Email notifications (aka Watching)

Email notifications (aka Watching)

michal frackowiak 1234522262|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Today we are introducing a new, highly requested feature at Wikidot: email notifications (aka watching), so that you can follow (watch) activity at Wikidot by receiving emails directly into your Inbox.

The feature is really great (we had it enabled for a few testing accounts) and allows you to be instantly notified about page edits, forum discussions, page comments etc. for pages, categories or whole sites.

Obviously email notifications solve an important problem of users not being aware of what is going on in their sites. We have seen many contributions to both public and private wikis left unnoticed by other members. Although we do provide full activity stream by RSS already, sadly RSS is still not common and easy enough to use for many people.

Introducing the "watching" feature is a very important and large task for us, but even in the pre-launch period this feature alone enormously improved our online activity at our own wikis. Hopefully this will also work for many other users.

The feature is explained in more detais in our FAQ section.

Of course if you do not wish to receive emails from Wikidot, there is a very quick way to disable them by following a special link in any of such emails.

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Michał Frąckowiak @ Wikidot Inc.
Visit my blog at michalf.me

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

maki 1234525342|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Wow this is what I'd call regress! :)))) By coincidence just twenty minutes ago I subscribed to the RSS feed for my inbox at Gmail… Thus I would be able to check my inbox via RSS for email notifications for things which could have been tracked by RSS… :)))) Anyway, since many users want it, be it so.

PS: I promise to add some content soon explaining what is RSS, at http://community.wikidot.com/help:rss.

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Help in the forum is easier with screenshots: http://community.wikidot.com/forum_screenshots

last edited on 1234525478|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by maki + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

pieterh 1234525884|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

This is a really, really welcome feature. I manage something like 40 sites and finally I get notifications when anything happens on these sites. RSS was so clumsy. I'm looking forward to being able also to reply to comments by email, and getting notifications when users join, leave, or request to become members. Finally, it would be great to have a Watchers module to show who is watching any particular site, category, or page.

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The Wikidot Blog | My other works

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

michal frackowiak 1234526674|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I am all for RSS for any kind of notifications, news etc., but the reality is that RSS still has very poor adoption. RSS is clean, efficient… So why the adoption is so poor?

There is a probably interesting raport about feeds and Steve Rubel has a few words of comment:

Lord knows, as someone who spends three hours a day in Google Reader, I am a giant evangelist for RSS. But I am also a realist. Feeds are way way too geeky for most and the benefit does not outweigh the learning curve. So I think RSS has peaked.

The result of the report is that RSS adoption among users is just 11%.

I think Steve Rubel has the point. This is (surprisingly) still a niche technology.

For us, the best thing is to have both: RSS and Email notifications, and I think we should aim at this.

We will work more on those notifications very soon, and yes, this would include seeing who is watching given page etc.

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Michał Frąckowiak @ Wikidot Inc.
Visit my blog at michalf.me

last edited on 1234527012|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by michal frackowiak + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

pieterh 1234527221|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Just try to track dozens of sites using RSS and you soon see why it's useless. Furthermore RSS is a broken technology, it has many flaws. AtomPub is a lot better but it still relies on a polling model. So you need to have a service that continuously polls all your feeds, and you need to configure that service. A lot of work.

Email is significantly simpler, and event driven. This is why it's much more popular as a notification technique. I don't know *any* sites that try to alert users of changes using RSS.

RSS is good for one thing IMO: pulling news content off one site, and posting it on another. And this is what it was designed for. Not workflow!

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The Wikidot Blog | My other works

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

zoobab 1234527422|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

You will soon receive complains of people like me who did not agree to receive emails from wikidot.com of changes of website they are member of.

The email subscription has to be voluntary, not mandatory by default. The user has to make the step to subscribe to a particular site, not the other way around.

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

pieterh 1234528188|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

You don't want to get emails telling you of changes to sites you're a member of? I'm finding this feature to be very useful.

Anyhow, you can click once and manage all your subscriptions. Getting an email from a site is a way of giving you the chance to learn how to use this new feature.

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The Wikidot Blog | My other works

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

maki 1234528506|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

@ Michał: I understand the need to introduce this feature. I was joking with people's resistance to learning anything new, no matter how useful or easy it may be, not with the decision to bring this feaure.

