Darksbane0 Posted April 4, 2012 Posted April 4, 2012 So I just realized that if I follow a forum that I only get notices when a new topic is created. This doesn't seem logical. If I am following a forum I want to be notified of all the activity in that forum. I suggest that this is expanded to give a notice of replies. So if a thread has 5 new replies I'll see a notice saying "5 new replies have been made to in [Forum]" and clicking on it would take me to the first new reply.
Brett L Posted April 5, 2012 Posted April 5, 2012 This will be very bad for large forums and would make following a forum almost impossible. The way it works now is follow a forums get notifications for topics in that forum. Follow a topic get notifications for post in that topic. If you want notifications for new post simply follow the topic.
Darksbane0 Posted April 5, 2012 Author Posted April 5, 2012 This will be very bad for large forums and would make following a forum almost impossible. The reason I suggest it is that I've seen it on an extremely large forum and it works great. The way it works now is follow a forums get notifications for topics in that forum. Follow a topic get notifications for post in that topic. If you want notifications for new post simply follow the topic. Except I want notifications for every topic and every post, as it is now I have to manually follow each post. At the least it would be nice to have the option to auto follow every topic in a forum when you follow that forum.
Marcher Technologies Posted April 5, 2012 Posted April 5, 2012 Improvements to spamming my Inbox and clogging the Mail Queu on my server.... sounds GREAT :smile: If i reply to a topic, i am notified, if i watch that topic, i am notified, if a new topic is created in a forum I follow, i am notified.... Now... think on every notification for a new topic starting an entourage of emails for that topic when you really may not have interest in the subject.... it is spam... plain and simple.... to the point of actual spammer exploitation(start a topic in a highly followed forum... reply away). and if it wasn't an email thing... you would never even see them all, I Still don't get to actually read all my notifications here before they get pruned back.... hence email.
Darksbane0 Posted April 5, 2012 Author Posted April 5, 2012 Improvements to spamming my Inbox and clogging the Mail Queu on my server.... sounds GREAT :smile: I'm not talking about email notifications I'm talking about the notifications you get in the dropdown at the top of the page and in the notifications section in your settings.
Marcher Technologies Posted April 5, 2012 Posted April 5, 2012 I'm not talking about email notifications I'm talking about the notifications you get in the dropdown at the top of the page and in the notifications section in your settings. Read a little further :smile: they would pass so many so quickly you would be unable to keep up with it before pruning... it would effectively make the notification dropdown/section worthless.... even more so for me :P
Darksbane0 Posted April 5, 2012 Author Posted April 5, 2012 and if it wasn't an email thing... you would never even see them all, I Still don't get to actually read all my notifications here before they get pruned back.... hence email. They don't have to be pruned back so quckily and there is a whole page in your settings to show notifications. Like I said I've seen this in action on a forum with near as I can tell 450K registered members and millions of posts. It works fine the way they have it setup. If you follow one of their forums you get 1 notice if a topic is created or replied to. So if a brand new topic is posted and has 4 replies when you view your notices you will see 1 notice saying XYZ Topic with 4 replies has been posted. Or if you have already read that topic but new replies are made you just see XYZ Topic with X new replies. They prune their notices after 30 days. It is simple, effective and it allows me to easily keep track new things in multiple forums without ever having to search through them for new content. Doing it this way would actually reduce notification spam as you wouldn't get 10 new notices for 10 new replies to the same topic.
Marcher Technologies Posted April 5, 2012 Posted April 5, 2012 They don't have to be pruned back so quckily and there is a whole page in your settings to show notifications. Like I said I've seen this in action on a forum with near as I can tell 450K registered members and millions of posts. It works fine the way they have it setup. If you follow one of their forums you get 1 notice if a topic is created or replied to. So if a brand new topic is posted and has 4 replies when you view your notices you will see 1 notice saying XYZ Topic with 4 replies has been posted. Or if you have already read that topic but new replies are made you just see XYZ Topic with X new replies. They prune their notices after 30 days. It is simple, effective and it allows me to easily keep track new things in multiple forums without ever having to search through them for new content. Doing it this way would actually reduce notification spam as you wouldn't get 10 new notices for 10 new replies to the same topic. Finding new content is not the purpose of it... the purpose is notifying you of new content you are actually interested in... I like the idea of combining it some, and not pruning as heavily.... but If i follow the MP Forum for example(which i do)... I do not need to be notified of every single topics replies... I like to be notified of new topics, yes. I like being notified of replies to my mods, and mods I am interested in.. but WOW... that idea still does not scale too well.... from a usability standpoint it becomes a inundating deluge of TMI no matter how it is sliced.... and you should realize... while an application can explicitly deny one notify method from email.... this is one of the cores... and notify... is quite linearly related to the emails.
