# email notifications



## mkellogg

Hi everybody,

You may have noticed that email notifications no longer include the contents of the posts.  There have always been a number of problems with this feature, such as  people who post a message knowing it will be deleted, but that it will get emailed anyway.  I have now learned that there are other security issues with the posts being quoted in emails, so I have been forced to turn off the feature.  I'm sorry for the inconvenience. If you subscribe to threads, you will continue to receive emails telling you that there have been new posts to those threads.

Mike


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## TrentinaNE

Speaking as a moderator, may I say:  *HALLELUJAH!* ?

Abuse by a very small number of forer@s had made the email notification with text a pain.  I'm glad to see it go!

Elisabetta


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## anthodocheio

And I was just about to ask...

Why can't we have the text? I'm afraid I don't see the problem...

Is it going to happen the same with the private messages?


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## cropje_jnr

From a personal perspective this decision has certainly decreased the usability of the forums, I'm afraid. As a frequent contributor, I am physically unable to return to each and every thread I've posted in, especially during periods where multiple contributions are coming in on a regular basis - having the e-mail preview enabled me to triage threads so as to instantly decide whether I would post further remarks.

It is unfortunate that users should be inconvenienced problems that, judging from how they are described here, aren't commonplace enough to have ever affected me. 

That said, the forums are a fantastic resource for many useful purposes - not least of all improving one's personal understanding of languages and solving the odd linguistic conundrum along the way.


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## TrentinaNE

cropje_jnr said:


> It is unfortunate that users should be inconvenienced problems that, judging from how they are described here, aren't commonplace enough to have ever affected me.


It's a trade-off between inconvenience for some (most people don't even use the email notification feature) and *very serious problems* for a few, including virtually all the moderators. A classic "triage" situation. 

I actually see some upside here. People (especially new members) who in the past thought their question had been fully answered by the email they received will now have to revisit the forum for the answer -- and may see that subsequent posts have given them better information than the first (and possibly only) message they would have seen by email.  Besides, at the end of the day, this is a forum, not an emailing list.  

As far as I know, PM notifications will continue to include the text of the Personal Message. The issues are different there.

Elisabetta


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## elroy

anthodocheio said:


> I'm afraid I don't see the problem...


 I'm not surprised, since nine times out of ten it's been the moderators who have suffered the brunt of the severe problems caused by the feature, by having to deal with its unfortunate consequences. Among other issues, members could often see the text of a deleted or edited post, having been immediately sent the original text as soon as it was submitted by its author, and had no qualms about responding to content that was no longer in the forum - all too often in particularly controversial or disagreeable circumstances. 

Superficially, e-mail notifications may appear to be a useful and practical time-saver, but there is _a lot_ more to them than meets the eye.

Suffice it to say that this issue was first formally brought up among the moderators nine months ago, and was discussed at length before Mike removed the feature - so this was by no means a rash decision made on a whim or without prior thought.


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## LV4-26

No problem with me. I've long ceased to use email notifications. Instead, I use "Quick Links / Subscribed threads". I find it much less troublesome than to have my email box filled with email notifications.


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## alexacohen

From a non-moderator:

I'm glad to see them go!

Thank you, everyone!

Alexandra


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## panjabigator

Well, I always liked to read the off topic posts.  Bummer, but I'll find a way to cope...


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## Suehil

I understand the problems, but it is very time-wasting to have to go back to every thread only to find a 'thank you'.  Don't get me wrong; I like thank you's, but seeing them in the e-mail is enough.  
It will certainly increase the traffic on the site - is that why it has been down so much these last two days?


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## AngelEyes

As just a member and not a Moderator, I enjoyed the convenient benefits of having all the threads I'm interested in dumped into my mailbox.

And I really liked reading the posts that the MODS deemed worthy of deleting. Kind of a covert operational benefit.

I'll miss the feature very much.

But I also liked and now miss the color options for writing my SIG, too. 

Do you guys sit up at night and think of things to take away from us?
(That was a "_Kid the Mods_" joke.)



*AngelEyes*


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## Nunty

Question: Do I have to subscribe explicitly to a thread to get the email notifying me of new posts or does it still happen automatically when I post in a thread or open one?
Thanks.