I would not agree with Steve Rubel that "the benefit does not outweigh the learning curve". It may only seem so to users but in reality the benefit far outweighs the learning curve, if there's a learning curve at all…

What I've noticed as a couple of hindrances to people adopting RSS is:
- more often than not RSS is not explained in human speak but rather in some overly technical terms and readers probably get the impression that it is something complicated and counter-natural to learn;
- I haven't stumbled upon a really good free, standalone (non-online) RSS reader. I am not sure even if shareware readers are good. There are a number of good readers but each one of them is lacking an essential feature available in some of the others and vice versa.

@ pieterh: I am really struck that you find RSS clumsy over email. To me, the opposite is as obvious as that the sky is blue. Maybe you haven't come upon a good RSS reader (as mentioned above)?

You say "Just try to track dozens of sites using RSS and you soon see why it's useless." I am tracking dozens of many dozens of sites (something like 1000 ) and I do not see where is the problem with this?

---

Help in the forum is easier with screenshots: http://community.wikidot.com/forum_screenshots

last edited on 1234538428|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by maki + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Wayne Eddy 1234534275|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Q: What is going to happen when someone who has been on holidays for 2 weeks opens up their e-mail and gets 500 e-mails telling them that I have edited a page?
A: They are going to be very very annoyed with me and probably leave the wiki.

I'm basically going to have to stop editing pages or risk annoying my users. Is there anyway to turn off the feature for a site.

What about the people signed up to Dragon Trees, they are going to get about 1000 unwanted e-mails a day.

I don't think the implementation of this has been thought out at all well.

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Wayne Eddy
Bundaberg, Australia

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

ErichSteinboeck 1234534298|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Now that you can watch specific (single) pages via E-Mail, could we please also have a way (other than the now obsolete “old” watched feature) to watch single pages via RSS?

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

pieterh 1234534761|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

@Wayne Eddy: you're right that when there is an email for every edit, it gets rapidly very verbose. I've noticed this on some sites.

In making this work properly we're really counting on feedback so your comment is very useful.

Michal, it would be sensible to make notifications on edits opt-in for normal members. I think comments and new pages are by default interesting to site members. Wayne, does this work better for you?

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The Wikidot Blog | My other works

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

cold_blood3d 1234536153|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I'm glad Wikidot sees the importance of emails, but certain changes should be made.

Wayne Eddy brings up a critical point.

1. Do not keep sending further notifications about a page or thread until that member views the page. VBulletin and almost all forum engines do it this way.

VBulletin's approach:

There may also be other replies, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again.

2. Why is the sender the person who posted? Way too confusing and cluttered in my email. It looks like a bunch of random people spammed me. The sender name should be the site name, i.e., "Wikidot.com Community Portal" not "ErichSteinboeck".

3. The default implementation of watching everything on your sites is bad. Members are notified about every little insignificant edit. I'm afraid to edit my wikis at all. Default notifications should only be for A.) pages you've posted on, and B.) pages you've edited. Otherwise this punishes active sites and sends irrelevant emails to all.

4. Please let admins disable email notifications until these issues are resolved. I know there's an unsubscribe, but i think members' trust will be broken when they start seeing a boatload of emails and consider it spam.

other suggestion: I don't know if you use this, but please implement a delay (1-2 minutes) before notifications about a comment/post are sent out. This gives us time to edit out any mistakes so they aren't sent in the email.

last edited on 1234536436|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by cold_blood3d + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

michal frackowiak 1234537225|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

OK, we have temporarily suspended sending emails until we we work this out. Probably we could do it like some of you suggested:

• users are automatically subscribed only to pages they have created, edited or commented
• admins and moderators are subscribed to their sites

Would this be better?

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Michał Frąckowiak @ Wikidot Inc.
Visit my blog at michalf.me

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

pieterh 1234538025|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

The sender name should probably vary depending on the type of event.

• for edits and new pages, it should be the site name if sent to members
• for edits and new pages, it should be the person doing the editing, if sent to admins/mods
• for comments it should be the person posting

We tested this very intensively and putting the person's name as sender works for following comments. However it may be a matter of taste, and later we may make this configurable.

Michal, yes to the model you suggest. Getting email notifications has already brought several sites back to life, it's amazingly useful. Edit spam is annoying. We'll get the fine details like sender name, etc. hammered out over time.

@cold_blood3d,. patience will be rewarded. :-) We did spend a lot of time trying the different options until we found something that felt right.

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The Wikidot Blog | My other works

last edited on 1234538139|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by pieterh + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

RDSeabrook 1234538727|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

This is long overdue! But to reduce volume the default should be a weekly digest (summary) of changes. That's how other sites such as Wetpaint work. I realize this is slightly trickier to implement but it's much more practical, as it reduces the default email volume to once a week. People who want notifications of every change could select that option.

Good work on this important improvement!

