Watching vs Tracking vs Normal

Hangar200 · January 24, 2021, 8:14am

Has something changed with the default settings for new threads? It seems that every time I view a new thread, it sets it to “Watching” which means I get notified every time somebody responds.

IIRC this used to default to “Normal” meaning you only got notified (a little number under your avatar at the top menu bar) if somebody replied to one of your posts or mentioned you. Also, IIRC, it defaulted to “Tracking” (Normal plus a count of new replies) if you started the thread.

“Watching” is a notification of every new reply. That seems excessive as a default setting. For example, today I was notified of all the activity on “Viper uncontrollable longitudinal oscillation”. Yes, I responded to it once, in jest (since deleted). Still that shouldn’t change anything.

Troll · January 24, 2021, 8:31am

Uhmmmm… Not sure if anything changed, but I think you can control that via this setting?

Hangar200 · January 24, 2021, 8:31am

God Morgen!

OK, I’ll try that. Thanks.

Flying today? (RL) Looks like a nice day for it.

Troll · January 24, 2021, 9:49am

Morrn!
No flying. Off until tuesday.

Hangar200 · January 28, 2021, 10:11am

Hmmmm…I’m still having threads pop up as Tracking… today the RAZBAM A-29 Super Tucano thread came up as tracking…weird.

Easily enough fixed, one at a time.

wheelsup_cavu · January 31, 2021, 7:43am

You posted in the Super Tucano thread so Troll’s answer for Automatically track topics I enter will not apply in that situation. You need to alter the When I post in a topic option below it.

Wheels

Troll · January 31, 2021, 8:51am

Thanks, @wheelsup_cavu!
I was kind of stumped by this issue…
The simple answer turned out to be true, again.

Hangar200 · January 31, 2021, 10:23am

Ah ha! OK, now I get it.

I’ll change that to “Normal” and it should fix it.

Thanks to both!

EDIT:… :except…

This was what my settings are and have been (as far as I know) since last summer:

So it has been like that, specifically the “When I post in a topic, set that topic to Normal”

“Uff Da”

wheelsup_cavu · January 31, 2021, 5:40pm

I just looked at the Super Tucano thread again and with your preferences set to Normal I do not see any reason you should have been notified of the new postings since you were not quoted or mentioned by name in any of the new posts? The Muted option that is available in the threads is not available in your Preferences so it looks like the Normal option is the best you can do there @Hangar200. Then you get to play the whack-a-mole Muted game as the topics resurface.

Available Thread Options:
thread_options

Available Preferences Options:
preferences_options

Wheels

Troll · January 31, 2021, 7:08pm

He was replied to, in that thread, previously. Could that have put him on the notification list for other posts besides direct replies too?

wheelsup_cavu · January 31, 2021, 7:24pm

I was coming back to Edit my post @Troll. The fact that @Hangar200 posted in it is the reason he was notified. Imo he was notified because the thread was set to Watching or Tracking before he changed his Preferences to Normal and the edit of your Preferences does not seem to affect threads that have already been categorized. Any thread that was Watched or Tracked before his preferences were changed are going continue to Notify him until he changes that threads preference.

I am unable to find a list of Watched, Tracked, or Normal Topics that would allow you to Edit the Preferences of those topics that are already categorized. Might be a Topic for a feature request at the Discourse forums?

Wheels

Troll · January 31, 2021, 7:46pm

Yeah, I see your point. But changing the user settings and then have them affect older posts is probably a lot of work… Perhaps we should increase the archive frequency of older threads and start new copies of the long runners? Or maybe we just have to accept some extra manual labour to opt out of the threads we grow tired of…

wheelsup_cavu · January 31, 2021, 8:05pm

I did not want the Preference change to alter existing threads @Troll. I was thinking more along the lines of a moderator style list for the user that allowed them to alter the settings.

On my phone so will have to wait to get back home to explain further.

Wheels

Troll · January 31, 2021, 8:06pm

Ah! I think I understand. Yes, that might work…

fearlessfrog · February 1, 2021, 12:06am

Best guess is that the user preference default changed over the years, so it was ‘Watching’ but is now normal.

One useful thing is that the search has a nice way of showing a bunch of things, including what topics are watched or you’ll be alerted to. While I realize @wheelsup_cavu is talking about a single clickable list, this gets you quite close:

fearlessfrog · February 1, 2021, 12:10am

For long running topics, one thing the mods can do is set either the entire ‘category’ (what Discourse calls a sub-forum’) or single topics to ‘Auto Close’. The rules can be quite complex, in that you can say ‘Close this after 30 days of no posts’ or ‘Close this on this date’ or even ‘Close this if over 1000 posts’ etc. How to do this is here:

I would be ok just applying this everywhere, but it can be set up a bit more nuanced, as sometimes it’s nice to go back to a really old topic and add something relevant, e.g. ‘DCS Huey multi-seat’, which got updated after 7 years and was essentially the same topic.

wheelsup_cavu · February 1, 2021, 5:10am

While I was looking through the system I did not see the option to use the search function to find the threads you were watching and tracking @fearlessfrog. Using the Search option will achieve the same function as creating a list and it is already available without any modifications to the forum software.

When it comes to Auto Close I am not a fan in any way.

Wheels