Hey - using the Subscriptions plugin.

My client uses the forums as a communication platform with his clients. Each forum and its children regards one project, and a client should be notified of activity on all topics within this form and its children.

My client swears that when he used the site more actively (may have been two years ago, even) that he had a button he could use on the backend to quickly subscribe a user in such a way. I don't see anything. Does that sound like something that might have existed at one point?

Afraid not. that has never been possible. It IS possible to auto-subscribe users but they are also free to turn it off if they so choose.

Is the auto-subscription something that the site admin can do?

yes...  multiple ways...  sort of...

first, built into core, you can have members auto subscribed to topics they post in... done on forum - components - subscriptions... this will only be for new topics they post in...  and only their posts.. so not really what you want...

but using the membership subscribe plugin, you can fully achieve this...  users in a particular user group / permission set on a forum(s), can be auto subscribed to the forum...  be sure to read the codex page for how to set that up for existing forums and user group memberships...

That plugin sounds exactly like what he remembers having. Would it all have been bundled at one point?

Last question - does signing a user group up for a subscription apply to a forum and also its child forums? This seems to be closely tied to permissions, and I know permissions are inherited, so I'm inclined to assume yes. Would like to make sure, as I don't remember seeing clarification in the codex.

No, afraid it has never been included... in fact, we only added the plugin after many requests for it despite us really behaving things should be opt in vs opt out... but the masses spoke 😉

No, subscriptions are per forum... they do not apply to a child forum... each forum is really its own forum...  child forums only provide organization...  there is no kind of inheritance (though I do understand the idea)...

Hey folks,

Installed the plugin and followed the codex step by step to ensure all permissions are set up (user group can subscribe to forums and topics). Created a new forum and assigned a user group with permissions to the forum. Checked the box to auto-subscribe users in the group when I assigned it.

I still do not see the users under the list of subscribers to that forum pr the topic I created in that forum. No mail went out when creating a topic in that forum either.

I'd love a hand with this.

Wanted to add that I did end up getting a daily digest that included the topics I should have been auto-subscribed to, but really need these to be going out real-time.

its an admin option to send out real time subscription emails or digests... forum - components - subscriptions...  you can enable digests...  and force digests...  if you enabled digests, then users have the option in their profile to get digests instead of each post...  unless you force digests, then everyone only gets the digest... and for forum subscriptions, users can also opt to only receive notifications for new topics in a forum vice every post in a forum..

what settings do you have?

also keep in mind that simple press doesnt actually send the emails, wp does...  you shouldnt notice any real difference there, but if you have some other plugin handling wp email, it could...  also, exactly when your server sends the email is our of wp control...  most do it right away, but some could queue or throttle...

also, if you are forum subscribed, you wont see a topic subscription listed for topics or users... only forum..

also, if you are forum subscribed, you wont see a topic subscription listed for topics or users… only forum..

Got it. I do see that properly.

unless you force digests, then everyone only gets the digest…

Ah, it isn't super clear that that option, in addition to forcing folks to get the digest, also disables the real-time emaills. I unchecked that and emails started going out as expected. Thanks for the tip.