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

michal frackowiak 1234538883|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I have removed non-admins from the recipients of site-wide notifications. I guess this will solve the problem for now. We need to partly re-generate the subscription list, so this will take a while to subscribe people back to their pages.

I have updated the documentation:

http://www.wikidot.com/faq:watching#toc5

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Michał Frąckowiak @ Wikidot Inc.
Visit my blog at michalf.me

last edited on 1234540110|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by michal frackowiak + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Melisande 1234541694|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

That was such a bad idea. i had over 100 e-mail when i got up this morning from others making edits! it froze my e-mail.

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

cold_blood3d 1234541805|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

michal and pieterh: yes this will make things much better. I mainly want to make sure that emails being sent to members are relevant to them. These changes should accomplish that :-)

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

gerdami 1234556379|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Thank you for adding new functionalities.

I used to follow "my" websites modifications thru the FeedBlitz service, as explained at howto:be-notified-rss-feed-guide#FeedBlitz , i.e. I receive a daily unique email from FeedBlitz with all modifications and forum posts, and also from other external to wikidot websites.
For me it was enough.

Hence, I would welcome an option to choose between instant, daily, weekly notifications (and hole in one for the last 3 options).

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gerdami - Visit Handbook en Français - Rate this howto:import-simple-excel-tables-into-wikidot up!

last edited on 1234556423|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by gerdami + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Wayne Eddy 1234556514|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

OK, a few comments.

1. Removing non-admins from the recipients from the site-wide notifications will mean I can start doing edits again!!!!

2. I think cold_blood3d's suggestion that default notifications should only be for A.) pages you've posted on, and B.) pages you've edited could work OK.

3. I'm glad I realised the implications of doing edits before I did 100 edits and upset people like Melisade.

4. It will probably work out OK for me. People will get about 8 unexpected e-mails on Monday morning (most people signing up to my site use work e-mails) , but 8 e-mails probably won't be that annoying, and it will give me an excuse to contact them to remind them about the site while explaining what happened.

5. I think e-mail notifications are a really good thing, but I think the couple of negative comments here are the tip of the iceberg and there are going to be a lot of people that are very upset about all the e-mails, that won't leave a comment like Melisande.

6. Hopefully as they say. All publicity is good publicity.

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Wayne Eddy
Bundaberg, Australia

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

cold_blood3d 1234561001|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

A member of my wiki reported a flaw in the default notifications about watching only pages you've contributed/posted to:

Like several wikidot sites, I use a single page as an image repository. Hundreds of images constantly get uploaded to this one page by countless different people. In effect, all people who add to this one page get an abnormal amount of notifications—1 for each file uploaded.

Already got a post/complaint about it from a member:

Ermm i keep getting emails saying new screenshots have been added to the site?
Why?
Its not even to my page or anything lol

These images are totally unrelated and used on different pages throughout the site.

Therefore, it would be ideal if I could remove a specific page or category from the notification system so contributors don't get auto-subscribed—they would have to manually subscribe to it if they want.

Another instance of this is my CSS storage page, where i keep all my CSS files. I might upload a .css file to 100 times within an hour until I get something to look right, so this would send out 100 emails to anyone who watches the whole site.

As an admin - I love getting all the notifications- Makes me happy to see site activity. Also, the button at the bottom to select how you watch a page is very elegant and simple :-)

last edited on 1234733433|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by cold_blood3d + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Wayne Eddy 1234567165|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Having an option to not receive updates about edits you have made would be good. I want to know about changes that other people have made, but I already know what changes I've made.

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Wayne Eddy
Bundaberg, Australia

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Craig Macomber 1234574897|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hum, I guess I'm forced to look into this. Getting 30 plus emails every 12 hours is not an option, and I already have about 35 in my inbox. Gotta turn it off for the community forums. Nice feature though. I want emails (or rss) for private messages, and no/little other email. I guess un-checking "Send me email instant notifications with new events." should solve the endless emails. I don't see options for private messages, but sometimes I get emails for them (maybe that was added recently?)

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

catyuy 1234597369|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I keep trying to cancel getting notifications as I don't care and yet I keep getting more.
If I keep getting them I might just delete my account here and be done with it, as I've gotten 20 alerts since I've tried turning it off twice.

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Craig Macomber 1234598124|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I keep trying to cancel getting notifications as I don't care and yet I keep getting more.
If I keep getting them I might just delete my account here and be done with it, as I've gotten 20 alerts since I've tried turning it off twice.

Turning it off worked fine for me. Just uncheck "Send me email instant notifications with new events." You didn't forget to hit apply did you?

