defaults vs user settings

Is

The selected subscriptions will be given to newly created users:

the information you're looking for? It's at the top of the page where you entered the subscriptions for roles.

My issue with that is, if they go in and check a single box, does that over-ride all the other settings I may have made in the default settings? So by checking one box destroys the other default settings?

They're not destroyed, but the defaults that you've set (and the user hasn't changed) are stored as the user's preferences. If the user doesn't change a setting, there's no way to tell whether he wants to pin it down or leave it floating.

I would have thought that when I a user visits their own profile, they would see all the default settings with the appropriate default checkboxes and intervals and they could change things from there....

They should see the site's defaults that you as the admin has set for them, as long as they haven't saved their own preferences. What makes you think that this is not what you're seeing?

if a post is tagged with one of the unchecked categories, it won't be included in the subscription mail out?

Yes, we only send what the user has subscribed to. Any other strategy could be viewed as spamming.

if there were none checked and a user customizes their settings, all their checkboxes would be checked, forcing them to de-select categories they aren't interested in (once again to promote MORE info being sent out than less).

No, we're not forcing anyone to do anything.

Maybe I am being confusing here...and I should just be asking if the default for all check boxes in all the settings (default/user) are checked rather than unchecked and then let the admins or users decide what NOT to include....maybe that is easier.

Subscriptions are off by default. The user default settings are taken from admin/settings/subscriptions/userdefaults.

I'm sure many of my questions could be answered by me just trying some settings....but I have intervals set for Weekly and it could be a lengthy testing process. I was hoping to get some answers since I can't find documentation that could answer this.

Indeed, I'd recommend setting up a test site where you can run cron more frequently.

it is making more and more sense to me.... :)

Great! :-)

I think there's some confusion about the term "Settings". From the user perspective, Settings are what's on the user/UID/subscriptions page inside the expandable "Settings" box. Anything else are not Settings but Subscriptions.

For the admin we have Site Setting on admin/settings/subscriptions and User Default Settings on admin/settings/subscriptions/userdefaults.

Then we have User Default Subscriptions on pages below admin/settings/subscriptions/userdefaults, such as admin/settings/subscriptions/userdefaults/type.

The User Default Subscriptions are only applied when you create a new user. Applying any changes there to existing users would call for trouble.

The User Default Settings are used for all users, as long as they haven't saved their own Settings. After that, they're on their own, but they can re-join the crowd by clicking on [Reset to site defaults].

This is how it's supposed to behave, and I'm pretty sure that it does behave that way. Can you tell me how I could make it easier to understand this from the start, without having to call for support?

Please look at user/1/subscriptions, search for the word "Settings", and if the fieldset is collapsed then click on it to expand it. Those are the User Settings.

Now look at admin/settings/subscriptions/userdefaults and search for the word "Settings" again. Those are the Default User Settings.

Look closely and you'll find that there's a correspondence between the two pages. As long as the user hasn't saved his settings, they'll be the same as the Default User Settings. Change the Default User Settings and the User Settings will change accordingly.

This page:
admin/settings/subscriptions/userdefaults/type
DOES certainly clearly say that it only applies to new users and works well but (I think) I'm having troubles subscribing existing users to my ideal user settings (which I've set on admin/settings/subscriptions/userdefaults/type).

The other pages under admin/settings/subscriptions/userdefaults are NOT "settings"!!! They are Subscriptions.

The only way to change a user's subscriptions is to do it one user at a time. We've discussed this in #171853: Subscribe all the users of a role to a taxonomy term.

can you explain/describe how existing users subscriptions will look like if the Subscriptions module is installed after users are signed up and the "new users defaults" have been changed??

Existing users will have no subscriptions until they create some for themselves.

You can encourage this by posting messages on your site with links that create subscriptions when the users click on them, as described in README.txt.

Hi mdowsett. I am running into exactly the same issue and do not want to spend two hours going through each existing user to update his subscription settings. Would you have a short explanation of your method? Thanks in advance.

Well, trying again. I basically switched from notify to subscriptions and had all my users in the same kind of notification. I can't seem to automatically assign a type fo subscription to my existing user. Is there some kind of simple way to do this? Thanks for helping.