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 |
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 |
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 |