Kirill N Posted November 2, 2015 Posted November 2, 2015 I love the new browser notifications feature but it's really annoying that it keeps sending me notifications for content that I last viewed and left open in a tab. Notifications should be only sent for a) content I am subscribed to b) other people's responses to my content (likes, quotes etc.) Just because I opened a topic out of curiosity doesn't mean I want to be notified of new content in it. It's extremely annoying. After a few weeks of browsing this 4.1 my reaction to a browser notification went from "Cool, there's something new, let's see what it is!" to "Ugh, I must've forgot to close the tab again". Please disable this or at least add an option to control when browser notifications are sent.
Kirill N Posted November 9, 2015 Author Posted November 9, 2015 Could you please address this @Lindy ? I upgraded to 4.1 last week and a lot of my members are asking me why they are bombarded with notifications for content they never followed or posted in.
Management Lindy Posted November 9, 2015 Management Posted November 9, 2015 Personally, I like the way browser notifications work. I often get distracted while working on a topic and will get a notification there's new activity... "oh yeah." To be clear though, you're saying your members are being "bombarded" with notifications based on leaving tabs open to topics they're not following, correct? Does anyone else share this concern?
Makoto Posted November 9, 2015 Posted November 9, 2015 The main problem for me is, if you're like me and you have an inherent issue with tab hoarding (I can have 50-150 tabs open at any given time, I know I have a problem and should seek help), you tend to end up with multiple tabs for the thread open in different browser windows. This results in being "bombarded" with multiple notifications from the same topic, since there's no way for IPS to currently know when you've already received a notification in another browser tab. In this case it doesn't matter if you've followed the thread or not, it's just notifications for a thread which you have open in any given tab.
Management Lindy Posted November 9, 2015 Management Posted November 9, 2015 I see - thanks for clarifying. Will bring it up.
Rikki Posted November 9, 2015 Posted November 9, 2015 What's happening is just an extension of what 4.0 has always done - when you're viewing a topic, we check for new replies and tell you if there are any. In 4.0 it just showed the black bar at the bottom, but in 4.1 we tied it into the browser/sound notifications. It's the same process underneath though. Personally speaking I like the way I can be doing something and alerted that the topic I was reading has something new to see. If there is a significant dislike for that behavior, we could perhaps look into another notification option that stops IPS4 from telling you when there's new activity in a comment feed you have open, but we are very wary of adding something simply to appease a handful of people. This is the first mention of it, so we need to assess things for longer before making any decision.
Kirill N Posted November 9, 2015 Author Posted November 9, 2015 Thanks for the contribution to the topic @Makoto but for me the number of tabs open isn't even the problem. @Lindy The issue is that, as I stated above, those notifications are being sent without my consent, and simply based on the fact that I happened to leave the tab open. I know it's not as noticeable on this site, but on my community which is a bit more active and every topic is guaranteed to receive at least 3-5 responses within the first couple of minutes its created, it can be really, really annoying.
Kirill N Posted November 9, 2015 Author Posted November 9, 2015 4 minutes ago, Rikki said: If there is a significant dislike for that behavior, we could perhaps look into another notification option that stops IPS4 from telling you when there's new activity in a comment feed you have open, but we are very wary of adding something simply to appease a handful of people. This is the first mention of it, so we need to assess things for longer before making any decision. The thing is, there won't be a significant dislike for such behavior because it only applies to large communities where no matter what topic you're viewing, it's likely to receive more replies after you've read it. For example, it is not as noticeable on this site because due to its nature, most topics don't get past 3-5 replies. But for sites like mine this behavior spoils the whole browser notification feature.
Makoto Posted November 9, 2015 Posted November 9, 2015 22 minutes ago, Rikki said: If there is a significant dislike for that behavior, we could perhaps look into another notification option that stops IPS4 from telling you when there's new activity in a comment feed you have open, but we are very wary of adding something simply to appease a handful of people. This is the first mention of it, so we need to assess things for longer before making any decision. I know it would be more difficult to implement, but if it could be made so that desktop notifications for a new replies are only sent once (even with multiple tabs open, similar to how it works with regular notifications), I think that alone would be a big improvement. I have mixed feelings about disabling notifications for open threads in general too though. I don't find that a problem, just the fact that I get spammed with multiple notifications for the same reply because I have the topic open in more than one tab is a bit annoying sometimes. It forces me to clean up the tabs I have open though . On the concern mentioned here though (I don't mean to hijack your thread with an unrelated issue), maybe an option that can throttle the rate at which desktop notifications are sent would be useful? For example, only one notification every 5-10 minutes, and if there have been multiple replies since then, just display the number of replies made.
Koby Posted November 9, 2015 Posted November 9, 2015 I don't mind being told there is new replies on a topic I'm in. I've disabled the sound so maybe that's why it doesn't bother me.
chilihead Posted November 9, 2015 Posted November 9, 2015 I had two tabs same page open and it notified me that I replied in the other. I guess that is WAI as it is activity but maybe filtering out your own would help a small amount in more ways than one? And I'll often click a tab that was open awhile and it will say there are replies that I read already while navigating in another tab. Those are the only annoyances noticed. Thanks
ABGenc Posted November 9, 2015 Posted November 9, 2015 I think notification for followed content is desired and acceptable. I love it. When it comes to a tab including a topic that I dont follow there should be an option to receive the notifications or not cause as stated above for those forums that are too active and users of those who love seperate tabs to follow the site it will be annoying.
craigf136 Posted November 9, 2015 Posted November 9, 2015 To be honest, I've noticed leaving tabs open here for topics I'm reading and on our site and receiving notifications, the notification is unwanted on topics I'm not following.
Tracy Perry Posted November 10, 2015 Posted November 10, 2015 8 hours ago, Lindy said: Does anyone else share this concern? I do. I don't really care about seeing the "new posts" in a thread that I've got open but maybe not participated in (I have numerous forum tabs for different sites open at once and bounce between them). I'd MUCH rather see it do it in extension to the notifications that you get currently for quotes, likes, etc. which effect you directly.
Management Lindy Posted November 10, 2015 Management Posted November 10, 2015 Thanks for the feedback. We'll give this some further consideration.
Kirill N Posted November 30, 2015 Author Posted November 30, 2015 I hate to bump this again, but this is getting so annoying to the point that most of my users are now disabling this feature at all even though it was the one they were most excited about in 4.1. Here's an example that I just personally experienced and I think it illustrates the issue perfectly. So somebody just posted a topic with a 3-minute video on an external site. I opened that site in a new tab to watch the video, and obviously left the tab with my site open so that I could go back to it after. As I was trying to watch the video, the other tab kept sending me browser notifications as other people were replying to it: THERE'S A NEW REPLY!!!....... ONE MORE!!!.... 6 MORE!!! and I couldn't even watch properly until I went back to that tab, closed it and made sure I didn't have any other tabs with my site open. Look I understand that you guys don't experience this issue because topics on this community don't receive that many replies that often, but it's a problem on more active communities. Please do something @Lindy
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