By default, Moodle forums have optional subscriptions. That means that students can choose to receive email alerts when someone posts to a forum (by subscribing to the forum), but students can also choose not to receive those messages by not changing that forum subscription setting. If a student is not subscribed to a forum, they need to check their Moodle course frequently, especially when the act of posting to the forum (along with reading entries by fellow students) is required by the instructor.
Sometimes, a user's profile automatically subscribes that person to all forums to which they contribute. If you are overwhelmed by the amount of forum-related email messages you are receiving, you can change that setting as follows:
- Log in to Moodle at https://moodle.bucknell.edu.
- You will see your name in the top-right corner of the screen. Hover your mouse over your name, and click on "Preferences":
![The list of links that appears when you click on your name in the top right corner, highlighting "Preferences"](https://bucknell.teamdynamix.com/TDPortal/Images/Viewer?fileName=a8f2db1c-1ecc-47fc-8aaf-a1f0c1de0da3.gif)
- In the "User account" section, click on "Forum preferences."
![Forum preferences](https://bucknell.teamdynamix.com/TDPortal/Images/Viewer?fileName=8aa1ddec-51b5-492e-b7bb-56ed40860d67.gif)
- On the "Forum preferences" screen, if the "Forum auto-subscribe option" says "Yes: when I post, subscribe me to that forum discussion," click on the drop-down arrow, and change that setting to "No: don't automatically subscribe me to forum discussions." (Note: while you are on that screen, you may want to change the "Forum tracking" setting to "Yes: highlight new posts for me." )
- When you are done making changes, click on the "Save changes" button to send your changes to the server. We have shown those steps (for changing the auto-subscribe option) in the figure below:
![The Forum Preferences, showing the "No, don't automatically subscribe me" option selected in the drop-down and the "Save changes" button highlighted.](https://bucknell.teamdynamix.com/TDPortal/Images/Viewer?fileName=83866a0a-5b09-4c17-99e2-55b71ecc9bbf.gif)