I too found the massive spam load (about 35 messages by the time I got to my computer, would have hit 200 if I was gone for a few days) quite ridiculous.

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

catyuy 1234601221|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Turning it off worked fine for me. Just uncheck "Send me email instant notifications with new events." You didn't forget to hit apply did you?
I too found the massive spam load (about 35 messages by the time I got to my computer, would have hit 200 if I was gone for a few days) quite ridiculous.

I was using the link the email gave me, To stop these emails, go to:……….
But it wasn't working.
I have now tried what you suggest and hope it works.

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

gabor 1234602441|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Indeed, the previous method for watching was cumbersome, and invisible/ignored for the less geekly inclined users. It's surprising how difficult it is to get people understand and appreciate RSS feeds.

This new method is much better, users have a more "intimate" understanding of email :)

Still, the first thing I did was to disable every notification. I manage sites with only a handful of users, who rather send the new content, or the changes they want to see to the admins, and then we edit it.

But this is more of an exception, otherwise I appreciate the feature very much!

King of Spam ?

gerdami 1234636811|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Will wikidot.com be considered by spam fighters as King of Spam ?
With the tons of emails sent the last few days, you can guess the answer.

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gerdami - Visit Handbook en Français - Rate this howto:import-simple-excel-tables-into-wikidot up!

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Gabrys 1234637584|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

1. Do not keep sending further notifications about a page or thread until that member views the page. VBulletin and almost all forum engines do it this way.

VBulletin's approach:

There may also be other replies, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again.

This is the worst feature ever. I want to get noticed about every potentially interesting change, but not be obliged to follow every potentially non-interesting change.

It would be like:

• I got a notification about something
• I see from the preview/title that it's not interesting
• I HAVE TO click, to get further notification

For me it's counter-optimal. I know that some forums does this, but this just sucks.

Will wikidot.com be considered by spam fighters as King of Spam ?
With the tons of emails sent the last few days, you can guess the answer.

I don't thing it will. It gets weeks to be blacklisted. I kind of tested this once.

---

Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my blog

last edited on 1234637745|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Gabrys + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

terioncalling 1234651616|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

As a member of Dragon Trees, this really isn't a nice feature since we have so many members always changing things. I have unchecked all the boxes on the Watching page, cleared out the pages that were being watched, and clicked the unsubscribe link in the e-mails twice. And I still keep getting them.

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Helmuti_pdorf 1234686247|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

and clicked the unsubscribe link in the e-mails twice. And I still keep getting them.

Are you sure - you went to the page of the link - and changed your settings by SAVING them?

I get some mails today and all of there content is very interesting for me - I have only to decide - do I want to see such notifications in the future or not.

Than it is a click on the link and second clicks on the araising page!

I am very content about this new feature… onyl teh start was a little "fulminant"

---

Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org, www.zusi.de (Demo-Video)

Wollen Sie Wikidot helfen im deutschen » Handbuch ?

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

North 1234687193|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I expect to stop receiving emails from a wiki I stopped watching. This feature should have been left disabled for everyone. Send them a notification that it is available and that is all.

I can track the changes myself through the recent changes feature.

last edited on 1234707469|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by North + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

catyuy 1234687519|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Okay now I'm really getting ticked off.
I used the link the email gives me to turn off notifications 5 times.
I have chosen to in my own profile to not recieve emails from this site.
And yet I am still getting emails…and the weirdest thing is that they are dated the 13th.
So please tell me what to do so I may stop revieving notices cause if this doesn't stop I will delete my account and never use this site again.

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Gabrys 1234687864|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

@catuy:

We send emails with current date. You must have your mail provider keeping our mails for 2 days (blame on them!). You must stop using them!

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Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my blog

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Antoine Verdon 1234701240|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

This is a very useful and welcome feature! Probably needs some fine-tuning so that everyone can get only the notification he needs without too much effort, but still great!

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

espe 1234711650|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi,

How can I turn off this feature completely? I used Stop watching site link, but no help. My forum users are mad at me and at the moment I have no idea how I can prevent all the spams.

Best regards

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Kruczoczarna 1234714111|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I'm running a site presenting jewellery I make (http://chaber-bizuteria.wikidot.com/). I really like immediately getting every comment on my work right into my inbox. I appreciate this a lot.
Thank you so much, dear Wikidot team!

Watching- the LINK !

Helmuti_pdorf 1234771808|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

If you need to know the point where to switch off or switch on this feature:

==> https://www.wikidot.com/account:you/start/watching is the account - point "link" to stop or start all general watching tasks

You will find this button/link t on EVERY Screen on the right top corner in a pull down menu clicking on the little arrow against your " may account"

under ( surprise, surprise) "watching" .

