The Default categories watching first post site setting allows admins to set which categories will automatically be set to “Watching First Post” for all new users on your Discourse site.
How it works
- Any category you add to this list will have the “Watching First Post” notification level for new users, by default.
- After you save, you can choose to apply this change only for new signups, or retroactively for existing users.
- Users can still change their personal notification settings if they wish.
Any user can manually set their category notification preference to Watching First Post (or any other level) by:
- Navigating to the category they’re interested in.
- Clicking the bell icon near the top right of the category page (next to the New Topic button).
- Selecting “Watching First Post” from the dropdown menu.
This overrides any site-wide or admin default for that category, applying only to that user’s account.