I propose the following:
- ACP: Add the following options and permissions.
- A Can subscribe to all posts group forum permission which would allow the user to choose to get notifications of every post via a UCP option, not just the first one since he last visited. This would affect both the forum subscription and topic subscriptions in that forum.
- A Can subscribe to full post content group forum permission would allow the user to choose to get the full content of the post about which he was being notified. This would affect both the forum subscription and topic subscriptions in that forum.
- A board-wide (or possibly forum-specific) Automatically subscribe users to forum(s) option to set forum subscriptons on or off by default (but the user could override them in the UCP). This would obviously only affect people who had the Can subscribe forum permission.
- A board-wide (or possibly forum-specific) Automatically subscribe users to topics they post to option to set subscriptons on or off by default (but the user could override them in the UCP).
- A board-wide (or possibly forum-specific) Include post content in notifications option to set post content inclusion on or off by default (but the user could override them in the UCP). This would obviously only affect people who had the Can subscribe to full post content permission.
- A Can get private message content in notifications group permission would allow the user to choose to get the full content of the private message about which he was being notified.
- UCP: Add the following options (if the appropriate ACP options are set):
- On the Manage subscriptions page of the Overview tab, list all forums (watched or not) in the Watched forums with a check in the Mark check box if the forum is currently being watched. Between the Watched forums and Watched topics sections, add a Watch marked forums button to turn watching on for marked forums and off for unmarked forums and Mark all forums and Unmark all forums links to mark/unmark all forums.
Also change the Unwatch marked button below Watched topics section to say Unwatch marked topics and Mark all and Unmark all links to say Mark all topics and Unmark all topics to mark/unmark all topics.
Yes, one button will watch marked forums and the other unwatch marked topics, but because there are usually a smaller number of forums, that might not be so bad. If you don't like that, split the Manage subscriptions page into Manage topic subscriptions and Manage forum subscriptions (if the user has the Can subscribe forum permission) pages. - A Notify me on every new post radio button on the Edit posting defaults page of the Board preferences tab which would allow the user to get notifications of every post, not just the first one since he last visited.
- A Notify me on first new post since last visit to topic radio button on the Edit posting defaults page of the Board preferences tab (this is the phpBB standard behavior and would be the default). This option and the above would only be available if the Can subscribe to all posts ACP option was set; otherwise, subscriptions would behave as they do today.
- An Include post content check box. This option would be on the Edit posting defaults page of the Board preferences tab and only be available if the Can subscribe to full post content ACP permission was set.
BBCode in text-only E-mail could be handled either by dropping the tags and leaving the internal text or by displaying everything, tags and all (useful for the URL= tag, for example); HTML E-mail (if supported) would render BBCode just like on the board.
You could even handle attachments by attaching them to the E-mail, but I think that would be going overboard (especially for large attachments). Instead, I'd include a line saying "This post has attachments; to see them, click the link above" or something similar. (You might also include an analogous line if subscribed to a forum and the first post is a poll.) - An Include private message content check box. This option would be on the Rules, folders & settings page of the Private messages tab or the Edit global settings page of the Board preferences tab and only be available if the Can get private message content in notifications ACP permission was set. BBCodes and attachments would be handled as above.
Why should I have to log on to the forum to see my PMs? Yes, they're more private that way, but I think that most people consider E-mail to be private enough -- many companies that send you E-mail bills showing how much you owe in the E-mail and how much you paid in the confirmation E-mail. - Alternatively, add a new Edit notification preferences page to the Board preferences tab and move all of the UCP notification options there, including Notify me on new private messages, Pop up window on new private message and any E-mail/Jabber settings.
I prefer this because it allows you to treat topic and forum notifications with the above options. If topic notifications are kept on the Edit posting defaults page of the Board preferences tab, you need to find a place to handle forum notifications separately (possibly on the Manage subscriptions page of the Overview tab, but that's kind of ugly).
- On the Manage subscriptions page of the Overview tab, list all forums (watched or not) in the Watched forums with a check in the Mark check box if the forum is currently being watched. Between the Watched forums and Watched topics sections, add a Watch marked forums button to turn watching on for marked forums and off for unmarked forums and Mark all forums and Unmark all forums links to mark/unmark all forums.
These options would be especially useful for moderators, especially on lightly-used boards. They could see the content of every post as it came in and visit the board only if moderation was necessary.
Including post content for subscriptions (and possibly group PMs) may not require two sets of E-mail to be generated. Just like the user's name is inserted into E-mail, you could insert the content for some users and empty content for others.
And if people want to use the forums as a mailing list surrogate, why not let them?
Steve