general questions Separating the Profile Notifications

[dead account 2,710]

These settings here:

Personally, I want to receive all of these notfications but the last one. The problem is, once I replied to a status post, I will always receive new notifications whenever someone replies there. I consider it spam, because I often only want to show my appreciation to the author themself. And if someone wants to reply to me, they could always gladly just mention me. Sometimes the conversations here go on and on and it leads to way too many notfications.
I surely could deactivate the notification for it, but it would deactivate the others as well and they are way too important for me. No option is optimal as it is.

I'm pretty certain some other members would really appreciate this change as well.

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

2 hours ago, Sven Seelenherz said:

These settings here:

Personally, I want to receive all of these notfications but the last one. The problem is, once I replied to a status post, I will always receive new notifications whenever someone replies there. I consider it spam, because I often only want to show my appreciation to the author themself. And if someone wants to reply to me, they could always gladly just mention me. Sometimes the conversations here go on and on and it leads to way too many notfications.
I surely could deactivate the notification for it, but it would deactivate the others as well and they are way too important for me. No option is optimal as it is.

I'm pretty certain some other members would really appreciate this change as well.

Sometimes people reply to you WITHOUT mentioning your name though.... And sometimes you want to know what other would think on what that other person would say.... Anyway at the notifications you could easily see who replied so you could just ignore it right then and there....

You're adding work to a free to use server.

[Rikifive 24,119]

Yes, yes, yes, I absolutely agree. This is something the forum software devs should really look into, but all they do so far is further merging different settings into one. In fact, it was already noticed, that the notifications from new statuses posted by users you follow were just merged into another setting after the recent upgrade, so now you'd also have to opt in for ALL content they post. Soon we'll have literally only one notification setting, that will either enable absolutely all notifications or disable them altogether.

After seeing so many feedbacks from users here regarding very limited notification settings and me agreeing with these, I actually went to software devs once and left my feedback on their platform. They shrugged at me and swept my post under a carpet. Perhaps it's because I'm not a legitimate "client", who actually purchased the license to use this forum software, so they figured, that they don't have to deal with a random guy, that came out of nowhere suggesting things. So.. Welp, I tried.

 

30 minutes ago, Kujamih said:

Sometimes people reply to you WITHOUT mentioning your name though.... And sometimes you want to know what other would think on what that other person would say.... Anyway at the notifications you could easily see who replied so you could just ignore it right then and there....

You're adding work to a free to use server.

But they should. Not everyone has these notifications enabled, so chances are, that people won't see the replies if you won't mention them. At this point it's guessing - do they get notifications from all status replies or not? Should I mention them? It's a good practice to just go ahead and mention users when aiming directly at them.

And sometimes you just want to nicely say "good morning" to someone. And sometimes you'll get 50 notifications because the others also said "good morning" to that person. And you do not see which status the notification mentions, all you get is "[Username] replied to a status update." and it's confusing when many of these clog your notification box.

It is exactly why I don't tend to reply to status updates. I usually put a reaction and leave, reply only if I actually have something to say and want to "subscribe" to the status.

 

It is a valid feedback, but it would be best if the Invision ponies would hear the voices here. A better user experience is right to be desired.

 

 

Edit: Given the nature of this thread, I also have moved this topic to Feedback.

Edited May 28, 2022 by Rikifive

[Sparklefan1234 169,667]

@Rikifive

I wish Status Update replies would only appear in my notifications if someone posted @Sparklefan1234 before their message. 

Edited May 28, 2022 by Sparklefan1234

[Rikifive 24,119]

21 minutes ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

@Rikifive

I wish Status Update replies would only appear in my notifications if someone posted @Sparklefan1234 before their message. 

Agreed. So basically the last part of that particular notification setting "(...) or that you replied to" should have its own separate setting or not exist at all. Even better if statuses would feature follow/subscribe system to choose which ones you'd like to follow, like with topics, but now that, I imagine could be a bit too much science. That last part is what is too much there. Replies to statuses on my profile are fine, but all random replies from random statuses? Not really. :/

[Sparklefan1234 169,667]

1 minute ago, Rikifive said:

That last part is what is too much there. Replies to statues on my profile are fine,

 

I mean it gets annoying when I get replies to my status updates and people aren't talking to me. Those are the replies that I wish I could disable. 

[Rikifive 24,119]

5 minutes ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

 

I mean it gets annoying when I get replies to my status updates and people aren't talking to me. Those are the replies that I wish I could disable. 

Yes, yes, I get 'ya. Sometimes users tend to start a little friendly conversation based on what you've posted in a Status Update, and while it's all nice, it may be a bit of a burden to the one who posted the status, and pretty much everyone who just dropped a word there before the conversation. The notification preferences definitely should offer more flexibility.

[dead account 2,710]

Thank you so much for replying here, @Rikifive. Now I have a way better understanding about all of it.

37 minutes ago, Rikifive said:

And sometimes you just want to nicely say "good morning" to someone. And sometimes you'll get 50 notifications because the others also said "good morning" to that person.

