Hey Matt,

Our solution to the subscribe confusion for Q1 will be to allow users to A) subscribe to a topic to receive e-mails for every new reply within that topic AND B) subscribe to a discussion to receive e-mails each time a new topic is created.  This will go live in the Q1 release.

Reply by e-mail will only be enabled when subscribed to a single topic (since that's the only way you will get an e-mail per reply). 

We actually currently do provide the option to follow or subscribe when you post a new topic via a checkbox within the posting window that opens.  We will alter those options to subscribe to the topic (rather than the whole discussion, as it is currently).

As for the Account Settings page we will not be implementing this in Q1, although we do like the idea for future releases.  I'm not sure what you mean by reply to post, but I think you mean allowing users to receive an e-mail each time someone responds to their specific post?  If so we will not be releasing this in Q1, but we do think this is a good idea for future releases.

Thanks,
Kevin

If I understand this correctly, an admin or moderator who wants to peruse all new messages will need to subscribe to all discussions to receive each new post, and then check off subscribe to topic for each of those new posts as they are read.  Is that what you are saying?

Kevin said:
"I'm not sure what you mean by reply to post, but I think you mean allowing users to receive an e-mail each time someone responds to their specific post? If so we will not be releasing this in Q1, but we do think this is a good idea for future releases."

Yes, that's what I was referencing. That's a huge bummer. We'd talked about that a lot with you guys (you gave us a "98% confirmation" last month) and were hoping very much it would be included in the Q1 release.

Hey Matt,

While we do think this is a good feature request and we know its big on your wish list we simply had to make choices about where to apply our development resources for Q1 and this request did not make the cut.  Myself and others in our organization think that both a settings page and this feature are good candidates for later release, but we can't work them into Q1 unfortunately.

Kevin

This is about as close to a rant as I ever get, but the ability to notify an author when someone replies to their post has been one of our more persistent and clearly articulated requests going all the way back to October of 2009.  I understand that implementing it is not a simple change at all, but it is not a new request on our part and could have been considered more easily early in the design process.  I don't envy Matt's job of explaining to our community that it will not happen in Q1. 

One of the settings that was possible before on the Account Settings page that now is gone is to change the number of posts per page, or discussions per page on the discussions list. I used to set it at 50, the max allowed, but now it is set at 15.

Even with the links to the most recent post, which often helps, on busy discussions it is much more useful to be able to see more posts on a single page. So if we will not be given the option of customizing our account settings to personal preference, I would urge a simpler change of increasing the number of discussions, or posts, showing on each page. This should be a lot simpler than adding in account settings functionality.

Good suggestion Morris.  I'm curious if our other beta clients agree that the page should default to more than 15 entries per page?  This is relatively simple to change if you all think there is demand for it.

Thanks,
Kevin

I would certainly appreciate more posts per page.  What are the trade-offs in terms of loading time for users with phone modems rather than DSL or cable?

This is a supreme example of a feature that should be left up to the user. There is no "right" answer here, so people should be able to adjust to their personal desires and needs.

I want to reiterate what Carolyn said here. This is not a new request from us. We've mentioned it time and time again, both previously and, especially, in this Beta testing forum. A feature like reply-to-post notifications seems much more helpful to the practical user experience of using the boards (actually receiving an answer and seeing that one has, encouraging continued participation through re-engagement, ease of navigation within a potentially long thread) than a Yahoo Answers-type logic that is being built in for Q1. We understand, from a business perspective, the idea of developing new features, but it's not helpful to build on top of a product that still needs significant work on the core level.

Generally, the resultant underemphasis on regard for and sensitivity to user-end experience has been a continued frustration for us with this product. I'd rather my community members have an intuitive, easy-to-use product that accomplishes what they want (i.e. includes features that are basic to many/most online message boards, like even the previous boards did!) than additional bells and whistles (which they'd, of course, then need to learn), and I've heard consistent reports from users that they feel the same.

Just my two cents.

I would have to say that in the ADA community, the most missed featue when we switched over last year, was the ability to receive responses to your posts by email. I never used it because I checked daily anyway, but a number of long time users who I have maintained contact with vanished because that feature made it possible for them to participate with continuity on a limited time schedule.  Some say they wil return when that feature is reinstated and we are  a bit less of a community without them.

the only other feature that comes close to that one that we have lost is the abiity to view just the posts that you have not previously veiwed...

I understand your frustration.  Its clear that you are passionate about this feature.  The beta program has given us invaluable feedback, but you also have to understand that we weigh your suggestions not only on their individual merit but also against several criteria such as "How important is this for the useability of the product?" and "How important is this for the market as a whole?" to determine where to allocate development resources.

