Have option to receive updates on edited posts
Thread poster: Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 10:04
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Feb 18, 2019

Hello everyone (and Staff)

The thread starter has the option of receiving notifications of replies to his original post, but these notifications only occur when the replies are created, and not when they are edited. Since the notification contains a copy of the reply, I suspect that many thread starters don't actually revisit the thread but simply follow it by reading the notifications. However, posts are often edited by their authors (to clarify something, etc.), and since there
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Hello everyone (and Staff)

The thread starter has the option of receiving notifications of replies to his original post, but these notifications only occur when the replies are created, and not when they are edited. Since the notification contains a copy of the reply, I suspect that many thread starters don't actually revisit the thread but simply follow it by reading the notifications. However, posts are often edited by their authors (to clarify something, etc.), and since there are no notifications of post editing, the threat starters miss out on additional information without realising it.

A similar thing applies to subscriptions to threads -- if you subscribe to the thread, you only receive notifications of replies, but not of edited replies, so I suspect many people remain unaware that extra, useful information appear in threads that they follow.

We could say, of course, that thread starters have a duty to check the thread on ProZ.com itself, and if they don't, then that is their loss, but: it is also the loss of those of us who take the time to respond.

So I think that thread starters should get notifications whenever posts are edited (and the ideal would be if the notification also shows how the edited version differs from the original version), and that subscribers should get the option to do so.

Samuel
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Sheila Wilson
Thomas T. Frost
Walter Landesman
 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 09:04
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
I didn't realise Feb 18, 2019

Samuel Murray wrote:
The thread starter has the option of receiving notifications of replies to his original post, but these notifications only occur when the replies are created, and not when they are edited. Since the notification contains a copy of the reply, I suspect that many thread starters don't actually revisit the thread but simply follow it by reading the notifications. However, posts are often edited by their authors (to clarify something, etc.), and since there are no notifications of post editing, the threat starters miss out on additional information without realising it.

A similar thing applies to subscriptions to threads -- if you subscribe to the thread, you only receive notifications of replies, but not of edited replies, so I suspect many people remain unaware that extra, useful information appear in threads that they follow.

I for one read the email and don't visit the site unless I find the contents confusing (e.g. nested quotes) or I want to contribute. We get notified of edits within Kudoz and I'd assumed I was getting them for forum posts too. Thanks for raising this, Samuel.

(Edited to correct a typo -- must be more careful in future if people are going to get an email every time .)

[Edited at 2019-02-18 10:34 GMT]


 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 09:04
Danish to English
+ ...
And html in emails Feb 18, 2019

Indeed.

And perhaps Proz could finally send the emails in html format so they are displayed properly in the email client.


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 10:04
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
@Sheila Feb 18, 2019

Sheila Wilson wrote:
I for one read the email and don't visit the site unless I find the contents confusing (e.g. nested quotes) or I want to contribute.


I do the same. I continue to do this, even though I must realise that this means that I may not get the full picture. This is why I don't think simply reminding people will be sufficient.

(Edited to correct a typo -- must be more careful in future if people are going to get an email every time.)


I understand the benefit of not having to visit the site each time you get a notification, but since forum posts are editable, I wonder if it won't be better if forum post notifications contain only a link and not the full post in the body of the mail. No doubt many users will complain if that would be done, though.

Alternatively, if users can tick a box like "This is a minor edit" when editing their posts, then ProZ.com could send out only notifications of non-minor edits. This should cut down on the number of notifications. About half of my edits are minor ones (correcting of errors without adding any new content).


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 10:04
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
@Thomas Feb 18, 2019

Thomas T. Frost wrote:
And perhaps Proz could finally send the emails in HTML format so they are displayed properly in the email client.


I would consider this a separate issue, since sending e-mails in rich text or HTML is not a simple thing to implement, since there is no universal standard for rich text in e-mails, so any such feature would require a lot of testing and tweaking (unless you get a third party to do the sending for you).


 


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Have option to receive updates on edited posts






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