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## MünchnerFax

Suehil said:


> I understand the problems, but it is very time-wasting to have to go back to every thread only to find a 'thank you'. Don't get me wrong; I like thank you's, but seeing them in the e-mail is enough.


Well, you should have checked your threads even before , because you would (and will still) get only an e-mail for each thread until you'd log in again. That is to say: if both X posted "thank you" and Y replied with some interesting additional information while you were offline, you'd only receive an e-mail notification for the first "thank you" post. If you hadn't checked the thread, you'd have missed Y's message. 



Nun-Translator said:


> Question: Do I have to subscribe explicitly to a thread to get the email notifying me of new posts or does it still happen automatically when I post in a thread or open one?
> Thanks.


Everything works like before. Only, the body of the new post will no longer be attached in the e-mail you receive, and you'll only be informed that XYZ replied to the "ABC" thread. Like before, you'll be provided with a direct link to the thread in the forums.


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## Nunty

MünchnerFax said:


> [...]Everything works like before. Only, the body of the new post will no longer be attached in the e-mail you receive, and you'll only be informed that XYZ replied to the "ABC" thread. Like before, you'll be provided with a direct link to the thread in the forums.


Thank you. Actually, having seen the e-mail notification of your response here, I had my answer before I read your reply.  The WRF Hall of Mirrors!
Thanks again for replying so promptly.


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## Suehil

MünchnerFax said:


> Well, you should have checked your threads even before , because you would (and will still) get only an e-mail for each thread until you'd log in again. That is to say: if both X posted "thank you" and Y replied with some interesting additional information while you were offline, you'd only receive an e-mail notification for the first "thank you" post. If you hadn't checked the thread, you'd have missed Y's message.


That's true, and when I come back from being away nothing has changed, but when I'm online (sometimes for hours at a time) I get them one at a time and have to go to each thread every time I get a message.


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## TrentinaNE

AngelEyes said:


> As just a member and not a Moderator, I enjoyed the convenient benefits of having all the threads I'm interested in dumped into my mailbox.


You said it right there, AngelEyes: it was a convenience, not a necessity. 



> Do you guys sit up at night and think of things to take away from us?
> (That was a "_Kid the Mods_" joke.)


No, but we sometimes wonder if there are forer@s who sit up at night thinking of ways to abuse the system (e.g., 4-line sigs with every letter in a different color; posting inflammatory messages that they know will be deleted just so that they go out in email notifications; reposting the content of deleted messages that they've "conveniently" saved from email notification). 

If everyone behaved all the time, there wouldn't be the need for some of the forum's rules and changes. But such is life. 

Elisabetta


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## Grefsen

Suehil said:


> I understand the problems, but it is very time-wasting to have to go back to every thread only to find a 'thank you'.  Don't get me wrong; I like thank you's, but seeing them in the e-mail is enough.



I understand some of the problems the moderators have to deal with too, but I have to say that I am in complete agreement with you *Suehil.*



Suehil said:


> It will certainly increase the traffic on the site - is that why it has been down so much these last two days?



I was wondering the same thing especially three days ago when for me this site was down most of the day.


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## Grefsen

TrentinaNE said:


> No, but we sometimes wonder if there are forer@s who sit up at night thinking of ways to abuse the system (e.g., 4-line sigs with every letter in a different color; posting inflammatory messages that they know will be deleted just so that they go out in email notifications; reposting the content of deleted messages that they've "conveniently" saved from email notification).



Instead of punishing everyone for the inappropriate behavior of a few, would it be possible instead to first give a warning to someone who is clearly violating the rules intentionally?  Then after receiving a warning, if they continue to behave in an abusive manner, then perhaps they should be permanently banned from posting here.


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## elroy

Nobody is being "punished."  The administrator has simply decided to remove a feature that is not indispensable to the functioning of the forum and has proven to be far more trouble than it's worth.


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## Grefsen

elroy said:


> Nobody is being "punished."  The administrator has simply decided to remove a feature that is not indispensable to the functioning of the forum and has proven to be far more trouble than it's worth.



