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How can I make new comment emails for bookmarked discussions less spammy?

Hi all,

Some of my users have been asking if I can change our new comment notifier so that it only sends one notification email, and doesn't send another until the user views the thread again. I think vBulletin does something like this. Does anyone know how to achieve it with Vanilla?

Comments

  • hgtonighthgtonight ∞ · New Moderator

    What version of Vanilla are you running?

    Are you looking to group the notifications?

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  • jamesincjamesinc Sydney ✭✭
    edited September 2013

    Hi, I am using Vanilla 2.0.18.8. Grouping them - possibly. It depends what you mean by grouping.

    The workflow I see is like this

    1. User A bookmarks a thread
    2. User A goes elsewhere
    3. User B posts to thread
    4. User A gets notification e-mail. Forum raises flag somewhere in DB, "notified user A"
    5. User C, D, ..., N post to thread. Flag is up so no notifications for user A
    6. User A reads their e-mail, goes back to thread. Forum lowers flag.
    7. (go to 3)

    In very active threads, users are just getting bombarded with comment notification e-mails, and it's turning a lot of them away from the site. Conversely if I turn e-mail notifications off globally, I start to lose users because they're not getting a periodic bump to come visit the site.

  • hgtonighthgtonight ∞ · New Moderator

    I am pretty sure that grouping of email notifications is a planned feature.

    The workflow you described could work in your case, and can probably be implemented via a plugin (using ActivityModel_BeforeSendNotification_Handler).

    I would start by familiarizing yourself with the current system from a model-controller standpoint.

    Search first

    Check out the Documentation! We are always looking for new content and pull requests.

    Click on insightful, awesome, and funny reactions to thank community volunteers for their valuable posts.

  • jamesincjamesinc Sydney ✭✭

    I've actually spent my Friday evening digging through the source code. I've figured out what changes need to be made to the core to support the feature, but I'll try and rewrite it as a plugin instead.

  • jamesincjamesinc Sydney ✭✭

    Thanks for that tip About ActivityModel_BeforeSendNotification_Handler, exactly what I needed to move the functionality into a plugin format.

  • @jamesinc
    exactly what I needed to move the functionality into a plugin format.

    Can you share the plugin?

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

  • jamesincjamesinc Sydney ✭✭

    @UnderDog I am just putting the finishing touches on it now, but as of 2 minutes ago it seems to be working!

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