This. 100% this. Often we just want to leave a friendly "hello", but when it leads to dozens of notifications of other people doing the same thing, well...I'm thinking twice or thrice before doing so.
If the notifications were separate, we could all get used to it and just mention users we want to add to the conversation. And even better: If it was possible to "follow" status posts as well, it would be perfect!

42 minutes ago, Rikifive said:

It is a valid feedback, but it would be best if the Invision ponies would hear the voices here. A better user experience is right to be desired.

Can I do this as a user?

Again, thank you. I couldn't ask for more.

[Sparklefan1234 169,667]

Moments ago, Rikifive said:

Yes, yes, I get 'ya. Sometimes users tend to start a little friendly conversation based on what you've posted in a Status Update, and while it's all nice, it may be a bit of a burden to the one who posted the status, or pretty much everyone who just dropped a word there before the conversation. The notification preferences definitely should offer more flexibility.

 

I think so, too.

I understand that forums are meant to be social places but sometimes I don't want *everyone* to offer their opinion on something. 

[Rikifive 24,119]

On 2022-05-28 at 11:15 PM, Sven Seelenherz said:

Can I do this as a user?

Well, I tried and I didn't get far.  They seem to focus on actual "clients" who pay them, not just random users from various forums. Well, their forums are locked for the most part, unless you are a registered "client". Otherwise, no support, some lurking only, which is a bummer. :c

 

On 2022-05-28 at 11:17 PM, Sparklefan1234 said:

I understand that forums are meant to be social places but sometimes I don't want *everyone* to offer their opinion on something. 

And that's my issue - If forums are meant to be social places, how come they didn't account the possibility of users using the Status Updates to say "hi" and its unwanted spam coming from trying to be "social"?  Status Updates are, as the name suggests, supposed to be used to share one's thoughts, some bigger ones, some minor ones ~ how come the devs treat it like a place only for serious discussions, that everyone needs to see every single reply so badly?

See, that doesn't add up. Given how flawed the notifications are and how it becomes worse every few updates, it's like they weren't expecting their platform to be used for socializing, yet they do implement some rather trivial features like leaderboards and achievements. What is their goal then??? Who knows...

[Splashee 28,563]

1 hour ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

@Rikifive

I wish Status Update replies would only appear in my notifications if someone posted @Sparklefan1234 before their message. 

I wouldn't recommend these settings since you wouldn't get any notifications from your friends' statuses and would completely rely on All Activity/Recent Status Updates to read them:

It is obvious that the blue underlined setting is what members here are annoyed about. And they have the rights to be annoyed because the setting is interlinked with two different types of notifications, one turned on means, both are turned on?

The gray one is just sad if you take away, since it is the main way to communicate with you directly, @Sparklefan1234.

 

 

I myself am keeping all notifications on. I am not seeing it as being spammed by my friends that I follow. I follow you all because I want to interact and read what you have to say.

[Sparklefan1234 169,667]

@Splashee

 

4 minutes ago, Splashee said:

The gray one is just sad if you take away, since it is the main way to communicate with you directly, @Sparklefan1234.

 

Yeah. I don't want to do that. 

 

5 minutes ago, Splashee said:

I myself am keeping all notifications on. I am not seeing it as being spammed by my friends that I follow.

I follow you all because I want to interact and read what you have to say.

 

I understand. Thank You for explaining everything, BFFFF. 

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

I really don't see the problem? So what if you have 100 notifications? Then just sift through them and open the ones that are important, right?

[dead account 2,710]

6 hours ago, Kujamih said:

I really don't see the problem? So what if you have 100 notifications? Then just sift through them and open the ones that are important, right?

This actually leads to another problem, the notifications themselves are not very intuitive. I'll explain.

So, the bell at the top only shows the last 25 notifications. Then I have to click on "View all notifications" in the same window to view the rest. But as soon as I do this, all of the messages there will become greyed out. The first page there also only shows the last 25 messages. (I just counted them, it doesn't show a number unfortunately.) So I have to waste time to click on the next pages. Next problem? They are all greyed out too and I have absolutely no idea where to even start now. It is time-wasting, because I have to look through and read some older messages as well and check if I already read them or not.

This actually makes me not want to receive many notifications. I already turned off some settings. I want to have a fun and relaxing time, I don't wanna do the math every day and count the messages to know where to even start. But I have to when I don't wanna miss out on something. There could be an important notification right in the midst of it. It really shouldn't be greyed just like that, I want it to be greyed out only after I clicked on an individual notification and checked what it was about. This would also help so much.

The ability to turn off reaction notifications would help too. This would also reduce the notifcations by a lot. I like reactions, don't get me wrong. But I find the notifications for them pointless for the following reason: The notification window doesn't show which reaction exactly was given and I'm not going to check out every single message individually. That's why I would prefer to not have notifcations for them at all. They are more or less pointless the way they are now.

Currently, when I look through the notifcations, I have to look very closely and pay attention. "replied to" and "reacted to" are very similar looking words, it really does add to the confusion.

