desperate for help with email-notifications on Discussions/Forum
hi there ... i filed a Support Ticket, but not sure i'll get the answers i need. i'm not new to networks; have a very successful network on NING's 2.0 platform, and co-manage a couple of others, but NING's 3.0 platform is sorely lacking in essential features so i have come to Groupsite.
However, i am only now discovering (after putting in almost two weeks of work prepping this network for launch), that it, too, may not answer our extremely basic needs. Perhaps someone here might be able to help???
obviously a well-functioning Discussions/Forum is key to any successful online network, and it is the core of our network.
What we NEED for this forum is simple. We need for members:
A. to be notified whenever a new discussion is mounted (clicking "Email all group members" when posting covers that, although a default would be better)
B. to be subscribed to just the discussions they are taking part in ... and be notified of activity ONLY in those discussions, NOT the entire Topic.
ALSO, to "unsubscribe" or "stop following" a certain discussion would be helpful as well.
that's it! that's all!
We have spent hours and DAYS testing numerous combinations of settings under Email Preferences and Manage my subscriptions, just to try to figure out Groupsites settings and lingo ... and my understanding now (based on those hours and days of testing) is this:
- the only way for members to receive email notifications is for them to choose By email under Manage my subscriptions for every Forum listed.
HOWEVER, the issue is that then the member receives EVERY single reply left, even on particular topics that they might not be interested in following. this will result in a virtual flood of email notifications, and members WILL end up unsubscribing at which point, NO notifications will go out, and then the network, essentially, dies.
is there ANY way for Groupsite's platform to function as we need? with A. and B. ... is this something Developers can work on? OR have we wasted two weeks of work and need to start researching other network platforms at this point?
thank you SO much!
OH!!!! and how come HERE, in THIS forum, i have an option to click: Email me whenever a reply is posted to this topic ?!?!?!?! are we not allowed to have this option in our forum!?!?!?!
| Topic | Replies | Likes | Views | Participants | Last Reply |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decommissioning A Groupsite | 3 | 0 | 139 | ||
| Suspending vs deleting members | 1 | 0 | 136 | ||
| Need help unblocking a member | 1 | 0 | 125 |
Hi Illona,
We're happy to answer your questions. We will answer your last question first, then work through the rest.
For this question: OH!!!! and how come HERE, in THIS forum, i have an option to click: Email me whenever a reply is posted to this topic ?!?!?!?! are we not allowed to have this option in our forum!?!?!?!
Groupsite Response: You and every member of any Groupsite also has this same option to click : "Email me whenever a reply is posted to this topic" within your Groupsite, whenever you "Create" a new discussion topic. It is a standard option.
Additionally, whenever you or any member of your Groupsite "Replies" to a discussion topic, each member can select "By Default" whether or not to be "Subscribed" to that topic from your "Group Related Email Preferences under the My Settings; My Preferences area of your Groupsite. Each member may still subscribe or unsubscribe to any discussion topic at any time.
The items that you listed:
What we NEED for this forum is simple. We need for members:
A. to be notified whenever a new discussion is mounted (clicking "Email all group members" when posting covers that, although a default would be better)
Groupsite Response: As a Groupsite Manager, you do have a default at the Groupsite Forum Level. You have the ability to set the default for a Groupsite Forum, which would include any discussion in that forum . The Group Default Subscription Options for a Discussion Forum are: Not Subscribed, By Email, On Site. Caution: Making a change using the "Edit Forum" button will affect every member of your Groupsite, although each member can subsequently change that setting individually if they are receiving too much mail.
B. to be subscribed to just the discussions they are taking part in ... and be notified of activity ONLY in those discussions, NOT the entire Topic.
ALSO, to "unsubscribe" or "stop following" a certain discussion would be helpful as well.
Groupsite Response: As mentioned, each member can select "default" options from their "My Preferences" area of their Groupsite, but they may still subscribe or unsubscribe to any discussion topic at any time.
If you have additional questions, please write to us at Support@groupsite.com so that we can discuss your specific Group and individual settings.
