Watching a post helps members follow conversations they care about without needing to check back manually. This is especially helpful for ongoing discussions, support questions, and announcement threads where new replies may be added over time.
Watch a post
Members can watch a forum post directly from the post detail page.
To watch a post:
Open the forum post you want to follow.
Click Watch.
The button will update to Watching.
A confirmation message will appear letting you know that you’ll be notified when new comments are added.
Once a member starts watching a post, they can receive updates through the in-community notification center and email notifications.
In-community notifications
Notifications for watched posts appear in the Comments tab of the notification center. This makes it easy for members to return to discussions they are following and keep up with new replies as they happen.
Email notifications
New activity on posts a member watches can be included in the New activity from your follows email along with activity from people and boards they follow.
Watched-post updates are grouped by post and can include recent comments and replies. A member’s own comments and replies are not included.
Viewing an update in the notification center does not remove it from the next consolidated email. Notification center read or unread status only affects how the notification appears in the community.
Notification settings
Members can turn watched-post email updates on or off using New activity from your follows under the Forum section of Notification Settings.
This preference controls the entire consolidated email, including activity from watched posts, people the member follows, and boards they follow. Watched-post emails cannot be turned on or off separately.
The community administrator controls whether the consolidated email is available and how often it is sent.
Prompt members to watch a post after commenting
You can also setup the community to prompt members to watch a post after they leave a comment. This prompt is only shown when the member is not already watching the post and is not the author of the post.
This setting is controlled in the dashboard and is turned off by default. Community admins can turn on it in Forum Settings.
View watched posts and followed content
Members can manage their saved Forum activity from the Watching & Following page.
This page includes three tabs:
Watching Posts
Following Boards
Following People
The Watching Posts tab lists the posts a member is currently watching and remains ordered by the most recent watch activity.
Learn more about followed boards and people.
Track watch activity in the dashboard
Admins can track watch activity from the forum post list in the dashboard.
A Watching column appears alongside other post engagement metrics such as comments, views, and reactions. This gives admins another way to see how many posts are being watched and generating ongoing interest and continued discussion.
Important Callouts
Members do not receive notifications for their own comments.
Post authors cannot watch their own posts from the post detail page.
The post-comment watch prompt must be enabled in dashboard settings before members will see it.
Watched-post email updates are included in the consolidated New activity from your follows email and follow the email frequency configured for the community.
Viewing a watched-post notification in the notification center does not remove that activity from the consolidated email.