Possible to have rules around closed/solved threads?
As our community is growing, I've had to disable getting notifications on all posts to existing threads.
There's a problem though with the way notifications work on structured threads, in that I'll only receive a notification if the user tags me or replies directly to one of my posts. But users tend to hit random Reply buttons so while they may intend to reply directly they often end up replying to something different. That's not a huge problem, but it does mean that I'm now missing notifications from threads I participate in.
I wish there would be a way to have notifications from any thread I've participated in. That level of granularity doesn't seem to be possible now.
Secondly, the other related issue here is that our users add replies to long solved/closed threads. We want to encourage users to instead open new threads as otherwise we can't use the "solved or not solved" status to track what we still need to work on.
Could there be a way to "half-lock" closed threads? So, for example, people who already participated in the thread can still contribute, but it's closed for new participants - and that any new participant who wants to reply instead gets nicely nudged towards creating a new thread instead (perhaps even automatically linking to the thread they wanted to comment on)?
[Edit] Notifications discussed here instead: https://www.talkyard.io/-445/notification-settings-for-threads
But the half-locked closed threads — not yet implemented. Nice idea though :- ) /KajMagnus [/Edit]
KajMagnus @KajMagnus2020-09-06 09:32:53.484Z2020-09-18 08:22:09.981Za way to have notifications from any thread I've participated in
Yes, (with threads, you mean "sub threads" in a discussion topic, right? As in, if you reply to this post, then we have a sub thread, in this topic)
Actually, that's how the current notification levels are supposed to work — it's just that I didn't implement this yet.
Here're some of the notification levels:/** Notified of @mentions and posts in one's sub threads (incl direct replies). */ case object Normal extends NotfLevel(3) /** Notified of @mentions and direct replies only. */ case object Hushed extends NotfLevel(2)Normall is the default — and as you can see, it includes getting notified of posts in one's whole sub theads (so, if person A replies to you, and then B replies to A, and C replies to B — then you'll get notified about all of A, B and C's replies).
Whilst the Hushed notf level only notifies about direct replies (and mentions).Ok I guess now is the time to implement these Normal notifications, for real, then. (I'm always mildly annoyed that I don't get notified about indirect replies in "my" sub threads at HackerNews or Reddit).
"half-lock" closed threads?
I wonder if it'd work with an info dialog that says sth like
"You'll get help sooner if you statr a new topic, if you have a new question. Start a new topic instead? [Yes, New topic] [No, I want to reply here]"Clicking Yes would open the compose-new-topic dialog. And when they type their question, Talkyard searches for any older topics matching the question they type.
- CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
Yes, (with threads, you mean "sub threads" in a discussion topic, right? As in, if you reply to this post, then we have a sub thread, in this topic)
No, by threads I meant the whole topic/page.
It's very counterintuitive that only replies to a sub-thread within a topic will get me notified whereas replies to other sub-threads or replies directly to the original question won't give me notifications. It should be so that the default is, that every reply to a topic/page that I've taken part in, will give me a notification. Normal forum people expect any reply in a page to be seen by anybody participating in it.
I think basically it just needs to be more like Facebook or Github so the forum is not too dissimilar and hence causing issues for people who don't understand it.I wonder if it'd work with an info dialog that says sth like "You'll get help sooner if you statr a new topic, if you have a new question. Start a new topic instead? [Yes, New topic] [No, I want to reply here]"
This sounds great! Especially if we could be allowed to change the text of this to match our own forum :)
KajMagnus @KajMagnus2020-09-18 08:14:34.454ZIt should be so that the default is, that every reply to a topic/page that I've taken part in, will give me a notification
Hmm ... yes that's probably a better default, for most communities & people. At the same time, imagine if, at a place like HackerNews, one got notified about all replies everywhere in the same discussion topic, after having replied to someone oneself, once — that could become frustrating (sometimes 100s of replies).
But maybe one could get a notification only about the first reply in other people's sub threads (in the same topic, but where one didn't reply oneself) — and only after having clicked the link in that reply, would one get additional notifications about other people's sub threads.
Then, although maybe 100s of replies, there'd be just 1 notification (until one has clicked & followed it, thereafter, more, but just 1 "pending" at a time). — One would (by default) always get notified about replies to oneself though.
***
I can add a setting, so one can configure the default notification setting, for a topic, after one has replied in that topic. Then you could change that setting, for the Everyone group in your community, to get notified about alll replies in the topic.
Also, personally I think it's generally a bit unclear on the internet, what exactly one will get notified about, after having replied in a topic. Some sites, like Reddit: Only direct replies. HackerNews: Nothing. GitHub: Everything.
So, regardless of how Talkyard works, someone, somewhere would get confused ... Unless:
When one's new reply has appeared,
then, just below the reply, Talkyard shows sth like:You'll get notified about all replies in this topic. Click to change: [ v Every post ]- CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
I think a setting is the way to go. For Talkyard to support sites like HackerNews (which I don't know, but just going from your description here) where there's such a thing as a sub-thread, the current system makes sense.
For SoundFlow, our users don't think of it as sub-threads. They think of the whole page as one thread, and they reply in that thread where they want.
Having the ability to configure the default notification setting for topics as a global admin config thingy seems like the only solution that works for both scenarios :)- KajMagnus @KajMagnus2020-10-26 15:17:16.674Z
Ok, a notification settings sounds good — I've deployed a new Ty version to here at Ty .io now, with such a setting — have a look in your profile: https://www.talkyard.io/-/users/chrscheuer/preferences/notifications
Closing this topic in favor of: Edit: Not closing, there's still the half-closed threads idea. /Edit
- CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
Wonderful!!! Thank you!
- Progresswith doing this idea