Email Notifications

28064212

Have the email notifications been changed system-wide? What's the thoughts behind moving the link to the thread to the bottom of the email? I would assume most people use notifications like I do: the principle aim of them is to get to the thread directly. Why make the link less prominent?

It's even worse on Gmail, which considers posts which end the same as having a big signature and hides it by default, meaning I now have to scroll, click, and click, where it used to be just a click on a link that was in the same place everytime

cherryghost

Also when there's multiple replies on a thread, a link for the most recent one doesn't pop up. It's quite frustrating.

jaykay74

28064212 wrote: »

Have the email notifications been changed system-wide? What's the thoughts behind moving the link to the thread to the bottom of the email? I would assume most people use notifications like I do: the principle aim of them is to get to the thread directly. Why make the link less prominent?

It's even worse on Gmail, which considers posts which end the same as having a big signature and hides it by default, meaning I now have to scroll, click, and click, where it used to be just a click on a link that was in the same place everytime

The link to the thread should be at the top of the email. I almost never read the email contents but use it as a link to the site directing to me the last read position in the thread. In Gmail the link is now hidden and needs several clicks to get to the site.

It seems that it was changed around 11:30 this morning from what I can see. I also think the link should be at the top of the message - on some occasions I was reading the e-mail and thinking that the link was part of the post.

Tallon

At least the unsolicited ads have stopped in the emails...

Steve

28064212 wrote: »

It's even worse on Gmail, which considers posts which end the same as having a big signature and hides it by default, meaning I now have to scroll, click, and click, where it used to be just a click on a link that was in the same place everytime

+1 on this

LEIN

Please sort this out!

kearneybobs

Very disorientating. Especially when the quoted reply has got a link in it. It then appears above the link you need to press to get to the thread.

LEIN

Why try to fix something that wasn't broken?

Nightmare for Gmail users....

Random

this move was stupid. users should have been consulted. please change it back or let us pick which we prefer. the old one wasnt perfect but this is a mess.

Boards.ie: Paddy

I've added a unique string to the end of the thread URL so that gmail's conversation view shouldn't consider it to be part of the sig anymore. That should address that issue.

Your other concerns have been noted, I will respond once I have a proper answer on them.

28064212

Boards.ie: Paddy wrote: »

I've added a unique string to the end of the thread URL so that gmail's conversation view shouldn't consider it to be part of the sig anymore. That should address that issue.

Your other concerns have been noted, I will respond once I have a proper answer on them.

Better. Should still be at the top though. At the moment, the placement is random based on the length of the post. It's also not clear that it's not part of the post, the only sign that a post has stopped is a double quotation mark, and then it continues with a line of (what looks like) standard post text. The previous format of:

header
******* (obvious delimiter)
post content
******* (obvious delimiter)
footer

Was far more intuitive and useful

Kotek Besar

Don't like the new email notification system one bit. I much preferred the link towards the top of the mail. Having it towards the bottom means I have to close my eyes while scrolling to the bottom, to find the link, so I don't inadvertently read the text and spoil the surprise of what the reply is on-thread.

But most irritating is, I now frequently get this:

BostonB

28064212 wrote: »

Have the email notifications been changed system-wide? What's the thoughts behind moving the link to the thread to the bottom of the email? I would assume most people use notifications like I do: the principle aim of them is to get to the thread directly. Why make the link less prominent?

It's even worse on Gmail, which considers posts which end the same as having a big signature and hides it by default, meaning I now have to scroll, click, and click, where it used to be just a click on a link that was in the same place everytime

+++++1

Its terrible now. Please change it back.

jaykay74

Kotek Besar wrote: »

Don't like the new email notification system one bit. I much preferred the link towards the top of the mail. Having it towards the bottom means I have to close my eyes while scrolling to the bottom, to find the link, so I don't inadvertently read the text and spoil the surprise of what the reply is on-thread.

But most irritating is, I now frequently get this:

+1

Since the most recent change I've also noticed "Thread closed" from links to still open threads... when from opened from phone to touch version of site.

Pacing Mule

Also getting closed thread screens when clicking through from my mobile.

Zascar

+1000 - serious fail on this sorry guys... So much more difficult to read and deal with now.
The link should be under the line: <user> has replied to thread <thread title>
And then the message body under that. Can we please change this back?

Realistically I don't know why we can't have HTML formatted replies anyway. I mean realistically who in this day and age can't view html emails? Would be nice to have the Title of the thread a HTML link to the thread - just make it more simple and straight forward...

My assumption as to why it was changed in the first place is that the previous message was the default VBulletin notification, and we know that the lads are trying to get away from VB. However that doesn't mean that the message has to be formatted the way it is.

Steve

I know it's niggly but if you're gonna look at fixing / revising this then please also put back a reference to the forum the post came from. It was a handy feature that allowed me to prioritise what to read.

kearneybobs

I, for one dont sign up to email notifications so I can read the reply in an email. I just want to see who posted a reply, what forum/thread it was in and most importantly, a link back to that post. The addition of the actual reply is nice but it should not get in the way of giving me the information I want, which the new layout is doing.

Boards.ie: Neil

The issue where clicking the link on a touch enabled device and getting the message "thread is closed" should now be fixed. Apologies for this.

Dav

Hello all,

Paddy's currently making a change that will have the link to the thread you're being notified about appear towards the top of the email, so that should be done today.

As mentioned above, this is another part of us moving away from VBulletin and not just a change for change's sake. We're also looking at the implications of HTML formatted mail, but that won't be happening today.

Zascar

Working already! Good work lads..

Random

Dav wrote: »

Hello all,

Paddy's currently making a change that will have the link to the thread you're being notified about appear towards the top of the email, so that should be done today.

As mentioned above, this is another part of us moving away from VBulletin and not just a change for change's sake. We're also looking at the implications of HTML formatted mail, but that won't be happening today.

why implement a half baked system? why not consult users before implementing it?

Zascar

Here is what the old one vs the new one looks like in my gmail....



New:


My Suggestions:
Bring back the ****************** to show the start and end of the posts. Or make it dashes

---

but not just quotation marks. Hard to differentiate between post and other text.

Oh also, can we shorten the Subject title? When I get a new email on my phone, sometimes I have to click into the thread to see which one it is as the first bit is "Boards.ie - there is a new reply to bla........" WE know it's a reply we get them several times a day.

The bottom bit is better in the new one though. One line about reply notifications and then two simple links for unsubscribe and manage subscriptions.

Oh and bring back the Short URL's too!

My 2 Cent!

Steve

Thanks for the prompt action there lads, much appreciated!

Dav wrote: »

We're also looking at the implications of HTML formatted mail, but that won't be happening today.

Please, please make that a user option if you do go further with it

Dav

We're looking at Short URLs now (well, when I say "we", I mean Paddy).

Zascar - we've looked at and tested the subject lines - they don't appear in the way you're describing. I had a subject of "New post in <thread name>" and not "Boards.ie" - I've tested on my gmail desktop and phone apps to be sure.

Kotek Besar

Just out of interest. Why the desire to move away from Vbulletin? I also thought Vbulletin was the best forum software out there.

Boards.ie: Neil

Kotek Besar wrote: »

Just out of interest. Why the desire to move away from Vbulletin? I also thought Vbulletin was the best forum software out there.

It is when you're hosting a forum for yourself. Start ramming 500,000~ per month into it and it starts to develop hairline cracks. These cracks will hamper our rapid growth and stop us from developing nicer and newer features.

Random

why did you not start by using the vbulletin template and then working to improve it from there instead of changing everything?