Please allow the ability to set the Notify Watchers checkbox to default off or on in the Administration console. Some of our customers would prefer for it to be set to default off, to prevent email noise.

Workaround:

1. Navigate to Confluence Admin >> Custom HTML
2. Insert the following At the End of the HEAD:

   <script type="text/javascript">
   AJS.toInit(function () {
     AJS.$('#notifyWatchers').attr('checked', false);
   });
   </script>