Notification settings are layered, and knowing the order stops a lot of confusion about why something did or did not arrive.
The order
- Channel — do you want notifications here at all?
- Category — do you want notifications about this kind of thing?
- Per-item switch — do you want notifications about this specific item?
A later layer can only narrow, never widen. A follow switch that says “notify me about releases” cannot override a category switch that says “no release notifications”, which cannot override a channel switch that says “no email”.
Channels
| Channel | Default |
|---|---|
| On-site | Always |
| On | |
| Push | Off |
Categories
| Category | Default | Covers |
|---|---|---|
notifySystem |
on | Announcements from us |
notifyComments |
on | Replies to your things |
notifyReviews |
on | Reviews on your items |
notifyReleases |
on | Releases on things you follow |
notifyMentions |
on | Being mentioned |
notifyModeration |
on | Reports, penalties, appeals |
notifyCredits |
on | Being credited on somebody’s work |
notifyPoints |
on | Points given to you |
notifyFriends |
on | Friend requests and acceptances |
notifyFollowers |
on | New followers |
notifyMessages |
on | Direct messages |
notifyStatus |
on | Status updates |
notifyParties |
on | Party invites, a friend starting one, being removed |
notifyGroups |
on | Group invitations and answers to yours |
notifyServerInvites |
on | Somebody inviting you to play on a game server |
For the kinds that have a person behind them (comments, reviews, mentions, friends, followers, messages, status, parties, groups and server invites) you can also choose who may notify you: everyone, friends, people you follow, or nobody. Announcements, moderation, releases, credits and points are caused by us or by an item, so that choice does not apply to them. A block in either direction suppresses a notification from that person outright.
What a notification is about
A notification that concerns a content item (a game, asset, mod, server, article, community, collection, group, party, roadmap card or task, feedback or a bug report) shows a line under it with the item’s kind and name, linking to it. The name is looked up when you open the list, so a rename shows and a deleted item drops the line. It is only named to someone who may still see the item: if it has since been hidden, its owner and staff still see it and everyone else sees the notification without the line. Kinds with no name show the kind alone.
From people you follow
Three global defaults, which each followed member can override individually:
| Switch | Default |
|---|---|
followNotifyPosts |
on |
followNotifyComments |
off |
followNotifyMessages |
on |
The last one defaults on, unlike the other two, because it gates the notification for a direct message from somebody you follow — defaulting it off would silently swallow messages. It exists so a follow can be muted per person, not so following somebody opts you into being messaged.
Per-member overrides are tri-state: unset means “inherit the global”. That is what lets you either flip one switch for everybody or tune individual people.
Per-item follow switches
Each item you follow has its own set — releases, changelogs, updates, roadmap, media, dependencies, comments, discussions, and for servers the online / offline / map-change / population-threshold alerts. See Follows.
Mentions
You can mute mentions from specific places, which is what stops one busy thread turning into a notification per message.
Chat
Two settings that are not really notifications:
| Setting | Default | |
|---|---|---|
chatAutoOpen |
off | Open the chat widget automatically when there are unread messages. Off because an unread badge is enough for most people |
chatSounds |
on | Play a sound on an incoming message |