# Watch Users Setting **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature\ **Tags:** completed\ **Created:** [June 18, 2019, 5:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watch-users-setting/120716 "2019-06-18T17:49:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 11
**Author:** ![Grayden\_Shand](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/grayden_shand/32/166586_2.png) [@Grayden\_Shand](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Grayden_Shand)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 1:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watch-users-setting/120716/11 "2020-04-29T13:06:08Z")
> [@sam](#): > > One huge question I have here is what value this would provide over having a slightly different category structure? > > If you have posts that you really want everyone to be aware of you could create a category for announcements and make sure people watch or track it. Happy to give my take, I think an example will help you understand where I see the value in this feature. Let’s say that you have a community of (amateur) writers. The purpose of the community is for these creatives to discuss their craft, but also to give each other feedback and motivation on their work. One category is called “Weekly Prompts”, in which the community staff post a weekly writing prompt. Writers can add their response to the prompt as a topic, and get feedback from their peers. As a writer, let’s say you find another writer that you just jive with. You love reading eachother’s work, and you both leave great feedback. In fact, you want to make sure you see all of this other writer’s work. So you ask them to @ mention you when they post. However, they say they have 10 other people who also want to follow their work, and it’s a lot to ask the writer to @ mention each individual every time they post. So, they form a group. Now, the writer @ mentions the group when they post. This works for a while, but what if I find someone else whose work I want to follow that is in a different feedback group? It results in a fractal group structure where, yes each user might have say 10 other people in their network, but it’s the SAME 10 people for each user in the group. If I want to follow someone new, I either need to add them to my group (meaning that now everyone in my group follows them) or I need to create a new group for this new circle. I help run an e-learning platform through discourse, and this is exactly the situation we’re in. The ability to follow someone a student has connected with in our workshops is probably the most requested feature from our users. So, to your specific point, it’s not that I want EVERYONE to be aware of an announcement, I see this feature supporting a tighter connection between individuals in a community. > [@sam](#): > > There are also lots of concerns around the “followed” feeling bad. If every time a celebrity posts on a form the same 50 people like them and reply to them cause they have them on the crossfires it can be quite stressful for said celebrity. Also… how does this not become a popularity contest? These are totally valid concerns. I certainly don’t pretend to have THE answers. However, to get around the concerns about “followed” feeling bad, maybe it’s a symmetrical connection, so I can’t follow you unless you also follow me (think facebook friends instead of twitter followers). How do we avoid it becoming a popularity contest? Well what if there was an option to set a cap on the number of connections you can have? This would drive home the point that it’s not about the quantity, but the quality of your connections. Admittedly this could cause some awkward tension if your “friend” ditches you to make room for someone else… Alternatively, you could make your “followers” list private so that no one knows who is popular and who has no followers. Let me know if you have any more questions I might be able to help think through! Thanks Sam. --- _[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watch-users-setting/120716)._