Hope this helps ?

PS: I find this new feature GREAT!

---

Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org, www.zusi.de (Demo-Video)

Wollen Sie Wikidot helfen im deutschen » Handbuch ?

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

espe 1234785059|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

If you need to know the point where to switch off or switch on this feature:
https://www.wikidot.com/account:you/start/watching is the account - point "link" to stop or start all general watching tasks

Yes I found that setting, but how you do that for you site? Isn't that setting just personal setting? So how to do that in order to verify no users of my page get any extra mails? And when new users join my site, how can I be sure that they do not get any extra mails?

Thank you very much

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

michal frackowiak 1234795245|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

The problem implementing many features at Wikidot is that it is very difficult to find solutions that match all the different ways people use Wikidot, different sizes of sites and various activity levels. We fully realize that there are large websites here (like Dragon Tree) and a lot of smaller ones.

The model for email notifications we proposed really fits well for small-to-medium workgroups and this is the majority of Wikidot usage here. People want to be notified and up-to-date and we have several feedback confirming this — those are mostly in favor of new notification system.

We will certainly work more on making notifications (and other features) more suitable for all sizes of sites, but we needed to start somewhere. Thanks to the feedback we know what we should work on next.

BTW: Disabling email notifications by clicking on the link works fine. There was a tiny small problem with it in a few cases which probably hit you, but we have it fixed for some time now. It gives you a quick way to unsubscribe without the need to log-in.

---

Michał Frąckowiak @ Wikidot Inc.
Visit my blog at michalf.me

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

pieterh 1234798981|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I'm getting notification emails for my own page edits, which is surely a bug.

Also I seem to no longer be getting emails for threads where I'd expect to get them, like this one.

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The Wikidot Blog | My other works

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Manolis Mavrikis 1234810938|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

We are a small-to-medium workgroup and I think what would really work well with us would be the ability for the editor of the page to decide if she/he wants to notify of their changes.

A colleague suggested that once you had something like major/minor revisions this would be an alternative as it would allow for people to be registered only for major revisions rather than typos or additions that are not considered important.

Hope this is useful and easy to implement.

Thanks for all the great work. The notification feature is certainly only of the most useful ones, once targetting all use cases. Thanks

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

pieterh 1234860526|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

@Manolis: this is a really good idea. Perhaps an option on the page to not notify watchers, and then an action "Notify" that appears when there are changes. So an editor can make changes, and when satisfied, click Notify.

This would work very well the kind of workgroups we use, where wiki pages with their comments are like threads.

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The Wikidot Blog | My other works

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Gabrys 1234860928|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

This could sound radical, but I think if someone don't like new notifications (which involved much work and works very well for 90% of users), they should not complain but just disable them. This is why we have such an option.

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Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my blog

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

cold_blood3d 1234886634|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Sorry if any of my posts seemed like complaints. This is probably one of the best and most needed improvements to wikidot yet, and was well worth the work. Now my wiki feels like a closely connected community who all help out, rather than a cold disconnected group of strangers. It took some time to rethink my idea of email and that it could be used as way of live "watching", but I'm quite happy with it now.

last edited on 1234886701|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by cold_blood3d + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

eldritch00 1234947711|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

The email notifications feature came at the right time, since my students are just now beginning to seriously participate actively in creating/editing pages as well as the forum. What I would like though are email notifications for people applying to join the site…

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

skipcave 1234989016|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Yahoo Groups solves the multiple email problem by providing the user the option of getting a Digest of all changes once a day. I find this to be very useful. Yahoo also provides other options. Here is a cut-and paste from the Yahoo Groups notification configuration page:

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Yahoo! Groups lets you choose how you stay in touch

Individual Email - The option to choose if you want to get each group message and special notice individually and immediately, as it is posted.

Daily Digest - The option to choose if you want to see all messages but limit the amount of email you receive. We'll compile an email of up to 25 messages and send daily (special notices too!).

Special Notices - Receive only important email notices from the group moderator.

Web Only - Don't get notified of the latest happenings. Read messages only on the web.
--—

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Mark Moritz 1235051158|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I think that the watching feature is excellent. But I would make the default "not watching" otherwise people may experience it as spam.

Mark

Re: Email notifications - Deleted Members getting notifications bug?

RDSeabrook 1235227743|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I have had a complaint from a former student whose membership I deleted from the wiki when she finished the class. She is getting notification emails, even though she is no longer a member! This seems a serious bug. Can anyone else confirm this problem?

