Does anyone use them?
Feels like if you activate any, you get a lot of notifications that has nothing to do with you. And then there doesn't seem to be an alternative that you get notifications if someone responds directly to you.
asked
Forum notifications
Does that happen automatically or username has to be added manually?
Apparently no, since I did not mention you and you did not get mentioned.
@Juha Tuomala I use my activity function at the top of the page to catch up with those that did not, since clearly they did not want my immediate attention
I have found that the easiest way too. The problem is that 99,9% of people where want their topic discussed and are not inclined to think all forum nyancies and hence they do not act as we do. They don't add person's @ -notation username to the message since they don't know.
I think this forum is broken by design / implmentation. Everywhere else this simple, very elementary notification feature is handled correctly. Youtube, twitter, facebook, SMF-forum etc.
If the person replying doesn't use it to notify you then there is no notification. Slight drawback there. But then some people don't want an immediate response.
That should be adjustable thing and by default on. Majority of people who sign up, they don't probably post anything, ever. Ones who do, they probably want to know that someone replied to them.
There are a lot of threads here that die since they get buried and forgotten even someone replied to the initial messages.
You may get email notifications on threads when someone answers you...
Nope, there is no 'may' in ones and zeros. And at this time, it's zero. We don't get notifications if you don't mention person by their @JohannDo username notation. People don't do that. That kills threads.
Just because I used the username, from this you won't get anything.
Are you sure about that?
Hi @Juha Tuomala,
This notifications system is a fairly recent update to the software - and it was in a very 'safe' default position while it had some time to settle in.
Prompted by your post though, I thought it might be time to try adjusting the default behaviour;
Now by default, if you ask a question, (and have site notifications enabled), you should receive an instant notification if people reply to it. I will watch closely to see if there is any negative feedback for this change - so it might be adjusted again without notice.
That's a move to the right direction.
However what I've tried and seen settings in notifications, that's not a configuration issue, it's lacking feature in forum code.
There are two/three main categories:
1. Send me a notification even if I am not following the item when
2. On the things I follow, send me a notification when there is
3. Notify me when someone mentions me in a post using the @username notation
1. generates a lot of notifications on messages that i have nothing to do, I have not even read them and I get notified. That has to be switched off.
2. is probably useful because I may follow some thread or even topic.
3. requires that someone knows to use @Juha Tuomala notation. Nobody does.
There should be an option to get notified if someone replies to person directly, without using the 3. option. That does not exist.
It's good that thread starter starts following his/her own thread. Also, if one comments a thread, there should be option to switch following on, I guess there is.
I think I understand now what you're saying.
That you ONLY want to receive a notification if someone engages with your comment or answer specifically, and not get notified about other comments or answers that aren't a direct reply to you (but are a reply to the main question that you commented on).
You are correct that doesn't exist, I will make a feature request for it.
However I think what you will find is that people don't use the site structure perfectly accurately, and will often reply to your comment or answer as their own comment or answer (and not as a child comment to yours). So you would miss those with your suggestion.
That you ONLY want to receive a notification if someone engages with your comment or answer specifically, and not get notified about other comments or answers that aren't a direct reply to you (but are a reply to the main question that you commented on).
Yes. Eeveryone who answers directly to my message, I want to know about it and to choose: do I reply and continue discussion or not.
If someone writes a reply to my comment/message, it breaks the communication if I'm not even aware that I got a reply. Typically those include questions and people wonder why I don't answer to that.
Getting notifications of every comment on given topic is just too much noise in most cases.
Since you did not mention my name now with @ -notation, I did not know that you wrote your reply. I just happened to come here for other reason and saw the thread at front page that I started. Otherwise it's very laborious to find all discussions I took part and see is there anything worth of commenting.
However I think what you will find is that people don't use the site structure perfectly accurately, and will often reply to your comment or answer as their own comment or answer (and not as a child comment to yours). So you would miss those with your suggestion.
Then that's a problem of people, not the technology, we can't fix that easily. Only educate and hope that they follow others example how to communicate.
Anyway, having proper notifications will definately speed up forum traffic and get more value for anyone using these products.
@Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) notifications don't seem to be working correctly for me. I only have them turned on for @ messages or things I'm following, but I seem to get notified for just about every message in the forum. Further to this, when I filter on 'my follows' it shows no results even though I have followed some things.
Same here, my notifications are totally full of stuff that I haven't set it to do...
also here, i get notifications for all kind of stuff, i never requested or have enabled?!
Strange behaviour
This doesn't work for me.
I get useless notifications for topics I never visited.
