Blog functionality
Asked by Matt Cerimele:

Is there a way to force subscribe people to our blog so they receive all posts?

If not, is there a way to customize a blog to do that?


Answers:
author: Alex Koxaras _Relational_
body: Hi [@Matt Cerimele](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5115286) and welcome to the community,

I don't think that such functionality exists. Why you want to spam your people? If they are interested in they will watch the blog. If not then they will not.

comments: author: Matt Cerimele
body: This is our main way of communicating and bringing awareness to prod support issues. Consumers are not being notified otherwise and its impeding consumer adoption efforts.


author: Alex Koxaras _Relational_
body: If you main way of communicating is sending out email, then send an email with the blog link. Confluence was designed as an open collab space, which people can decide on what topic/space they should get notifications.


author: Matt Cerimele
body: Apologies for my lack of technical details, Do you mean a separate e-mail with the link to the blog or is there functionality within the blog that you can click a button (for example) and an e-mail is generated?


author: Alex Koxaras _Relational_
body: The first one :) The second one would defied my previous sentence.

I mean I get what you want to accomplish, but unfortunately Confluence wasn't designed like most products out there. It's an "open" collab space where people decide what to follow :/


author: Matt Cerimele
body: Are there any job aids, tutorials, videos, etc for users on how to follow blogs?

and

Are there any job aids, tutorials, videos, for owners on how to post to the blog?


author: Alex Koxaras _Relational_
body: [@Matt Cerimele](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5115286) come to think to mind **you have the ability to share a blog** post directly from confluence. Please read this article here:

<https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/share-a-page-or-blog-post/>

On how to watch blog/pages/etc here <https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/watch-pages-spaces-and-blogs/>

On how to create blog read this <https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/create-and-edit-content/>


author: Matt Cerimele
body: Just want to clarify if we have a list of all impacted uses, can we self subscribe them to the blog?


author: Alex Koxaras _Relational_
body: [@Matt Cerimele](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5115286) no you can't. They have to do the action of subscribing to the blog. What you can do form your end is to share with them the blog via the functionality I mentioned above.


author: Matt Cerimele
body: So if I am understanding correctly by reading the instructions under share by e-mail, you can add the appropriate distribution group or individuals. In this case I would add a public distribution group in the VGI address book. Would that work?

Alternatively, you can send an email and include a link to the Confluence page but the first option above sounds better. Thoughts?


author: Alex Koxaras _Relational_
body: [@Matt Cerimele](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5115286) sharing the blog via this functionality would be handy only for users having access to confluence. I don't think that it will work with any group outside of Confluence group.

If you want to send an email with the blog post you might want to make it.public and share the public link instead of the internal one.


author: Matt Cerimele
body: Trying to find the functionality to make it public. Can you please advise?   

If you use the public link, would you still need to use the distribution group of subscribers within Confluence to send the post to users?


author: Matt Cerimele
body: Hi - checking in to see if there are any updates on my query above. Thanks!