Okay, instead of "punished" it would have been better if I had used "inconvenienced" instead.  I'm still interested to know if there is any possibility of there being a connection between the removal of this feature and the amount of time that the Word Reference site has been down during the past week?


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## elroy

An interesting question indeed, but that's something that's beyond my ability (and probably anyone else's) to accurately measure in a statistically reliable way without conducting a major research project of some sort.


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## fenixpollo

Suehil said:


> I understand the problems, but it is very time-wasting to have to go back to every thread only to find a 'thank you'.


While you may feel that politeness and collegiality are a waste of time, they are truly the essence of the mission of this forum.



> It will certainly increase the traffic on the site -


 Sounds like a good thing to me! 



Grefsen said:


> Instead of punishing everyone for the inappropriate behavior of a few, would it be possible instead to first give a warning to someone who is clearly violating the rules intentionally? Then after receiving a warning, if they continue to behave in an abusive manner, then perhaps they should be permanently banned from posting here.


 I think Trentina was speaking from her own experience, which should not be taken to mean that abuse of the text-in-emails feature was a huge problem. It's sometimes a nuisance to moderators, I'm sure, but it's definitely not the reason that the feature was turned off.

Speaking as a member, I've never used the email notifications as a substitute for reading a thread. My habit has always been to go straight to the user control panel every time I visit the forum, and revisit my subscribed threads that have new posts. Since it was never my habit to read the notification emails, I don't miss the text of new posts in the body of the those emails. 

For those of you who had the habit of reading the emails, I feel for you because I know how hard it can be to change a habit... especially when it's related to wordreferencaholism!


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## mkellogg

I have to say that I really miss the post text in the emails as well, and I'm the person who removed the feature!  Hopefully, I'll adapt to it over the next couple of weeks.


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## Suehil

I've just noticed another disadvantage.  I can no longer read the replies when the site is down.  It is very galling to see there has been a reply and have absolutely no way to find out what it was.


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## Jana337

Suehil said:


> I've just noticed another disadvantage.  I can no longer read the replies when the site is down.  It is very galling to see there has been a reply and have absolutely no way to find out what it was.


Google indexes WR threads so frequently (I sometimes want to do some research for a thread started just a while ago and the WR thread in question pops up at the first page of Google results ) that you can find a cached version of the thread with a high probability. Cache does not depend on the server mood.


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## EmilyD

I know this is tangential, but here goes:

I don't get email notifications when a thread is locked.  I don't think I ever did.

Would that be a possibility?  Or were they eliminated after complaints, logistical concerns, et cet.?

This is not a major concern...I love this forum and have been here barely a year...

Happy St. Andrew's Day to All,

Nomi


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## cuchuflete

You would have, and will continue to, receive e-mail notifications up until the moment a thread is locked.  After that there are no new posts to notify you of, so I don't understand what notifications are missing.


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## cirrus

fenixpollo said:


> I've never used the email notifications as a substitute for reading a thread. My habit has always been to go straight to the user control panel every time I visit the forum, and revisit my subscribed threads that have new posts. Since it was never my habit to read the notification emails, I don't miss the text of new posts in the body of the those emails. .



Snap!  I was massively relieved when I worked out how to turn off automatic emails. 

The only downside I can see to the UCP first approach is that sometimes I miss interesting developments on threads which have been revived.


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## geve

mkellogg said:


> I have to say that I really miss the post text in the emails as well, and I'm the person who removed the feature! Hopefully, I'll adapt to it over the next couple of weeks.


So, did you miss it too much, or is it different between *instant* e-mail notification and *daily* e-mail notification? 
I still get the text of new posts in the latter. Which BTW is a good solution for those of you who said that it made it quicker for them than going to re-check the thread: all new posts at once, every 24 hours! How time-saving is that! 
The problem of not getting the off-topic or spam messages still remains though.


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## EmilyD

Believe it or not, the wordreference *forum *is filtered out from the computers at my son's school.  That means, when using those machines , I cannot use the link to take me here.

oy.

I certainly will be contributing some opinions to the authorities there (the school), but that is one reason I miss seeing the text of the post in the email message.

