Subscriptions and Notifications in the Canvas Community

[erinhmcmillan]

What do you know about subscriptions in the Community?

If you are interested in keeping up with a specific content item, you can subscribe to that item and get email updates based on your preferences. Subscription granularity allows you to choose the level of communication you want to receive from the Canvas Community.

In the previous community, subscribing (or following) a content item only provided a notification if a document included a major edit; any edits marked as minor were not part of notification updates. However, in the new Community platform, we have a little more granularity to work with regarding notifications. 

Terminology

Some notifications may mention a topic or an article or a board. What do these words mean?

• A board houses all content types for a specific subject or product; content types can include forums, knowledge bases, and blogs
• A forum is the equivalent of the Q&A page to create and engage in discussions
• A topic is the main post created in a forum
• An article is created as part of a knowledge base (e.g. all content in the Canvas guides)

Notification Types and Frequency

If you haven’t changed any of your notification settings, your notifications will retain the default settings for your subscriptions.

You can manage your subscriptions at any time by viewing Subscriptions & Notifications in your user profile page. These options let you choose specifically how and when you want to receive updates related to any subscribed content item in the Community.

The following settings and notification types outline subscriptions and frequency options you’ll commonly use in the Community.

General Settings

Automatically subscribe me to all topics or reviews I participate in

• Options: On/Off
• Default: On

If you engage in content in the community—even if you aren’t subscribed to that content—keeping this setting turned on will automatically subscribe you to those content items and display them in your user profile Subscriptions & Notifications tab. So if you don’t want to automatically be subscribed to any content where you leave a comment, you’ll want to make sure this notification is turned off. 

Automatically subscribe me to all group hubs that I join

• Options: On/Off
• Default: Off

This setting allows you to receive notifications about group hub participation, such as new messages, new replies/comments, blogs posted within the group, and moved messages for any boards within the group. You will only be subscribed automatically to group you join after this setting is turned on. If you have already joined a group before enabling this setting, you must subscribe to those group manually. 

For my forum subscriptions, notify me for

• Options: All posts, only the first post in each topic, use default (all posts)
• Default: All posts

This setting allows you to receive notifications for subscriptions in any forum, either by all posts or only the first post as part of the topic.

Email Notifications

New updates and replies posted in boards I subscribe to

• Options: never, immediately, daily digest, or weekly
• Default: daily digest

This notification is to receive all content posted for an entire board, including replies. For instance, if you subscribe to the Canvas Release Notes board, you will automatically receive notifications for all new posted content in the board, and all replies to content within the board. Subscribing to an entire board is helpful if you frequent the board and you want to be notified of any new content. (You can choose what kind of content update you receive as part of the Edits to published knowledge base articles and topics in areas I subscribe to notification.)

New updates and replies posted to individual content I subscribe to

• Options: never, immediately, daily digest, or weekly
• Default: daily digest

This notification is to receive new replies AND updates posted to individual content where you have a subscription. For instance, if you subscribe to a Canvas Release Notes article, you’ll get updates on any content and any replies. (You can choose what kind of content update you receive as part of the Edits to published knowledge base articles and topics in areas I subscribe to notification.)

Replies to other threaded replies I subscribe to

• Options: never, immediately, daily digest, or weekly
• Default: immediately

If you are subscribed to a content item that supports threaded replies, you can choose to receive replies to other replies. For instance, if User A posts a reply, and User B replies directly to User A, enabling this notification type sends you the reply as a notification from User B.

Content using a label I subscribe to

• Options: never, immediately, daily digest, or weekly
• Default: daily digest

Labels are used to identify content across multiple boards. You can subscribe to individual labels and be notified when someone adds that same label to content in the Community.

Posts I’m @mentioned in

• Options: never, immediately, daily digest, or weekly
• Default: immediately

If a user mentions you directly in the Community, this option lets you be notified that you were mentioned.

Posts my content is @mentioned in

• Options: never, immediately, daily digest, or weekly
• Default: immediately

If a user mentions a content item you authored in the Community, this option lets you be notified where that content was mentioned.

Edits to published knowledge base articles and topics in areas I subscribe to

• Options: For all but minor edits, for all edits (including minor edits), never
• Default: Never
  
  

Caveat: You must have at least one subscription for this notification to be effective.

Choose for all edits (including minor edits) to be notified when any change to a knowledge base article (e.g. release notes) is published.

Choose For all but minor edits to be notified when any change to a knowledge base article or topic is published, except for a minor edit to a knowledge base article. Minor edits are defined as edits that don’t affect any action items in the content, such as correcting a spelling error or adding a related idea conversation link. 

If you subscribe to an entire board or knowledge base, you are notified of any change to any message or article. Otherwise, you are notified of changes only to messages and articles you subscribe to.

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Learn more about notifications as part of the Community Topic: Release Notes CanvasLIVE Event on March 3—this event will also be recorded in case you can’t make it. See you then!