Subscription Changes

[Jason Clark]

We've had a few requests to reduce the amount of e-mail notifications that are sent out for topics. We've instituted a system where you will get a notification that a new post was made to the topic, but you will not receive anymore until you re-visit the topic. This is the common behaviour for most boards out there.

We also updated the E-mails that are sent out so they look better.

Enjoy.

 

[stash]

Is is possible to have the link in the notification send you to the actual post, or at least the correct page? If there is a multiple page thread, the email link sends you to the first page. Is this a limitation of FuseTalk?

Thanks for your work, the emails do look nicer.

 

[SagaLore]

Yes! Nice! Perfect!

You can view the message at <link>

You will not receive any more updates to this topic until you visit the forums and read the message.

That message needs some kind of break from the actual post. Maybe just a <hr> or something.

:thumbsup:

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Damn, I saw the thread title and thought that we were able to subscribe to the forums again.

 

[Jason Clark]

Originally posted by: STaSh
Is is possible to have the link in the notification send you to the actual post, or at least the correct page? If there is a multiple page thread, the email link sends you to the first page. Is this a limitation of FuseTalk?

Thanks for your work, the emails do look nicer.

That really has nothing to do with fusetalk and everything to do with not knowing how many pages you have set per thread based on the email or not being logged in. The only way that would ever work properly in both scenarios is if it took you to the single post. Something for later, as we're pretty pegged with other work now. The e-mail has the full message text in it...

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Jason Clark

Originally posted by: STaSh
Is is possible to have the link in the notification send you to the actual post, or at least the correct page? If there is a multiple page thread, the email link sends you to the first page. Is this a limitation of FuseTalk?

Thanks for your work, the emails do look nicer.

That really has nothing to do with fusetalk and everything to do with not knowing how many pages you have set per thread based on the email or not being logged in. The only way that would ever work properly in both scenarios is if it took you to the single post. Something for later, as we're pretty pegged with other work now. The e-mail has the full message text in it...

Not to be much of a whiner, but other forums do this quite well, where clicking on the link brings you to that post in the thread.

I personally liked the less formatted but consistent emails.

 

[stash]

Yes, the email with the text is fine, until you want to reply to the thread. You click on the link and then either have to scroll to the end of the page, or go to the last page and scroll to the end. Like Cerb says, many other forums don't have a problem with this. Probably because many forums don't have a user-configurable page length. I would much rather have links that go directly to the post than be able to specify how many messages are on each page.

 

[Cerb]

One thing, if possible, would be a digest. That would be a nice comprimise between the two current modes. Either every X posts, or daily, whichever comes first, send an email with all responses from the last one. Possibly resetting if you actually use the link and go to the thread.

I liked the previous mode of individual emails, because I could go through the posts, in order, from the last one, and do so faster than going through the threads in the browser. However, I can see where it can be a bit much for many, as it ended up being over 90% of my mail .

 

[Slogun]

I used to view the content of the latest post in my email client. Now in order to keep getting notifications I have to browse into the forum/topic/page EVERY time there is a new post...!?!

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: Slogun
I used to view the content of the latest post in my email client. Now in order to keep getting notifications I have to browse into the forum/topic/page EVERY time there is a new post...!?!

It appears as though that's what he said... :-

I personally liked the way that it was handled much better here... I can't stand the way other forums send you one notification when a thread has been replied to, and then you have to read it on the site... I really enjoyed being able to read it in my inbox... :-\ I had hoped that's one thing that would not change in Fusetalk.

Also, a suggestion for smilies: would it be possible to change the src tags for smilies so that they are fully qualified, instead of relative to the forum home? The reason I ask is because the img tag is present in subscription notification messages, but instead of the appropriate smiley, you just get a placeholder, since the image cannot be found (because it is being called relative to a null host)...

-or-

Would it be possible (some time in the future) for users to customize which method (single notification or all notifications) & format (HTML, text) their subscription notifications are mailed in?

Thanks! Sorry for bringing up other issues

 

[ProviaFan]

Thanks Jason, the new thread subscription behavior is much more optimal IMHO. :thumbsup:

 

[DrPizza]

Nice change. I had quit subscribing because I hated my inbox getting inundated with emails for some threads.

