# Making announcements silent by default **URL:** \ **Category:** Site Feedback\ **Created:** [October 12, 2022, 6:56pm UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/making-announcements-silent-by-default/1375 "2022-10-12T18:56:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Laurent.O](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/racket.discourse.group/laurent.o/32/18_2.png) [@Laurent.O](https://racket.discourse.group/u/Laurent.O)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 6:56pm UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/making-announcements-silent-by-default/1375/1 "2022-10-12T18:56:13Z")
For some reason, the "Announcements" category has "Watching first post" notifications enabled by default. But these announcements are for (Racket-related) conferences and workshops, which is just spam/noise to me, and I suspect also for many other people. I don't mind notifications from the core dev team, say about new releases of Racket though, or a Racket meeting maybe — these are legitimate given the nature of this forum. Note: I know I can remove the Watch first post on this category, but I think that's the wrong fix, as all new users will be bothered similarly. ---
**Author:** ![spdegabrielle](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/racket.discourse.group/spdegabrielle/32/95_2.png) [@spdegabrielle](https://racket.discourse.group/u/spdegabrielle)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 11:30pm UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/making-announcements-silent-by-default/1375/2 "2022-10-12T23:30:49Z")
I've not been able to find a way to do this, so I've asked on the meta.discourse site. > **[Is there a way to exclude a category from mailing list mode?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-exclude-a-category-from-mailing-list-mode/241751?u=spdegabrielle)** > > A large number of our community members prefer mailing list mode, but a couple have indicated they are not interested in messages to the announcements category. (we had a separate mailing list when we were on google groups) Is there a way to exclude... ---
**Author:** ![LiberalArtist](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/racket.discourse.group/liberalartist/32/151_2.png) [@LiberalArtist](https://racket.discourse.group/u/LiberalArtist)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 12:40am UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/making-announcements-silent-by-default/1375/3 "2022-10-13T00:40:31Z")
> [@spdegabrielle](#): > > I've not been able to find a way to do this, so I've asked on the meta.discourse site. > > [Is there a way to exclude a category from mailing list mode? - support - Discourse Meta](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-exclude-a-category-from-mailing-list-mode/241751?u=spdegabrielle) I read @Laurent.O's question differently, I think, than what you asked there. I thought of the "Announcements" category as being similar to the (former, I think) [announce@racket-lang.org](mailto:announce@racket-lang.org) mailing list, which [was described](https://lists.racket-lang.org/) as: > A low-volume, moderated list for announcements, only. (These are posted on the `users` list too, no need to subscribe to both.) Here are [all of the posts](https://lists.racket-lang.org/announce/archive/2017/date.html) that were made to that list in the year 2017: > [@](#): > > **Starting:** _Fri Jan 20 17:39:06 EST 2017_ > **Ending:** _Mon Oct 30 19:03:31 EDT 2017_ > **Messages:** 6 > > - [[Racket announcement] Announcing (seventh RacketCon)](https://lists.racket-lang.org/announce/archive/2017/000088.html), _Vincent St-Amour_ > - [[Racket announcement] Racket v6.8](https://lists.racket-lang.org/announce/archive/2017/000089.html), _Vincent St-Amour_ > - [[Racket announcement] Racket v6.9](https://lists.racket-lang.org/announce/archive/2017/000090.html), _Vincent St-Amour_ > - [[Racket announcement] Racket v6.10](https://lists.racket-lang.org/announce/archive/2017/000091.html), _Vincent St-Amour_ > - [[Racket announcement] Racket v6.10.1](https://lists.racket-lang.org/announce/archive/2017/000092.html), _Vincent St-Amour_ > - [[Racket announcement] Racket v6.11](https://lists.racket-lang.org/announce/archive/2017/000093.html), _Vincent St-Amour_ > > **Last message date:** _Mon Oct 30 19:03:31 EDT 2017_ > **Archived on:** _Mon Oct 30 19:07:42 EDT 2017_ Those sorts of things are in the "Announcements" category, but it's also been getting posts like conference calls for papers that were formerly sent only to the `racket-users` list. Those things certainly fit within the normal meaning of the word "announcements", but I think there's value in marking some narrower category of announcements—maybe something more like "announcements from Racket" than "things you want to announce to Racketeers." I don't think it needs to be _quite_ as low-volume as the old `announce` list, necessarily. Rather than making "Announcements" silent by default, I'd suggest keeping it to things that are justified in being noisy by default. (I'd be equally happy with leaving "Announcements" in its current role, but without the default notifications, and calling the low-volume-with-default-notifications category something else.) For example, I use mailing-list mode just as I was (am) subscribed to the users list, and I wouldn't want to get emails for everything _except_ announcements. But "Announcements" is even more "noisy" than that: posts show up as notifications in the web UI. ![Screenshot 2022-10-12 at 20-04-42 Racket Discussions - The Racket community uses languages to build programs and programs to build languages](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/racket/original/1X/a8558b9d360a20ba21af36bfe99db6c34db6f0fa.png) I think that's a reasonable default for release announcements and a little bit more, but probably for a narrower category than the current "Announcements". (Though obviously it hasn't bothered me enough to change my settings.) * * * P.S. I don't know where the source of [https://lists.racket-lang.org](https://lists.racket-lang.org) is, but it looks like it's in need of some updates, e.g. re [the end of the `racket-dev` list](https://groups.google.com/g/racket-dev/c/p5Vo74sadTo). ---