While we think that this is a good request and a useful feature there are other requests that made the Q1 cut ahead of this.  That being said, given your clear passion for this feature we are taking a look at the level of effort to implement so we can give you a more clear idea of when this might be coming.

Thanks,
Kevin

Thank you, Kevin. We appreciate it!

Hi there - so guess I am the "new kid on the block" since our community hasn't launched yet. We are using discussions and have been doing user testing on our beta site. Although we've just gotten started on this, the one consistent comment I've gotten from end users is that they want to know when someone has responded to their posts. Need to strongly side with ADA on this issue and say it is a big priority for us also - another part of the "market as a whole" 

heather (Canadian Cancer Society)

Glad that you feel similarly! It's really an important consideration to think about because so many people come into the community and ask a question... and then never respond again. I have to imagine that at least some of these people do so because they don't think to check back.

If users received a notification and thus have additional context with which to enter the online community or message boards again, I have optimistic thoughts about a general increase in continued engagement within the community... which is the whole point anyway, right? :)

First and foremost, welcome to the boards h2oo! We're happy to see you here. As Kevin previously mentioned, we're definitely going to implement this, however, we're not 100% sure on the timing just yet. We're going to work double time to try and get it into the next release but can't make any promises just yet. We'll definitely keep everyone posted.
 

Hi all,

We are happy to report that, along with topic email subscriptions, in the Q1 release we will be providing the ability for users to choose an option that allows them to receive email alerts when someone replies to any of their reply posts.  

The option will be available in Account Settings and, if it is turned off, will be available to turn on whenever the user replies to a topic (or to another reply).

Thanks for all of the great feedback.  Keep it coming please...we are listening...

Hunter

Wonderful!!!

To clarify, will the OP also receive an alert when someone replies to the original post?

Yes, the original poster (the creator of the topic) will receive email alerts if he or she has subscribed to email alerts for the topic.  

The additional logic we added was to allow anyone adding a reply to the original post (or to any other reply in the topic) to get email alerts when anyone replies to their reply, without the need to subscribe to the entire topic.

Can I get a "HELL YEAH!"? :)

Christmas came early this year! So excited to hear this news. This will be a huge, huge, huuuuuuuuge win for our community.

One additional question: it looks like the setting for post replies would be global as opposed to for a specific thread/post. Is that correct? i.e. If you opt-in, you will receive email for *all* posts to which someone replies (as opposed to it being on a case-by-case basis). I think that will be suitable, as most people who want this feature will probably want to tune in to all replies directly at them, but I just wanted to clarify.

Yes, it's a global flag (per user).  So once the user checks the flag, the alert logic will apply to all of the topic replies added by that user.

Cool, thank you. Very much looking forward to informing our users of this and, of course, having the feature itself.

What's the latest estimate on timing for the Q1 release?

This is truoly great--and thank you, thank you , thank you!!--but let me ask one further question that may or may not have been considered.

When we used to have this feature, each post also noted whom, or which post, the person, was responding to. Seems like a companion feature--if you can enable email notification of replies, showing whom the reply is to might go hand in hand. 

As it is now, people post replies that seem very random without looking back over the last 10 or 20 posts to see where they are picking up from, and even then you sometimes cannot tell--unless they quote the reply or go out of their way to specificaly address someone. Newbies rarely do this, and even the veterans often forget to.

I guess the way Mzinga configured it, each post had a number showing, like 12467.6, meaning the 6th post of topic 12467, showing, so that it would say "Replying to 12467.5" Since the replies now  have  linkable discrete URLs, this might be possible?

Ooh, another question: once this is enabled, could we set it globally (for replies to a post only) so that it is opt-out rather than opt-in? It would be very helpful for new people to the forums, to keep them engaged and allow them to see answers, and there is precedent because it's what sites like Facebook and LinkedIn do.

As long as there is an easy-to-see link in the email, pointing people to where they can update their settings, I don't think it will be too much of an issue for those who don't want that option turned on...

All,

In answer to several questions:

1) The Q1 release is not currently scheduled, but we are aiming for the first two weeks of February.  We have pushed this out of January due to holiday delays, but we will let you know as soon as we have a firm date.

2) Morris- for Q1 we have no plans to have a "replying to" feature, although I think that is a good idea for future releases.

3) Matt- The setting is global, so it can be turned on or off for all users, but like all our settings this is not retroactive for existing users (applies to all new registered users).  However, if a user does not have their setting enabled the "Post Topic" and "Post Reply" window will have a checkbox to the effect of "Would you like to receive e-mails when someone replies to your post?" until they opt-in.  If they do opt-in this prompt will go away, so it should be fairly high touch for users to see that they can receive these e-mails.