[Duplicate] Notifications as in XenForo and esoTalk!

[Jazza]

Forums can borrow ideas and aspects from other genres but the real force in any forum is content and activity.

Which is where notifications comes into play.

Odd....you responded to my posts 1 minute after I made it...all without any modification to the existing MyBB notification system.

So you only proved my point. We just don't need any Ajax notification system. You'll see the regular MyBB notification as soon as you click a new page or if you want you can get an email or pm notification.

What more do you REALLY need?

Yes I subscribe to any threads I post in. I'd like to be notified about more than that. Maybe when a user updates their profile or someone replies in a thread or even someone logging in.

That's the plan for my notifications system. It would "log" everything into a database and list them to those who want them. I could even add AJAX to retrieve any new notifications every 30 seconds or so.

I'm not in favour of a notifications system being included in the core. It should definitely be a plugin.

[brad-t]

Regardless of whether who came first, forums are social networks. They are hyper-specialized social networks, but they are still literally networks of people socializing over a common interest. So there are a lot of differences between them and general networks like Facebook, but the commonalities are too similar to ignore.

I don't think we need an AJAX notification system. Something that loads on page refreshes like the current PM alerts would be fine, I think. Nobody is keeping a forum open in the background waiting for notifications to come in. PM notifications etc. are not really elegant. There should be a dedicated notifications system with things such as:

• Labrocca gave you reputation for your post: What I think is ...
  
• "Random Fashion Thoughts" has 10 new posts.
  
• Jazza mentioned you in a post: "Yes, I subscribe to any ..."
  

These are just example instances. But all we're saying is there needs to be a localized source for all board notifications. The PM system is not a good answer.

[User 2877]

I don't agree. Most social networks are built for people that actually know each other who like to share information. That's the BULK of users in social networks. You add friends, family and co-workers. It's how FB was started...as a college social site.

It's why I think Myspace ultimately failed and Facebook succeeded. Myspace was being used for people to self-promote and stroke their egos. FB has some of that but not nearly as much.

Most forums are filled with strangers that like to discuss a common interest.

Labrocca gave you reputation for your post: What I think is ...

Can easily be done with a plugin now.

Jazza mentioned you in a post: "Yes, I subscribe to any ..."

That's the type of notification that's nearly pointless and going to cause more problems. I can't even begin to imagine how accurate something like that can be or what type of hassles will be created when users change their names. What if a user has a name like "The" or "What"?

[brad-t]

It's just an example. Although you could easily use something like @labrocca.

[User 2877]

It's just an example. Although you could easily use something like @labrocca.

Yeah the @username is a nice shortcut and you could potentially write a plugin so those are all links to profiles. Even think someone did that already. But a notification imho would be a problem especially for any site that allows username changes.

[Maj]

It's already possible to get emails for PMs, replies to threads you've subscribed to - and we don't currently have profile comments... So you'd first have to suggest that! :p

I'm second.

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These features are a nightmare for big boards. You can quickly get your site flagged for email spam. Sure starting off it might be okay but then your site gets big and you have users getting a ton of emails. Eventually you have to disable the feature and then members are unhappy.

And the extra load for these notifications can be huge on larger sites. I hope MyBB doesn't add such features.

XF works with big boards as well and does not experience such problems.

[Jazza]

It's just an example. Although you could easily use something like @labrocca.

Yeah the @username is a nice shortcut and you could potentially write a plugin so those are all links to profiles. Even think someone did that already. But a notification imho would be a problem especially for any site that allows username changes.

Yep and it works alright. It PMs the user you tag though, which is annoying.

[Maj]

PMs are good for PMs.
Notifications are good for information.
That's different purposes.

[Mr.Kewl]

If this feature gets implemented there should be option for admin to enable/disable it.

@labrocca
The tag system now has feature to disable pm notifications but tag the user.

[Jazza]

The tag system now has feature to disable pm notifications but tag the user.

How does the user know he/she has been tagged?