8. Email from the Discussion Forums

Why am I getting so much mail?

Forum posts are sent to you via email when you are subscribed to a forum.

By default, you are automatically subscribed to a forum when you post in it.

Your options

If you don't want to be auto-subscribed to a particular forum:

  1. Click on "Advanced" just below the "Message" field, after you compose your post.
  2. Uncheck the "Discussion subscription" checkbox that will now be visible below the "Message" field.
  3. Scroll down and click on the "Post to forum" button.

If you don't want to be auto-subscribed to any forums when you post in them, you can change that in your preferences. Here's how:

  1. Click on your name in the upper right corner of the screen to open the User Menu and then click on "Preferences."
  2. On the "Preferences" page, look in the "User account" block and click on "Forum preferences."
  3. On the "Forum preferences" page click on the drop-down for "Forum auto-subscribe" and change it to "No, don't automatically subscribe me to the forum discussions."
  4. While you are there, you may also want to set "Forum tracking" to "Yes, highlight new posts for me" so Moodle will highlight anything you haven't read yet each time you log in.
  5. When finished with your forum preferences, click on the "Save changes" button.

If you want to remain subscribed and receive a daily digest instead of a single email for each post, you can change that in your preferences. Here's how:

  1. Click on your name in the upper right corner of the screen to open the User Menu and then click on "Preferences."
  2. On the "Preferences" page, look in the "User account" block and click on "Forum preferences."
  3. On the "Forum preferences" page click on the drop-down for "Email digest type" and chose among the options. Click on the question mark in a blue circle for a description of each option.
  4. When finished with your forum preferences, click on the "Save changes" button.

Beyond the auto-subscribe option, you can also subscribe and unsubscribe from most topics and forums at any time.

To unsubscribe from a forum as a whole:

  1. Go to the forum from which you are receiving email.
  2. Click on the blue gear icon in the upper right corner of the forum page, just to the right of the forum's title.
  3. A drop-down menu will open. If you are subscribed, click on "Unsubscribe from this forum." If you are not subscribed and want to be, click on "Subscribe to this forum."

To unsubscribe from one or more individual topics in a forum:

  1. Go to the forum and look at the list of discussion topics your colleagues have created.
  2. Look for the subscription toggle on the far right side of the row that contains the topic you want to change.
    • If the subscription toggle is off (positioned to the left and gray), that means you are not subscribed. Click the toggle to subscribe.
    • If the subscription toggle is on (positioned to the right with a blue background), that means you are subscribed. Click the toggle to unsubscribe.
  3. This enables you to receive email from some topics in a forum and not others.

You will always receive email from the facilitator in the "Announcements" forum. You can't unsubscribe from that one.