I've just implemented the ability to subscribe to forum threads and stories so that you get email notifications of new content. We'll have this on as a trial to see how much of a load it places on the system. Please let me know if you have any issues with it.
Thanks!
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I really hope this can stay, such a nice looking forum but I don't always have the time to check responses to threads etc, and I'd like to stay informed.
Thank you
The best way to stay on top of a forum in my experience is the way you can adapt to any forum, regardless of platform.
With Firefox 3.5, if something is important, but not enough to warrant an actual bookmark, hit the star icon on the address bar. Now you can type in the address bar any word in the title of the page (often the title of the topic). If you want to add keywords not present in the title, hit the star again and change the title. Just add the keywords you want to the end of the title. Then when you want it back... just start typing and Firefox will dig through your bookmarks, then history, looking for it.
If you surf the forums and come back within 48 hours, click Recent Posts under your username here to pull up the board's tracker. That shows the most recent activity at a glance. This board uses Drupal software, but due to the modular nature of Drupal, not every Drupal installation will work like that. (NaNoWriMo.org uses Drupal, and they lack a tracker.) Many boards have a tracker, it just takes some digging sometimes.
The Subscription option here will just send you an email when the topic you've subscribed to gets replies. I've never seen the value in email subscription.
John, if you don't like the effect of subscriptions on the system -- though I doubt you'll see a change, you'll probably see more strain from the influx of new conversations due to freeware and the impending new version -- I recommend looking for a personal tracker. The personal tracker -- which could be called any number of things -- adds tracked posts to a user's account. The user would then go into a page in their account to see their subscribed/favorite/tracked topics. Maybe the forum would offer them some control over how this is done... a check box saying "track this topic", or an option to track every topic a user posts in. Still, all it does is add the node number to the user profile when they subscribe (trivial, one more write to the database) and draws a table of them when called. Should be right about transparent. But it would be better, especially if starring tracked topics were an option; developers could track topics about their apps, and star the most important ones, and hit these topics before hitting the forums proper.
You mean like (for you) this personal tracker (and now also this page)?
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
My bad... should have looked a little harder. So I guess for the subscriptions, if you don't want to use the email option, you disable the email notifications, and just get your subscriptions on the page.
thats really good that, personal track, but there's no links to anyone's posts (again unlike other "normal" forums) but I still prefer the overall layout much more than traditional web forums.
Hi again.
I understand what you are telling me but think about it this way
I subscribe to many forums and to demonstrate take a program like LastPass portable, having that in my firefox means I can literally subscribe to dozens of forums that I may contribute to only ever occasionally, so it's a real help having email notifications and I can only hope that the server can cope with all the additional traffic since I really do like this freeware idea even if they are just simple downloaders and not the main program.
I don't want either service to stop or be curtailed in any way and if a poll were to be taken (if they are even possible) I think many would agree.
Thanks
What's the module you've used? (Merely out of curiosity for bpbible.com which uses Watcher fairly successfully except for a problem with some mailing which is server-specific, and I haven't tracked it down yet but am going to soon.)
Also, I'd like to suggest that your newly added text-shadow of
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 { 2px 2px 2px #555555; }Be changed to:
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 { 1px 1px 3px #888888; } .sidebar h2 { 1px 1px 2px #555555; }I reckon that this looks better.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
It's because it's cached. It's actually: text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #C0C0C0;
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
It's
a bit hard impossible to read.Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
I thought I saw a subtle drop shadow behind navbar headers and topic titles. Figured I was just getting old, though.
Looks good!
Sweet
/me subscribes to all his development threads.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
Minor point.
It would be worthwhile to add an 'unsubscribe' link as well.
It gives you a checkbox you can check and uncheck to subscribe or unsubscribe. You can also manage it from My account and then Subscriptions.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
...I like it!
To ease the load on the servers, maybe have it not reload the page after I hit subscribe (if possible).
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
Now I can read replies in my email.
This is good.
Minor point however regarding Drupal, it needs to be more elaborate, eg some forums let you only have only one message until you reply again, but maybe this is better being able to read the replies.
So far I like it though maybe I am thinking a digest mode?
Thank you
Just change it. Head to My Account and then Subscriptions. Click the Settings expander.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I like it...
I am not sure whether it is the digest mode or not, (i think it is...)
Since enabling it, the last three notifications have been different.
Most of the information is not included, and there is no space between the unsubscribe link, and the actual comment
One example: This post
The email:
Notice the comment, hidden in there? I didn't at first.
And it only sent the subject of the post, nothing else...
Is that the way it is supposed to be?
-Scott-
“There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!”Richard Feynman
I would also have 'Notify poster of own posts' off by default...maybe even updates too...
-Scott-
[edit] By updates, does it mean when someone edits a post? if so, disabling that feature doesn't seem to work for me...
“There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!”Richard Feynman
Are you working on this?
You asked for feedback, but it is still happening...
it's broken.
“There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!”Richard Feynman
As mentioned, all settings are contained in your My Account screen. The message you see is the way it's formatted (we can't alter it easily).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Well, it seems that when you use digest mode, it doesn't show the content of the post.
For instance, all I saw for the text of your post was the title, 'What's Broken?'
It doesn't show the actual comment.
Or have I misunderstood the way digest mode works?
It seems that the other things I mentioned are working though
Oh, and I tried 'reset to site defaults', but it doesn't seem to change back, have you changed the default? (to what I have :?)
-Scott-
“There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!”Richard Feynman
I've made no changes. That's the way the module is designed. I'd wager digest mode is that way on purpose to avoid huge emails.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Ok then, I misunderstood it...
I don't know whether I will use it then, kinda awkward to just read the title hidden in the email...
And the 'Reset to defaults' thing. The problem is that it doesn't reflect the changes that you make straight away, so it looks like you haven't changed it, but it is changed.
-Scott-
“There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!”Richard Feynman
I like this useful function
Any clue why I have received 3 notifications today, when I have digest mode on, and the interval at Daily?
(all are from the same thread, if it matters...
“There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!”Richard Feynman