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching) for WIKIDOT.COM ?

Helmuti_pdorf 1235230874|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi Michal!

What we ( the pro-accounts) need is a possibility to get notifications for the changes and comments on wikidot.com itself!

Sometimes I forget to read the "news" on wikidot main page, overlook the inserted news on Community Main page , and try and try to solve footer changes with CSS without any luck.. 2 days later I detect the news and I had worked some time for nothing…

How can we get Notifications of Wikidot.com site ( and Posts & comments) iself?

---

Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org, www.zusi.de (Demo-Video)

Wollen Sie Wikidot helfen im deutschen » Handbuch ?

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Gabrys 1235234170|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

@RDSeabrook

I have had a complaint from a former student whose membership I deleted from the wiki when she finished the class. She is getting notification emails, even though she is no longer a member! This seems a serious bug. Can anyone else confirm this problem?

Only if the wiki is private, then it is a bug. Is it private?

@Helmuti_pdorf:

What we ( the pro-accounts) need is a possibility to get notifications for the changes and comments on wikidot.com itself!

Just scroll the www.wikidot.com site down and locate the "Start watching: site www.wikidot.com" link at the bottom, click and you're done.

WHOOOOPS: this is only available when page options are shown

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Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my blog

last edited on 1235234371|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Gabrys + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching) with Standalon button Watching?

Helmuti_pdorf 1235234979|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Thanks Piotr!

Now we need a standalone page button "Watching"….

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Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org, www.zusi.de (Demo-Video)

Wollen Sie Wikidot helfen im deutschen » Handbuch ?

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

cold_blood3d 1235239001|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

even though page options are hidden, shouldn't we have begun to watch this thread automatically after posting?

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

RDSeabrook 1235312618|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

@Gabrys

I have had a complaint from a former student whose membership I deleted from the wiki when she finished the class. She is getting notification emails, even though she is no longer a member! This seems a serious bug. Can anyone else confirm this problem?

Only if the wiki is private, then it is a bug. Is it private?

No, the wiki is not private. I concede that this is not technically a bug, as theoretically they may still want to watch the wiki (albeit unlikely). But I still think that the default for people who are removed from the wiki should be to automatically stop watching. They can opt in later if they want.

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Gabrys 1235312905|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

@RDSeabrook
It's matter of her choice. If she doesn't want to get notifications anymore, she can decide to stop watching the site.

I'm sure this behavior would be more natural for user, if the notification system had been introduced earlier.

---

Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my blog

last edited on 1235312927|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Gabrys + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

scottplan 1235699038|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Is it possible to turn off watching within certain categories?

For instance, it's confusing to have "watching" offered at the bottom of forum pages (forum:start, forum:recent-posts, forum:thread, etc) If a user chooses to "watch" these, they're probably assuming they're watching the thread or the forum itself. But actually they're watching changes to the coding of these pages.

Just like it's possible to customize permissions by category, can we choose where watching appears? Or alternately, is there a simple CSS fix I can apply to my forum category to make the links disappear?

S.

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

scottplan 1235699431|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Email notification for pages is great. I'd prefer that we opt in, instead of having to opt out.

But emails for thread updates would be even better.

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

scottplan 1235745335|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Just like it's possible to customize permissions by category, can we choose where watching appears? Or alternately, is there a simple CSS fix I can apply to my forum category to make the links disappear?

OK, I'm now thinking that watching links are tied to the page options buttons, which I can toggle with page permissions. That's pretty good in this case of forum pages, but unusual in cases where users might watch a page AND not have permissions to the view the options buttons. But that's not my concern right now.

Thread updates… your thoughts?

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Helmuti_pdorf 1236069979|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I posted a bug on the pro site - I can not open the "watching" on my account ( in FF and in IE)

http://pro.wikidot.com/ticket:255 - 255: Watching not working ( code: 500)

- nothing happens…..

And: why is the "watching " buttons/links over the page edit buttons not in the stand alione buttons too?

Than we ( You) can show this on all pages even there is no Page options allowed..

---

Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org, www.zusi.de (Demo-Video)

Wollen Sie Wikidot helfen im deutschen » Handbuch ?

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

mr 1236209847|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I would applaud a digest feature in a configurable interval.

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

JDPerezgonzalez 1236210211|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Good idea, specially if they can be easily customisable. I always wished to have it for new requests for membership, as I keep forgetting checking that. Let's see how it works!

