Thread subscription question

[truth1ness]

When I subscribe to a thread I get one e-mail when there is a reply and no more until I click on the link in the thread. Is there a setting somewhere to have it so it just e-mails me every reply without me having to click on the link?

 

[S.B.G]

When I subscribe to a thread I get one e-mail when there is a reply and no more until I click on the link in the thread. Is there a setting somewhere to have it so it just e-mails me every reply without me having to click on the link?

No, I don't think there is a way to do that.

 

[dilap]

No, I don't think there is a way to do that.

Is it possible to add that feature then?

 

[truth1ness]

Yes, it's quite annoying at times. Sometimes I'll get a 2 word reply I can read in the e-mail but I have to click it any way just to make sure I can keep getting future replies.

 

[Doctor Q]

Is it possible to add that feature then?

The idea of being able to read all the posts without visiting the forums might seem convenient, but such a feature would not be practical.

Consider this recent Bendgate news thread. If each of the 589 users who posted in that thread were sent an email for each of the 3010 posts in the thread, the forum system would have sent 1,772,890 emails. Add to that the number of emails for people who would subscribe to the thread without posting in it.

Multiply that by the number of active threads and the forum system may find itself with tens to hundreds of millions of emails to send each week. And some would be to abandoned email addresses or sent to users who are no longer around.

The old Listserv style of emailing every message to every follower just doesn't suit a high-volume site like this.

The current system is both practical and convenient. You get a messages telling you which threads have had activity since your last visit, and when you return to the forums (which a single click) you can catch up from the post in each thread were you left off.

 

[dilap]

The idea of being able to read all the posts without visiting the forums might seem convenient, but such a feature would not be practical.

Consider this recent Bendgate news thread. If each of the 589 users who posted in that thread were sent an email for each of the 3010 posts in the thread, the forum system would have sent 1,772,890 emails. Add to that the number of emails for people who would subscribe to the thread without posting in it.

Multiply that by the number of active threads and the forum system may find itself with tens to hundreds of millions of emails to send each week. And some would be to abandoned email addresses or sent to users who are no longer around.

The old Listserv style of emailing every message to every follower just doesn't suit a high-volume site like this.

The current system is both practical and convenient. You get a messages telling you which threads have had activity since your last visit, and when you return to the forums (which a single click) you can catch up from the post in each thread were you left off.

I agree with that point, but I meant an option so you can choose it. Anyway, whatever you think is best, Macrumors is a great forum.

 

[Doctor Q]

I agree with that point, but I meant an option so you can choose it. Anyway, whatever you think is best, Macrumors is a great forum.

I understand that you were asking for a new option, and not everyone would use it. I think that you and I deserve such a feature for when we want to pay special attention to a particular discussion, because we'd know how to use the new option wisely. The problem is that all of those other people might use the option too! 🙂

I haven't heard of any plans to implement such a feature, but I can think of ways that the amount of email could be limited. For example, it could consolidate posts and send "digest" emails periodically, it could recognize and stop sending to bounced addresses, and it could shut off automatically after a user has been absent from the forums for, say, a week.

There's also the argument that websites that rely on advertising income aren't going to expose you to their ads if you don't visit the site, but of course it could throw some ads in those emails! 😱

 

[dilap]

I haven't heard of any plans to implement such a feature, but I can think of ways that the amount of email could be limited. For example, it could consolidate posts and send "digest" emails periodically, it could recognize and stop sending to bounced addresses, and it could shut off automatically after a user has been absent from the forums for, say, a week.

Those are good ideas, weird thing is now in I am getting emails for threads I haven't visited for along time! The forum is magic.....