# What are some simple ways to improve digest emails
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** activity-summary
**Created:** [9월 14, 2015, 2:53오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224 "2015-09-14T14:53:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [1월 20, 2016, 6:48오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224/21 "2016-01-20T18:48:22Z")
Nah, this breaks down utterly when there are dozens of categories. Current system is best, as far as user preferences page…
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### Author:  [@charleswalter](https://meta.discourse.org/u/charleswalter)
#### Post date: [2월 11, 2016, 7:47오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224/22 "2016-02-11T19:47:01Z")
Any chance of excluding topics from the digest that are from categories that have been suppressed from the homepage? @codinghorror
We currently suppress a category which is intended for 18+, but we have users who could be registered under 18. Not to mention other categories which are not of general interest
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### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [2월 15, 2016, 5:39오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224/23 "2016-02-15T05:39:04Z")
Sometimes the excerpts chosen for the digest don’t make a lot of sense. This can happen when a post starts with a couple of short paragraphs (usually a salutation and an introduction.) It can also happen when a post starts with "Hi 🙂 ". For these cases, increasing the character count in `UserNotificationHelper#first_paragraph_from` could make it more likely that the excerpt has some substance.
I noticed a lot of posts in the BoingBoing digest are just a title and a “[Read the post]” link. It may be that that’s the way they want it. If it isn’t, and those posts are just being picked up by `Post#best_post`, it could help to add a word\_count constraint to that method. Something like: `posts.where("word_count > 7").order('score desc').limit(1).first`
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [6월 30, 2016, 8:43오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224/24 "2016-06-30T08:43:26Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> Hmm, that’s a different word I didn’t see suggested yet: “summaries”
FYI digest was officially renamed summary in 1.6, for those that care about such things.
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### Author:  [@alehandrof](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alehandrof)
#### Post date: [6월 30, 2016, 11:15오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224/25 "2016-06-30T11:15:34Z")
I was confused about the purpose and functionality of the digest as well. Now that it has been renamed “summary” is there an open FR to provide digest/updates functionality, like that of Google Groups or traditional email lists?
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### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [7월 1, 2016, 11:44오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224/26 "2016-07-01T11:44:50Z")
Yes, there’s a “Daily updates” option if you’ve got Mailing list mode enabled:
> [@"Daily updates" option for mailing list mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/daily-updates-option-for-mailing-list-mode/45029):
>
> Continuing the discussion from [“More granular mailing list mode”](https://meta.discourse.org/t/more-granular-mailing-list-mode/38107): Mailing list mode and some related features have received several updates recently. Minor tweaks include: Renamed [“Email digest” to “Activity Summary”](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224/17) We now allow admins to [completely disable mailing list mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/completely-disable-mailing-list-mode/37334). But most importantly, when mailing list mode is enabled, there is now a new default option called “Daily updates”. Enabling “Daily updates” will disable the Activity Summary to avoid redundant ove…
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### Author:  [@alehandrof](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alehandrof)
#### Post date: [7월 1, 2016, 12:33오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224/27 "2016-07-01T12:33:56Z")
Thank you! I’ll turn this feature on in a few Discoursi (I think that’s the plural, right? 😛) to see if it will work for my community. Is there a non-technical changelog anywhere? During April and May I was in deep in the weeds organising a conference in meatspace and I’m pretty sure I’ve missed cool things.
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### Author:  [@neil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/neil)
#### Post date: [8월 18, 2016, 9:26오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224/28 "2016-08-18T21:26:45Z")
Some improvements in the summary emails recently:
- muted tags are respected when choosing topics
- categories and topics you’re watching and tracking are given priority
Done a while ago but not mentioned here:
- the `digest suppress categories` setting will do what Charles was asking for, to define categories that shouldn’t be included
- categories you’ve muted won’t be included
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### Author:  [@tomeoftom](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tomeoftom)
#### Post date: [1월 5, 2017, 7:32오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224/29 "2017-01-05T07:32:51Z")
Please, please change the 1-week digest default on new installations - it’s so infuriating. I don’t ever want a digest email, and forcing someone to go into settings for every Discourse community and disable the digest as part of their regular sign-up-to-a-Discourse-process is such a waste of time. When you sign up to a community, you don’t necessarily know if you’ll want to stick around - the digests assume you’re interested in the long-term just because you signed up. Please respect people’s inboxes.
If you want to give site owners the power to annoy people, I don’t support that but I can see why you’d want it. But **please** change the _default_ setting, at least, so lazy installers don’t proliferate digests on tiny communities everywhere.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [1월 5, 2017, 7:50오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224/30 "2017-01-05T07:50:13Z")
Bear in mind the summary is only sent if the user has not been seen for a week, and for no more than 1 year. Also unsubscribing is one click.
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### Author:  [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [12월 4, 2025, 11:36오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224/32 "2025-12-04T11:36:59Z")
[이전 페이지](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224.md?page=1)