Sincerely,
Celeste Sharper Wooten
Groupsite.com
very strange ... I was NOT sent an email notification of your response in spite of checking off the box requesting one. I'm wondering if the system/platform is buggy.
on our forum there are NOT the same options as we see here. I promise you. we do not have Unsubscribe as an option under a discussion as I see here. nor have we ever been given the option to "Email me whenever a reply..." ... not that it seems to have worked in this case.
neither me, nor my admin, nor our two 'dummy' member accounts see these options.
our platform is an all or nothing. trust me, we have tried every combination ... if a member wants to be notified of activity in a discussion/topic that they are taking part in, they have to Subscribe "By email" and will then receive Notifications of every last reply left, whether they want to follow certain topics or not.
if they unsubscribe to a discussion topic, they are unsubscribed completely from the entire Forum and all topics within it.
i will try to write support again but so far have not received any responses. I am desperate to get this solved as it is the only thing preventing us from going live or finding another network provider.
thank you!
Hi Illona,
There are no unanswered requests from you in Support. You wrote in on the following dates and tickets:
On ticket 27687 You wrote in on February 19, 2014 11:41
EST with multiple questions. They were answered on February 19, 2014 14:22 EST
You wrote in again on Februay 19, 2014 February 19, 2014 16:41 EST . We responded on February 19, 2014 17:29 EST .
There was no further response from you on this ticket.
On ticket 27760 You wrote in on February 22, 2014 at 16:13 EST with multiple questions. We responded on February 23, 2014 at 03:00 EST.
There was no further response from you on this ticket.
On ticket 27761 You wrote in on February 22, 2014 at 18:46 EST with multiple questions. We responded on February 23, 2014 at 03:12 EST .You asked clarifying questions on February 23, 2014 at 10:57 EST . We responded on February 23, 2014 at 23:15 EST. You asked additional questions on February 24, 2014 at 08:12 EST . We responded on February 24, 2014 at 12:45 EST.
These tickets covered a variety of topics including storage, font sizes, search, Blog, customization, pricing, organizing discussion forums, file cabinet and file sharing, exporting data, but none of the questions were specifically related to subscriptions. You did ask about email between members and those questions were also answered. You mentioned something about:Control Member Levels to Content (Moreso down the road), with no additional explanation. What did Support miss? Do you need us to resend all of the responses? You can login to our Zendesk Support Tool and review all of your tickets.
Celeste
hi Celeste, I am not receiving notifications of your posts here. gah.
i sent in a new support request regarding this notification issue on Friday or the weekend and have been anxiously awaiting a response. I'm not on my mainframe, but will check momentarily and resend.
thank you.
hi Celeste, i stand corrected ... i DID receive notifications! sorry!
and i just resent my support request from the weekend and received my receipt. so clearly something was glitchy over the weekend and it was not received. i now know to look for the receipt ... if none comes within a few hours, i should resend.
thank you for your attention in this forum.
illona
hi Celeste ... just wanting to post - for the record - screen captures to show that our network does not have the same options featured in this forum:
A: Email me whenever a reply is posted to this topic has never appeared as an option when posting a new Topic
B. we also have no option to Unsubscribe to a particular Topic/discussion as i see here in Groupsite's Discussion forum (nestled between the Edit Topic and [show subscribers]) We have nothing like that on our network's Discussion.
my admin and i have searched high and lo at the back end but cannot find any place where this feature is activated, if indeed it is a feature that needs to be turned on.
what are we missing??
the only way a member can "Unsubscribe" is to unsubscribe to the entire Forum, which means they will not receive notifications for ALL Topics under that Forum from then on ... and that is obviously NOT what we want, as this is not the way to build a successful network.
thanks!
Hi Illona,
I see, your Groupsite is on the New App for Discussions and Champions is on the Old App. We are gradually moving all 60,000 + Groupsites over to the New APP for Discussions. You cannot compare Champions Discussions to your Site because things have been moved around and changed slightly from the New App to the Old.
Also, what you see in Champions would also look different because in your own site, you are already subscribed to everything, but you are not in Champions, so a text box may appear in Champions about subscribing that would not appear in your site because you are already subscribed. Keep in mind the system already knows whether or not you are subscribed.
We will continue this response in Support.
Celeste