get sent to User B, even though User B _never participated_ in the topic
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [6 april 2015 om 17:56 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unlisted-topic-updates-go-to-send-me-an-email-for-every-new-post-setting-users/27257/2 "2015-04-06T17:56:43Z")
Correct. Unlisted simply means the topic will not show in topic lists, that has zero bearing on email notifications for posts.
---
### Author:  [@jesselperry](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jesselperry)
#### Post date: [6 april 2015 om 20:13 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unlisted-topic-updates-go-to-send-me-an-email-for-every-new-post-setting-users/27257/3 "2015-04-06T20:13:57Z")
Unlisted topics don’t appear in digests though. So I would think similarly they shouldn’t be sent out for users with the _every new topic_ setting checked.
---
### Author:  [@jesselperry](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jesselperry)
#### Post date: [6 april 2015 om 21:17 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unlisted-topic-updates-go-to-send-me-an-email-for-every-new-post-setting-users/27257/4 "2015-04-06T21:17:30Z")
For instance if posts are being discussed like this where they need to stay private (although not guaranteed private of course if someone happened to have the link):
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/non-staff-receive-notifications-of-unlisted-topics/24276/7?u=jesselperry](https://meta.discourse.org/t/non-staff-receive-notifications-of-unlisted-topics/24276/7)
Of course emails should still go out to anyone that happened to have gone in & marked the topic as **Watching** or **Tracking** , but to receive email updates to a topic they otherwise _never_ interacted with seems like a loophole to me.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [6 april 2015 om 21:19 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unlisted-topic-updates-go-to-send-me-an-email-for-every-new-post-setting-users/27257/5 "2015-04-06T21:19:25Z")
Yeah that is correct, its an oversight we should fix. Care to try out your first PR 🙂
---
### Author:  [@jesselperry](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jesselperry)
#### Post date: [6 april 2015 om 21:23 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unlisted-topic-updates-go-to-send-me-an-email-for-every-new-post-setting-users/27257/6 "2015-04-06T21:23:17Z")
😃 I really would love to!
However Ruby and whatever else involved to fix this would be _way_ over my head. I really would love to contribute if I could. However in the meantime I think my efforts towards the Discourse project are best served finding nuanced bugs 🙂
> [@Possible to donate money to Discourse?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/possible-to-donate-money-to-discourse/26208/9):
>
> We appreciate the sentiment, but often the best way to contribute involves your time more than money. Yes, you could sign up for a hosting plan. That’s always appreciated. or… set up a Discourse development environment and contribute pull requests to Discourse for copy, features, bugs, or translations repro bugs and post detailed (and reproducible, on [try.discourse.org](http://try.discourse.org) or here) bug repro steps here on meta run your own Discourse forum and provide feature and support feedback based on y…
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [7 april 2015 om 03:31 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unlisted-topic-updates-go-to-send-me-an-email-for-every-new-post-setting-users/27257/7 "2015-04-07T03:31:59Z")
> [@jesselperry](#):
>
> Unlisted topics don’t appear in digests though. So I would think similarly they shouldn’t be sent out for users with the every new topic setting checked.
Errr what? The setting says **email me every new post** and these are new posts. Unlisted only affects appearing in topic lists.
---
### Author:  [@jesselperry](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jesselperry)
#### Post date: [7 april 2015 om 04:14 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unlisted-topic-updates-go-to-send-me-an-email-for-every-new-post-setting-users/27257/8 "2015-04-07T04:14:59Z")
Regardless, I would argue that admins expect those topics to be completely hidden to users that aren’t otherwise already involved in the topic. As I said, this seems like a loophole as virtue of the email me **every new post feature** , not an intended behavior admins would expect.
Just as posts to hidden topics don’t appear in a user’s /activity/posts - _technically_ that’s not a list of topics either, but those posts aren’t listed there.
---
### Author:  [@ljf](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ljf)
#### Post date: [30 oktober 2024 om 10:07 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/unlisted-topic-updates-go-to-send-me-an-email-for-every-new-post-setting-users/27257/9 "2024-10-30T10:07:19Z")
We discovered the same problem. We were preparing a topic announcement about the new version of our software for tomorrow and tada someone share it on social network before the D day !!!
Moderation feature and email notif can also be an (other) issue.