I could sift through them, yes, but I'm worried to miss something important between all the "unimportant" ones. I mean I have to live with it anyway, with the way things are. And unfortunately, when some of the other notification settings also get fused together, it will make things even worse.

But now we talked about it and I understand things better. I will just turn it off and let people know to just mention me. "Solved".  Then it leaves only the confusing reaction notifications between important ones. I have streams for everything, so I won't miss anything important anyway.
Hey, you know what would be cool? An extra bell & window for the reaction notifications! Okay, okay, I stop now, haha.

I have to say I really love the forum software, its design and everything. It was definitely a good choice for this forum, I never enjoyed any other forum this much. Especially in 2020. I remember we already had separate settings. It's a shame that the forum devs are like this. These smaller changes would make a big difference, it would make socializing so much more fun. I truly believe it would add to the fun of interacting here, which a forum is all about. But they seem to be like Google, who like to remove good things instead of improving them.

And to what you said earlier: I definitely don't want to give anyone a bigger workload. I was even thinking twice before making this topic, since we just received the upgrade/update and it still has some bugs apparently. The topic here really was just meant as feedback, as an idea (for the future). And to learn more about the technically background as well.

[Northern Star 1,023]

7 hours ago, Kujamih said:

I really don't see the problem? So what if you have 100 notifications? Then just sift through them and open the ones that are important, right?

I just ignore them now...I have to sift through enough internet every day for work. I've gotten over 30 in the last 2 hours.

On a separate, but from here question: this is free? Where is the loophole for that at?(its like $700 for a self hosting license last I checked) Or did you mean mlpforums.com is free?

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

21 hours ago, TheGleaner said:

I just ignore them now...I have to sift through enough internet every day for work. I've gotten over 30 in the last 2 hours.

On a separate, but from here question: this is free? Where is the loophole for that at?(its like $700 for a self hosting license last I checked) Or did you mean mlpforums.com is free?

Mlp forums is free.

21 hours ago, Sven Seelenherz said:

This actually leads to another problem, the notifications themselves are not very intuitive. I'll explain.

So, the bell at the top only shows the last 25 notifications. Then I have to click on "View all notifications" in the same window to view the rest. But as soon as I do this, all of the messages there will become greyed out. The first page there also only shows the last 25 messages. (I just counted them, it doesn't show a number unfortunately.) So I have to waste time to click on the next pages. Next problem? They are all greyed out too and I have absolutely no idea where to even start now. It is time-wasting, because I have to look through and read some older messages as well and check if I already read them or not.

This actually makes me not want to receive many notifications. I already turned off some settings. I want to have a fun and relaxing time, I don't wanna do the math every day and count the messages to know where to even start. But I have to when I don't wanna miss out on something. There could be an important notification right in the midst of it. It really shouldn't be greyed just like that, I want it to be greyed out only after I clicked on an individual notification and checked what it was about. This would also help so much.

The ability to turn off reaction notifications would help too. This would also reduce the notifcations by a lot. I like reactions, don't get me wrong. But I find the notifications for them pointless for the following reason: The notification window doesn't show which reaction exactly was given and I'm not going to check out every single message individually. That's why I would prefer to not have notifcations for them at all. They are more or less pointless the way they are now.

Currently, when I look through the notifcations, I have to look very closely and pay attention. "replied to" and "reacted to" are very similar looking words, it really does add to the confusion.

I could sift through them, yes, but I'm worried to miss something important between all the "unimportant" ones. I mean I have to live with it anyway, with the way things are. And unfortunately, when some of the other notification settings also get fused together, it will make things even worse.

But now we talked about it and I understand things better. I will just turn it off and let people know to just mention me. "Solved".  Then it leaves only the confusing reaction notifications between important ones. I have streams for everything, so I won't miss anything important anyway.
Hey, you know what would be cool? An extra bell & window for the reaction notifications! Okay, okay, I stop now, haha.

I have to say I really love the forum software, its design and everything. It was definitely a good choice for this forum, I never enjoyed any other forum this much. Especially in 2020. I remember we already had separate settings. It's a shame that the forum devs are like this. These smaller changes would make a big difference, it would make socializing so much more fun. I truly believe it would add to the fun of interacting here, which a forum is all about. But they seem to be like Google, who like to remove good things instead of improving them.

And to what you said earlier: I definitely don't want to give anyone a bigger workload. I was even thinking twice before making this topic, since we just received the upgrade/update and it still has some bugs apparently. The topic here really was just meant as feedback, as an idea (for the future). And to learn more about the technically background as well.

I think the devs should check on your problem as I think I don't have the same problem as yours... Mine doesn't grey out. And suggestions are good, just don't expect them to be approved or taken to consideration.... Since it's a suggestion... And of course the mlp forums devs and people working there are doing their best, keep up the hard work. 

 

[Jeric 46,850]

I’ll happily pass on this topic to the Invision Team to highlight the impact this decision has had. Currently there is no option available that will revert notifications to a place that gives users control over them. Our use case seems to be more of an outlier as many of their other paying clients tend to be businesses. 
 

When I find time to hunt for a third-party hook/plug-in that will modify notifications, I’ll try my best.