This is a proposal for refining and extending the per-account configuration of notifications.
The current configuration panel shows three options:
- Send me email instant notifications with new events.
- Auto-watch sites I create or join, pages I create, edit or comment.
- Send me a copy of my own forum posts and comments
We propose this new set of options:
Send me notifications:
- [X] Individually, by email
- [_] Individually, by RSS feed (RSS icon)
- [_] Individually, by internal personal message
- [_] Once per day, by email
- [_] Once per day, by RSS feed (RSS icon)
- [_] Once per day, by internal personal message
- [X] Batch individual emails when I'm away
The Batch option only applies when the user selects the "Individually, by email" option. It keeps track of the user's session and detects when the user is active and inactive. When the user is active, emails are sent one by one as today. This means that news gets delivered immediately. When the user is inactive (or signed out), it starts queueing notifications and sends one email with a specific subject, "Wikidot notifications waiting for you" and a link back to www.wikidot.com. When the user starts working (signing in if needed), Wikidot sends one email with all queued notifications, and then switches back to individual delivery.
We propose to remove the "send me a copy" option because in practice this is not useful. Notifications are not a record of activity, this is what the wiki threads are for.
We propose to remove the "auto-watch" option because it is not needed and creates confusion. If the user unchecks the three "Send me by…" options, they will receive no notifications.
Looks good.
I have a question. I never log myself out — meaning that when I turn my computer back on, and open my browser, I'm still logged in, which is exactly the way I like it.
Does this mean that if I have the "Intelligent" option selected, all emails will be sent individually? If that is the case, I'd like to suggest a slightly different approach.
When a notification event is fired:
So, if I went out for a few hours and got back home to find that I had only a handful of notifications1, all I'd have to do is to load up www.wikidot.com and wait for my single email (containing all notifications for the past few hours) to arrive in my inbox.
If I decide that I'm not going to load up Wikidot, then notifications continue queuing up until when they are due to be sent out, e.g. 12:00 GMT
Is this feasible?
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
Yes, we do in theory know when a user is active, within some margin (caching). Say ten minutes.
So your design would work. There is a problem, though: the usual workflow is to check email first and then click on links back to Wikidot sites.
I have an idea…
Portfolio
Saw the edit history — looks good to me!
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
I found out only now that Wikipedia has implemented RSS on page changes (quite nicely by the way) - http://www.micropersuasion.com/2006/07/wikipedia_entir.html [Micro Persuasion: Wikipedia Article Revisions Now RSS Enabled]. The way it was done may help the Wikidot team in making RSS notifications for page edits.
http://feedback.wikidot.com/wish:382
The suggested options are useful for determining how messages will be sent, but they don't solve the more prominent weirdness in the notification system, which is how to determine which messages to send: about new comments? New pages? Edits? Regarding how much of the site?
Incorporating Shane's first comment on 5 Aug, what about options like this:
Within each line, the options increase from least intrusive to most intrusive (most immediate); except for the last line, where notice on multiple venues is theoretically possible, the options within each line are logically exclusive from each other. (As you move to the right, you render options to the left redundant.)
or there could be a fourth option in line two:
The desired level of detail will depend on the site. So, I specified that in the watchers module design, and left this for delivery.
Portfolio
Please explain what should happen if you check, and what if you uncheck “[_] Individually, by RSS feed (RSS icon)”
I imagine the page will show an RSS feed in that case. It might be easier to not have the option, and simply show the feed all the time. Need to check.
Portfolio
These two are mutually exclusive. It should not be possible to select both at the same time.
I don't like the idea of removing functionality which already exists…
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
:-) It's a tradition in the design section. I propose to remove something. Everyone complains. Finally I add it back. Meanwhile other evil things get in and no-one notices.
More seriously, this seems like a "Break notifications y/n?" option that is just asking for trouble. Unchecking that basically means "nothing works".
And it does not do what users want, which is "stop sending me emails, PLEASE". What it does is "stop new subscriptions from now on but leave all existing ones there", which is a useless feature.
For digests, you're probably right that it makes no sense to allow both digests and individual emails.
Portfolio