Question about email notification settings (and why some settings are not automatically checked)

At my still tiny site (http://dietharbor.com) I have 4 friends. In the email notifications panel I have checked to receive email from all my friends. But I noticed I was not receiving email from one friend, Karen,  when she posted to her blog.

I clicked "K" in the per-user settings and, sure enough, email notifications from her were not set. I checked it and hopefully will receive notifications from her going forward.

But why, if my friends were checked, did I need to go into individual member notifications and turn them on?

One other question - in the individual member notification settings there is "email" and "site." What does the site option mean? That I receive notifications not just when she posts to her profile, but to anywhere on the site?

Thanks,

doug

 

  • Site means it uses the private messaging plugin. We've turned that off because it was just clogging up people's inboxes without providing much value.

    If I remember correctly, there is something broken with adding and removing friends - the notifications don't get updated. We don't use the core notification system so I may be off on this. 

  • Hi, Cash.

    Thanks. I've gone ahead and disabled that for now as well and those extra checkboxes went away.

    And yes, there does seem to be something off about adding friends after selecting "all friends" for notifications.

    What notification system do you use here? Is it available as a plugin?

    Thanks,

    doug

  • The "all friends" option simply sets notifications for all your current friends. This is not updated if you add or delete anyone from your friends list.

    This is behaviour deliberately put in place by Curverider. I was surprised by this behaviour when I originally spotted it back around Elgg 1.0.  At that point I reported it as a bug but was told at the time that it was intended behaviour.

    Many of my clients use a different notifications plugin that automatically updates notifications based upon the friends status.

  • Yes, the difference between a bug and simply unreasonable behavior is whether it works the way it does by design or not. :)

    What different notifications plugin do your clients use, Kevin?

    Thanks,

    doug

     

  • I agree with Kevin. This is a bug. I added it to Trac here: http://trac.elgg.org/extensions/ticket/328

    @doug - my notification plugin is not available for download.

  • My notifications_simple plugin is not yet available for download, but I may release it in March.

    It also offers a one click option for all groups you may belong to and keeps that updated as well.