 

[bsobel]

Ugh. Jason, I really really dislike the new version. Can you make it configurable for those of us that DO want all of the messages (and more importantly, add a unsubscribe link to the message sent). Also, please loose the html it reaks havoc on my Treo

Bill

 

[fbrdphreak]

Thanks for all the great work on the forums. Overall, I love how this forum operates.
But as with bsobel, I would prefer an option that allows me to receive notifications on all of the posts or just a "You will not receive another notification until you visit the thread." That would be great and hopefully not much work for you, thanks!

 

[Jason Clark]

I dont have time to add options to revert right now, for the sake of email traffic and the amount of people who asked for this change we are not going to revert it.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Thanks for the response; just something to keep on the to do list

 

[dornick]

I'd put in another vote for the old system if it were still possible. It worked really well with my Gmail account (grouping all similar ones and showing only the new ones) and I could basically follow the discussion without even going to AT.

On a side note, I really enjoy these forums; keep up the good work!

 

[DaTT]

I think the new system is fine. Who cares if you have to scroll to the last post...who cares if you have to visit to unsubscribe. My major concern was getting over 300 e-mails when subscribed to an ATOT topic.

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: DaTT
I think the new system is fine. Who cares if you have to scroll to the last post...who cares if you have to visit to unsubscribe. My major concern was getting over 300 e-mails when subscribed to an ATOT topic.

Some people (like you) prefer just to be notified that the thread has been updated, and that you can go read it on the forum. Others (like me) prefer to receive each message through e-mail, so that we can just follow along from the point that we subscribed, via e-mail.

 

[Jason Clark]

Geek, there is another feature in fusetalk that does that called, e-mail posting. It allows you to track an entire category by email and respond to it. But, due to the shear volume of users we won't be able to use that here.

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: Jason Clark
Geek, there is another feature in fusetalk that does that called, e-mail posting. It allows you to track an entire category by email and respond to it. But, due to the shear volume of users we won't be able to use that here.

I didn't know that feature existed... but yes, I definitely understand not being able to use that here at AT... we do have a rather large community here

 

[Winchester]

Originally posted by: bsobel
Ugh. Jason, I really really dislike the new version. Can you make it configurable for those of us that DO want all of the messages (and more importantly, add a unsubscribe link to the message sent). Also, please loose the html it reaks havoc on my Treo

Bill

I concur.

Sometimes I just read the reply to the thread from the email and if it warrants a reply I go to it. I would still like to receive all emails.

 

[diabloII]

the only one i got was from 50cent cuz he r teh banx0rz me

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Jason Clark

Originally posted by: STaSh
Is is possible to have the link in the notification send you to the actual post, or at least the correct page? If there is a multiple page thread, the email link sends you to the first page. Is this a limitation of FuseTalk?

Thanks for your work, the emails do look nicer.

That really has nothing to do with fusetalk and everything to do with not knowing how many pages you have set per thread based on the email or not being logged in. The only way that would ever work properly in both scenarios is if it took you to the single post. Something for later, as we're pretty pegged with other work now. The e-mail has the full message text in it...

In the future you can make a small adjustment to how the forum renders threads. Although we wouldn't see it, each post would be headed by a bookmark tag. Then the link would look like:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...catid=38&threadid=1556232&forumid=1#12

And based on the user's preferences, they would jump to that post. Your back-end would first parse the #12 and check which page it's on, then redirect to that page including the #12 to hop to the post.

Actually, since email links would never be crawled by a search engine spider, you could make this even simpler. Use a portal page to streamline the process. So in the emails, the link back to the above example would be:

http://forums.anandtech.com/subscriptio...=38&threadid=1556232&forumid=1&post=12

That would redirect to the proper page and hop to the post bookmark.


And as a suggestion to those who want to continue receiving every email notification - you could add that back as a selectable option, but then add an advertisement at the top or bottom of each email. Since they're using more of your server resources and following the thread without ever revisiting the site (and reducing your ad impressions), then that should be a fair trade off.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Potential glitch in notification.

I have two stickied threads that I keep subscribed to.
Posts to the "top" thread will generate one one PM message identifying the first poster and the thread - GOOD :thumbsup:
There were 2 posts yesterday and only one PM regarding the thread.

There were 9 posts to the "second" thread yeasterday (and at earlier times); there were not any generate any PM messages indicating that a post was made to the "second" thread.

I would think that the subscrption filter should be one message notification per thread, not one message total.