Cheers

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

RVankoningsveld 1236312914|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Digest feature would be great, and also a way to stop watching other than through the email, ideally from your profile page

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Jerome Buzzi 1236780241|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I definitely agree with skipcave: most members would like only a daily or weekly digest.

As of now I have to suggest them not to watch since most get upset when a page is tinkered with ten times in one hour… Another possibilty would be to mark some modifications as minor and give the possibility not to receive notification of such

last edited on 1236780321|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Jerome Buzzi + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Alan Beer 1238121115|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Is there a way to disable notifications for a site… I want to make changes but don't want to flood people with emails about these changes

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

scottplan 1239064274|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Here's an excerpt from the Watching FAQ.

What can be watched?

You can watch whole sites, whole categories within a site, forum threads or individual pages.

Am I missing something? Under the new system, the only threads I can watch are those attached to pages. Is there some way to watch certain forum threads?

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

ErichSteinboeck 1239132170|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Scott, the FAQ was fixed. The reference to forum threads has been removed.

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Bernard DLK 1240820842|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Apparently a member that joined a wiki after the introduction of this "feature" is by default watching all pages. Is this desired? I don't think so: new members gets frightened by dozens of mails overcrowding their mailbox.

Every wiki has it's particularities: for some of them notifications is a feature, for others it is a drawback. I think the default settings for notifications should be in hands of the admins. If this is technically not possible, default setting should be "inactive". IMHO

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

(account deleted) 1240830820|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Somewhat I agree with Bernard DLK…

It's because one of my member was actually complained to me, he surprised with the overloading email in his inbox… That's notify something that he doesn't want to… This happen because I quite often update my wiki…

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

RobElliott 1240933771|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I also agree with Bernard DLK on this. Watching is a useful feature and definitely has its place in many sites and it's very good that wikidot has implemented it. But I do think Master Administrators of a site should be able to switch it off completely if necessary via the admin:manage page. And I don't like any aspect of it being switched on by default, even pages a user has created. My view is that if a user wishes to watch a page, category or site they should specifically choose to do so.

Rob

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Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

area7workforce 1242839313|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Is there any way to determine who is watching? We have our wiki set up so that you have to have the password to join but, we want to know of the members of the site who is "watching" the wiki.

Area 7

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

(account deleted) 1242864105|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

For me area7workforce is right Michal…

we want to know of the members of the site who is "watching" the wiki.

I think "maybe" somehow we will need it. To keep track our site watcher… And incorporating watcher removal sound great to me… (if you busy I think this kind of new feature should be delayed …)

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Squark 1242979579|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi,

Such features as: "checking who is watching", setting up who can watch or sending notifications manually will be available in the nearest future.

---

my blog
squarkDesign - grafika komputerowa
rTechnologies - strony www

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

(account deleted) 1243046326|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Wow early this morning, I surprised that "checking who is watching" feature is already available under + options menu in each pages! Thx Squark, Michal!

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

slayton 1243603877|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Is a digest feature going to be implemented?

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Patentpope 1244574001|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

esavaar asked:

How can I turn off this feature completely? I used Stop watching site link, but no help. My forum users are mad at me and at the moment I have no idea how I can prevent all the spams.

and

Yes I found that setting, but how you do that for you site? Isn't that setting just personal setting? So how to do that in order to verify no users of my page get any extra mails? And when new users join my site, how can I be sure that they do not get any extra mails?

Alan Beer asked:

Is there a way to disable notifications for a site… I want to make changes but don't want to flood people with emails about these changes

I've read through this thread and don't see the answer to these questions. (Though I might have missed a technical response somewhere.)

Is it possible to shut off watching for a whole site? Or must it be done user-by-user?

Thanks

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

PrincessBrooke 1245602774|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I second the comments of several others - we really need a DAILY DIGEST option. Getting one email that lists 40 minor changes in one day is much better than getting 40 separate emails.

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

pieterh 1245626503|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I agree about a digest option, and we will make this. However, note that the real problem here is that annoying edit spam, which we are fixing with a better edit process based on drafts. I.e. you won't see edit notifications any longer, only publish notifications.

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The Wikidot Blog | My other works

last edited on 1245626775|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by pieterh + show more

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

kawina 1247786457|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I'm also waiting for an answer on the following question:

Is it possible to shut off watching for a whole site? Or must it be done user-by-user?

Admins should have more control over which categories can be watched, whether they want their whole site to be watchable, etc.
Please, Wikidot, I'd appreciate an answer on that.

---

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Eduardo R. Ribeiro
Macro-Jê linguistics, &c.