I respect the process of Mike and the Mods and their collective and individual wisdom.
_
nomi_


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## ROSANGELUS

mkellogg said:


> I have to say that I really miss the post text in the emails as well, and I'm the person who removed the feature! Hopefully, I'll adapt to it over the next couple of weeks.


 
I want to give my contribution. 
I really never read the WR messages, that they send to my electronic mail, is more, always I erase them of my émail, since I directly see them in the Control Panel of WR. 
I like much that idea to send them only like notification and without text. 
Greetings Rosangelus. 
(Excuse for my English, I'm learning...)


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## Dudu678

ROSANGELUS said:


> I want to give my contribution.
> I really never read the WR messages, that they send to my electronic mail, is more, always I erase them of my émail, since I directly see them in the Control Panel of WR.
> I like much that idea to send them only like notification and without text.
> Greetings Rosangelus.
> (Excuse for my English, I'm learning...)


You can always disable the option. 

I particularly miss the quotes too.


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## mkellogg

EmilyD said:


> Believe it or not, the wordreference *forum *is filtered out from the computers at my son's school.  That means, when using those machines , I cannot use the link to take me here.


Emily, I was going to send you a PM, but maybe it is best that I say this in public for others to see.

If your organization is blocking WordReference forums, ask the IT people what device or software they use to automatically block websites.  You can explain to them that there is a reference site that is blocked, and that the administrator of that site wants to write the company to remove the block, which is the truth.  I have been able to write these companies in the past and get the block removed for all their customers.  When you find out what device they use, click the Contact Us link at the bottom of all forum pages to report it to me.


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## geve

Hi there, 


geve said:


> So, did you miss it too much, or is it different between *instant* e-mail notification and *daily* e-mail notification?
> I still get the text of new posts in the latter.


I've recently noticed that this feature is gone, too; I mean the content of posts of the day in the *daily* e-mail notifications. I can understand the problem with the instant ones, but why the daily ones?
Even when I don't connect often to the forums such as now, I often used to browse the e-mails I received, and if I spotted an unanswered question that went unnoticed because it was added at the bottom of an old thread, I would click on the link and reply to the poster* if there had not been any answer in the meantime. Not possible anymore.  Is this a permanent setting now?

* someone who made a wise use of the forum, since we encourage people to not start a new thread when there's already one on the topic


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## mkellogg

geve said:


> Is this a permanent setting now?


Hi Geve 

I don't think it will be permanent.  I removed it because of the lingering concerns over the security issue.


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## geve

mkellogg said:


> Hi Geve
> 
> I don't think it will be permanent. I removed it because of the lingering concerns over the security issue.


Oh, ok. I'll wait before cancelling e-mail notification for all my subscribed threads then! Thank you for the reply Mike.


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## avok

hello, can you help me too? I dont want to get any e-mail notifications, they just drive me crazy and takes ages to delete them


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## elroy

avok said:


> hello, can you help me too? I dont want to get any e-mail notifications, they just drive me crazy and takes ages to delete them


 Control Panel > Settings & Options > Edit Options > Messaging & Notification > Default Thread Subscription Mode

Choose "No email notification" from the drop-down menu and hit "Save Changes" at the bottom of the page.


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## avok

Merci El roy


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## alisonp

mkellogg said:


> I have to say that I really miss the post text in the emails as well, and I'm the person who removed the feature!


 
Me too.  Given that I'm supposed to be using WordRef in a work context, it's very annoying to waste time having to go right into a thread before you find out whether or not the new message is worth reading.  I suppose I shall just have to be more disciplined about de-subscribing to threads I'm only marginally interested in.  Darn those pesky few members who make life harder for everyone else!


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## Testy McTesterton

alisonp said:


> Darn those pesky few members who make life harder for everyone else!


At WordReference, as in life, I daresay it's "the pesky few" who generate the need for about 90% of rules and restrictions...


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## geve

Testy McTesterton said:


> At WordReference, as in life, I daresay it's "the pesky few" who generate the need for about 90% of rules and restrictions...


Does that mean the feature will NOT be re-enabled? I still can't see what's the security problem with the daily e-mail notifications?


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