[RFC] Improved Subscription Options

[keith10456]

+1 for the subscriptions... As a member, I would hate to be automatically subscribed to Forum's topics, etc. However, as stated (and I agree), "admin's board, admin's rules".

One of the problems I see though is a member can only be notified via PM or Email. Both of which can easily get overwhelming and cause the member to not want to check their PM's, etc.

I'll probably catch some slack for suggesting this but what about an ajax notifier (ie "Notifications")... That informs you of the new posts (to the board, topic, etc)? Similar to how we're informed of new PM's. In which upon clicking it, will display the respective Subjects (with link) to the topic (or board, etc).

[Pony99CA]

...the only difference would be that a subscription method option would be added and, when subscribing to a topic, the user would have the option of choosing which method to subscribe by (no notification, email, jabber, or other methods of contacting users that phpBB supports or adds support for).

Got it. So you still want to be notified, but notified in some method other than email. That wasn't clear to me from your original post, thanks for the clarification.

I'm not sure that it's clarified -- he listed "no notification" there. What is the difference between a subscription with no notification and a bookmark (other than the UCP place you look)? Is that just so that you can turn off notifications for now and be able to turn them back on later?

I'm also not sure about choosing a subscription option when subscribing to a topic. Would that change your global subscripton opiton (in the UCP) or only the option for that topic? If only for that topic, that would be a big change, wouldn't it? For one, you'd probably need a Subscription type column on the Manage subscriptions page fed by a new column in the watch database table.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

One of the problems I see though is a member can only be notified via PM or Email. Both of which can easily get overwhelming and cause the member to not want to check their PM's, etc.

PMs aren't a current subscription option, are they? I believe that Jabber and E-mail are the only options.

I'll probably catch some slack for suggesting this but what about an ajax notifier (ie "Notifications")... That informs you of the new posts (to the board, topic, etc)? Similar to how we're informed of new PM's. In which upon clicking it, will display the respective Subjects (with link) to the topic (or board, etc).

I don't know that you need AJAX for this. If you have new posts in subscribed topics, the pop-up window could just link to the UCP Manage subscriptions page. All new posts would be at the top with the "unread" icon.

But what happens if you have subsciptions and private messages? We don't want two pop-ups, so we'd have to combine them into one.

Steve

[keith10456]

True... Good point

[nickvergessen]

I'm against sending the post/pm content via email.

Malicious and spam content should not be readable, after a moderator deleted it. But if we send the content via Mail, the user will always read it.

[Pony99CA]

I'm against sending the post/pm content via email.

Malicious and spam content should not be readable, after a moderator deleted it. But if we send the content via Mail, the user will always read it.

Sure, but that should be the admin's decision if they want to take the risk, especially if the only people they permit to get post content are admins and moderators.

If you're really worried, you might be able to add an image-server component. Include a "status" image keyed to the post/topic in each subscription notice; if the post/topic is still accessible, the image shows an OK symbol, otherwise a STOP symbol is displayed. That may require Web server support, though.

For example, for your post, the URL may be something like:

https://area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/status_image.php?p=244573

I worked for a company that used a similar system for presence information, serving an image keyed to the sender's ID, which displayed one image if the user was logged in and another if the user was not. (I think that they even applied for a patent on it back in 2000 or so.)

Steve

[brunoais]

^
I'm against using such option. No images in the e-mail, if possible.

[Pony99CA]

^
I'm against using such option. No images in the e-mail, if possible.

Please be more specific, especially when not quoting. Are you against only the image notifier, including content in general or the whole RFC? I'm guessing the first, but it's not clear.

Steve

[nickvergessen]

HTML in mails is not really an option.

[Oleg]

• 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.

Don't see a need for the permission, make it available to everyone until there is a documented use case otherwise.

[*]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.

Ditto.

[*]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.

When would someone be subscribed to forums and why would they want that?

[*]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).

Yes, but UCP knob only would be sufficient for me to start.

[*]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.

UCP option only to start, or always include content, or always include content but truncate to a certain length.

[*]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.[/list][/list]
[*]UCP: Add the following options (if the appropriate ACP options are set):

Ditto.

[*]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.

Maybe.

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.

Maybe on the split.

[*]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.

Yes.

[*]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.

Yes, but possibly with different wording.

[*]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.

Yes.

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.

Sure.

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.)

Attaching to notification emails is probably not a good idea.

[*]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.

Another way of doing it would be to default to sending post/pm content and have the option for posts read "Do not send content when notifying on posts" with no way to change pm behavior on the assumption that people would generally want to receive pm text.

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.

https://github.com/phpbb/phpbb3/pull/1208 has the counter-argument. Following logic in that PR board admins should have the option of disabling pm sending via email to everyone with no way for users to override. As long as the default is to send this should not be changed on many boards.

[*]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.

Maybe.

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.

I am not sure conflating user and moderator notifications is a good idea.