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

pieterh 1247823239|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

@Kawina, right now this is not configurable but we'll make it so. I think the simplest is to remove the "Watch" links at the bottom of the page, and to ask site admins to use the Watchers module instead.

However we are also going to review notifications in general. There's still too much email and it's not properly focussed.

Thanks
-Pieter

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The Wikidot Blog | My other works

ESR

pwwanted 1248866821|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Dear Wikidot,
I have received a Notification regarding Terms of Service Updated.
Is there violation that i made regarding with my site(josgm.wikidot.com)
please inform me Sir so that i can immediately correct my mistake or violation.
Thank You.

From Admin of (josgm.wikidot.com)

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Gustavo Olivares 1251331696|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Reiterating what a number of people has said …
We need a "digest" option with a configurable interval (Hourly?, Daily, Weekly, etc) … is that happening any time soon?

/Gus

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Ben Miller 1252212885|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Just wanted to check in re: kawina's post of 16 July, following up on Patentpope's review of 9 July:

I'm also waiting for an answer on the following question:

Is it possible to shut off watching for a whole site? Or must it be done user-by-user?

Admins should have more control over which categories can be watched, whether they want their whole site to be watchable, etc. Please, Wikidot, I'd appreciate an answer on that.

I'm not looking to shut off watching for my entire site, but rather to set the default watching behavior for users across the board; they would then be able to "inherit from default" or configure with a finer grain. For example, I would expect that most users would want to automatically watch pages they create or forum threads they comment on; I would also expect that most users would not want to automatically watch every page on the wiki, as so many users above have noted. In my case, since my users are students, many of them do not know how to set up email filters or configure their watching settings, and while I can (and will) teach them, it seems an avoidable step.

Are any of the gurus working on making default watch settings configurable by admins? Last we heard was pieterh on 17 July suggesting that we remove the watch links. But again, I'd love to see something between a) shutting the whole thing down and b) receiving tons of edit-spam by default.

What's the current status?

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

pieterh 1252222332|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

What's the current status?

It still works as before, but here is the design for the next revision: http://blog.wikidot.com/design:2

Related to that, http://blog.wikidot.com/design:3

-Pieter

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The Wikidot Blog | My other works

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

Lori and Elaina 1252235918|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

HELP…I started this site and now I am static…I need someone to walk me through setting this site up. I have an entire class of gradstudents that want to collaborate and I need some help. Is there anyone out there????????
Lori

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

pieterh 1252241091|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

HELP…I started this site and now I am static…I need someone to walk me through setting this site up. I have an entire class of gradstudents that want to collaborate and I need some help. Is there anyone out there????????

Sure, what's the site and what are you trying to do? You can find a lot of help on the http://community.wikidot.com site.

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The Wikidot Blog | My other works

Re: next version(s)

Ben Miller 1252255263|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Thanks, Pieter, for those links - I don't think they were on this page yet, and this page is the one directly linked from the Watching documentation. (This is also why I'll reply here, rather than at http://blog.wikidot.com/design:2 - though if you think it would be helpful, I can cross-post there or at http://blog.wikidot.com/design:3.)

What seems to be especially helpful about design proposal 2 is that, in its verbose/non-verbose options, it distinguishes among (and splits apart) automatic Site, Category, and Page watching. These are currently fused together in user options — as "Auto-watch sites I create or join, pages I create, edit or comment" — which is problematic: I do want to auto-watch sites I create, but I don't want to auto-watch, in their entirety, sites I merely join (or have my students auto-watch every update to nav: and css: simply because they're members). Likewise for pages I create vs. pages I edit (which might mean simply cleaning up a typographical error).

I therefore rather like, but don't quite love, the new defaults for automatic subscription:

These are the cases where users are automatically subscribed, and how it works:
* Site owners, admins and mods: all traffic on the whole site.
* Site members: new pages only.
* Page creator or editor: all traffic on that page.
* Page commentor: all traffic on that page.

Again, I would prefer not to auto-watch pages I edit - if I'm editing a page I've created, I already watch it, and if I'm editing someone else's page, I probably either care enough to manually click "watch this page" or else I would prefer not to.

But in any event, this doesn't seem to address the question that keeps coming up on this discussion thread: will admins be able to configure these default settings per-site (i.e. the initial watching behavior for new users), or must the auto-subscriptions be the same for all sites?

Re: Email notifications (aka Watching)

cold_blood3d 1260483425|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Sadly it seems one of my sites' watching emails are now considered spam by GMail. Probably because I had to manually make 1000 edits over the course of a couple days. And each page has something like 30+ watchers. So a lot of spammy email had to be generated.