I installed the app for this feature:
Real time push notifications for officially hosted Discourse forums
But I’m not getting notifications. Is this self hosted rather than “officially hosted”?
The app also seems to just be a web wrapper. No other features I can find.
Yeah I looked at that app a couple days ago; it’s mostly just a basic wrapper application. This Discourse is also self-hosted; their hosting plans start at $100/month. I pay $5/month.
Lack of notifications bugs me. That’s on them more than on you though.
I also don’t see a way to send a message just to you (e.g., a thermostat ID). Am I missing that or are they?
(I’m really not here to knock your choice. Just trying to find its capabilities. I haven’t yet figured out what would possibly justify $100/month)
And they mention free hosting for open source or Patreon. No idea if that’s a viable option.
You should just be able to click on my name, then the blue message button on the top right.
Nice find on the free hosted version! I imagine I would probably qualify, but this is already done and at $5/month it’s not a huge burden. I have a little bit more flexibility with it this way anyways; plus the data all sits on a server I manage so there’s a bit more privacy.
I don’t have a blue message button, but it seems l’m still untrusted. Hard to go up a trust level on a brand new site. 
I turned on Chrome notifications for this site. Let’s see if that works when you reply.
On that linked page, the list to go to a new ‘trust level’ is AND not OR
Get to trust level 1 by…
- Entering at least 5 topics
- Reading at least 30 posts
- Spend a total of 10 minutes reading posts
It also talks about how admins can modify the thresholds. Might need to do that, at least while until there are 30 posts to read. 
Try now. I updated the configuration to allow sending PMs at trust level 0 as I think there may be reason enough for new users to send messages with private info.
That worked.
And now I see that I’ve gotten email about some of your replies, but Gmail had stuffed them into my Promotions folder (that I don’t get notifications for). I can fix that.
I still didn’t get a notification on my phone from Chrome, but now I see had site notifications turned off for Chrome. I’ve fixed that, so it should do what I want now. And now that I’ve learned more about their trust levels, I’m liking this tool a little more. (Even if I do think they’re pretty strict on what you have to do to move up a level compared to lots of other discussion sites.)
Like any tool, it will take some tweaking, but so far so good. 
Appreciate you taking the time to check it out and offer feedback. It’s very helpful! I’ve used Discourse before but never hosted or moderated one so I’m learning as I go.