Darksbane0 Posted April 5, 2012 Author Posted April 5, 2012 Finding new content is not the purpose of it... the purpose is notifying you of new content you are actually interested in...If I subscribe to a forum it is because I'm interested in the content of that forum.I like the idea of combining it some, and not pruning as heavily.... but If i follow the MP Forum for example(which i do)... I do not need to be notified of every single topics replies... I like to be notified of new topics, yes. I like being notified of replies to my mods, and mods I am interested in.. but WOW... that idea still does not scale too well.... from a usability standpoint it becomes a inundating deluge of TMI no matter how it is sliced. Actually it is easy to manage as you can still unsubscribe from individual topics in their system. My assumption is that in their system when you follow a forum and choose to be notified of all replies (because you can choose to only be notified of new topics if you want) it auto subscribes you to all new topics also. Then in my notifications area I'll see something like Forum 1 [unsubscribe] Topic XYZ 1 Topic, 5 replies Wed, Apr 4th 11:45 PM [mark read] [unsubscribe] Forum 2 [unsubscribe] Topic PDQ 1 Topic, 5 replies Wed, Apr 4th 10:35 PM [mark read] [unsubscribe] Forum 1 [unsubscribe] Topic ABC 3 replies Wed, Apr 4th 8:00 PM [mark read] [unsubscribe] I can click on the topic name and it will take me to first unread post, I can click on "mark read" to remove the notification (I'll still get new notifications for new replies), I can click unsubscribe on teh forum and it will no longer send me notifications on it, or I can click on unsubscribe and that individual topic will no longer be in my notifications list. It is very simple, easier to manage than the current system here and has much less notification spam while giving users more options on what they want to be notified of.
Marcher Technologies Posted April 5, 2012 Posted April 5, 2012 If I subscribe to a forum it is because I'm interested in the content of that forum. Actually it is easy to manage as you can still unsubscribe from individual topics in their system. My assumption is that in their system when you follow a forum and choose to be notified of all replies (because you can choose to only be notified of new topics if you want) it auto subscribes you to all new topics also. Then in my notifications area I'll see something like Forum 1 [unsubscribe] Topic XYZ 1 Topic, 5 replies Wed, Apr 4th 11:45 PM [mark read] [unsubscribe] Forum 2 [unsubscribe] Topic PDQ 1 Topic, 5 replies Wed, Apr 4th 10:35 PM [mark read] [unsubscribe] Forum 1 [unsubscribe] Topic ABC 3 replies Wed, Apr 4th 8:00 PM [mark read] [unsubscribe] I can click on the topic name and it will take me to first unread post, I can click on "mark read" to remove the notification (I'll still get new notifications for new replies), I can click unsubscribe on teh forum and it will no longer send me notifications on it, or I can click on unsubscribe and that individual topic will no longer be in my notifications list. It is very simple, easier to manage than the current system here and has much less notification spam while giving users more options on what they want to be notified of. Following all new topics in a followed forum is code-able as a mod(the whole rework of the notifications themselves notwithstanding)... to resource usage. to follow every topic in a forum, when the topic is posted, every member following the forum (core_like run) would then need inserted as following that new topic(core_like insert).. then the notifications sent after... think IPSEO New topic ping slowdowns for too many ping sources...... now at minimum triple it.... with an increasing exponential with the number of users following the forum.
Darksbane0 Posted April 5, 2012 Author Posted April 5, 2012 Following all new topics in a followed forum is code-able as a mod(the whole rework of the notifications themselves notwithstanding)... to resource usage. to follow every topic in a forum, when the topic is posted, every member following the forum (core_like run) would then need inserted as following that new topic(core_like insert).. then the notifications sent after... think IPSEO New topic ping slowdowns for too many ping sources...... now at minimum triple it.... with an increasing exponential with the number of users following the forum. I never claimed that it wouldn't take re-programming and/or re-thinking how the database and the notifications system function to keep performance acceptable to make a change like this work. That's why I'm in the feedback forum with this. I don't know exactly how this other websites system works but it does and it works well.
Marcher Technologies Posted April 5, 2012 Posted April 5, 2012 I never claimed that it wouldn't take re-programming and/or re-thinking how the database and the notifications system function to keep performance acceptable to make a change like this work. That's why I'm in the feedback forum with this. I don't know exactly how this other websites system works but it does and it works well. That's why I'm responding . :smile: I do agree with the "option"(I wouldn't want anything other than the current follow method as the default selection, as a note) :P and consolidation... but it needs thought through heavily, or it could quite easily become a hazard. Both for the board, and it's users.
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