Does anyone know how one can change what defaults are set for users' Forum Preferences?
For example: in Account > Forum Preferences under Discussion list options, "Jump to the last read comment when clicking on discussion topic" is used by default. I do not wish this to be the case, but danged if I can figure out how to change this.
At the moment, those defaults are set as-is, primarily so you can get some functionality from the start even if you don't want or need it. This is mainly a core feature so there's not much you can change there at the moment. However it would be nice to be able to set some defaults later on that sets this up for other users.
Sounds like you're saying that even if I'm comfortable with going under the hood, making the required changes would be too widespread to summarize here, yes?
Pretty much, yes. You shouldn't go digging into the core files, because when updates roll around, you're going to be left doing it again. I'll post an enhancement bug about this and see where it goes from there, this could allow admins to define default settings for all thier users.
Ahh, alright. Well, happy upgrading is all I can say from this point on, because you'll be rewriting those files as each new version gets released. You might find it easier to apply those changes via an extension rather than alter core files if it's an option.
You could make an extension to do this. Just hook into the UserManagement class and replace the CreateUser() function with your own, creating the Settings field with the values you want it to include.