**Author:** ![gus-massa](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/racket.discourse.group/gus-massa/32/507_2.png) [@gus-massa](https://racket.discourse.group/u/gus-massa)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 12:05pm UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/making-announcements-silent-by-default/1375/4 "2022-10-13T12:05:45Z")
Who can post in "_Announcements_"? Is it possible to restrict that to the core team or something like that? Another possibility is to rename it to something more verbose like "_Official Announcements from the Racket team_". With the current name, it looks sensible to use it to announce a conference. ---
**Author:** ![spdegabrielle](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/racket.discourse.group/spdegabrielle/32/95_2.png) [@spdegabrielle](https://racket.discourse.group/u/spdegabrielle)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 7:47pm UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/making-announcements-silent-by-default/1375/5 "2022-10-13T19:47:22Z")
Anyone can post in announcements. we could make another category. (They are free.) An option is the community to agree what is suitable for announcements and we change the category guidance. Should PL conference announcements be in the ‘Uncategorised’ category? (Perhaps use the event and conference tags?) _Poll ([view on site](https://racket.discourse.group/t/making-announcements-silent-by-default/1375/5))_ ---
**Author:** ![Laurent.O](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/racket.discourse.group/laurent.o/32/18_2.png) [@Laurent.O](https://racket.discourse.group/u/Laurent.O)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 7:56pm UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/making-announcements-silent-by-default/1375/6 "2022-10-13T19:56:14Z")
I voted other, thinking of a "other announcements" category but I just saw that tags have the same options as categories regarding notifications so either should be fine. Are there any significant differences between tags and categories? ---
**Author:** ![spdegabrielle](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/racket.discourse.group/spdegabrielle/32/95_2.png) [@spdegabrielle](https://racket.discourse.group/u/spdegabrielle)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 8:19pm UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/making-announcements-silent-by-default/1375/7 "2022-10-13T20:19:25Z")
They have the same notification settings as categories: ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/racket/original/1X/efb6d669a45bd7f3df59345fa189b8b5eb165d96.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![LiberalArtist](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/racket.discourse.group/liberalartist/32/151_2.png) [@LiberalArtist](https://racket.discourse.group/u/LiberalArtist)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2022, 4:26pm UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/making-announcements-silent-by-default/1375/8 "2022-10-15T16:26:41Z")
> [@gus-massa](#): > > Who can post in "_Announcements_"? Is it possible to restrict that to the core team or something like that? I'd favor a technical restriction on "Announcements" (or, if we keep "Announcements" for its current purpose, for the category with the notification settings we currently have on "Announcements"). I can imagine a restriction being perceived as unfriendly, but I think actually it would be a way of helping potential posters. If I had a conference to announce, "Announcements" is probably the category I'd pick, and then I'd be chagrined that it had special semantics and I was actually being noisier than I'd intended to be. If we have a category (or tag, or whatever mechanism seems good) with special notification settings, I think we should have a technical mechanism to help people avoid mistakes. ---
**Author:** ![spdegabrielle](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/racket.discourse.group/spdegabrielle/32/95_2.png) [@spdegabrielle](https://racket.discourse.group/u/spdegabrielle)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2022, 8:31pm UTC](https://racket.discourse.group/t/making-announcements-silent-by-default/1375/9 "2022-11-02T20:31:00Z")
In an effort to stay within the description of the Announcements category I’ll be putting Racket Meet-up announcements in the General category and tagging it as [event](https://racket.discourse.group/tag/event) and [meet-up](https://racket.discourse.group/tag/meet-up) Like this > [@Racket meet-up 5 November at 18:00 UTC racket](https://racket.discourse.group/t/racket-meet-up-5-november-at-18-00-utc/1425): > > Racket meet-up 5 November at 18:00 UTC racketAt this meet-up: Show and tell News & rumours AOB Meet-up time at your location: 2022-11-05T18:00:00Z (UTC) (Discourse should convert this for you) In the 'Racket Room': [https://gather.town/app/wH1EDG3McffLjrs0/racket-users](https://gather.town/app/wH1EDG3McffLjrs0/racket-users) Racket meet-ups are on the first Saturday of EVERY Month at 18:00 UTC 30 minutes but can overrun (it usually lasts ~1hr) Discord event invite: [https://discord.gg/n9MUBwCR?event=1036453012039807016](https://discord.gg/n9MUBwCR?event=1036453012039807016). (optional) EVERYONE W… I’ll encourage others - including conference announcements and ‘call for papers/submissions/contributions’-type announcements to do the same. Making use of the tags makes it easier for people who want these notifications find them, while letting those who are not interested filter them out. Keep on trucking Stephen :beetle: