Unreliable MSE Post Update Emails

NonGeographicalMan

Can anyone explain to me why post update emails when there are new posts in a thread are only being erratically and occasionally received by myself for new posts on threads I am subscribed to in the MSE forums whereas I am receiving a new post update email every single time there has been a new post in a thread since I last visited it in all other web forums I am subscribed to.

For instance in the thread at https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/819869 I last posted on 19th February and I have not received any more post update emails since then to the best of my knowledge (the content alone of the some of the intermediate posts tells me I would have responded and remembered those posts if I had seen them any earlier) even though there have been four other posts on various dates during the intervening one month period. Then suddenly I get another post update email today.

This is not a one off but a regular problem I am experiencing with threads I am subscribed to on MSE that has been going on for several years. This is despite the MSE post update sending email address beibg white listed in the spam filtering service of my ISP and not having problems with post update emails not appearing for any of the other web discussion forums I regularly contribute to.

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions about why I am having this problem or is anyone else on MSE also experiencing it with post update emails?

fermi

Working just as they should here.

As it says in the notification emails:

There may be other replies also, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again.

NonGeographicalMan

fermi wrote: »

Working just as they should here.

As it says in the notification emails:

Having used internet discussion forums for over 10 years I am well aware of how they usually work re post update emails. Namely that if I receive a post update email and then don't visit the forum after I get one that I won't get any more post emails about that thread until I visit it again.

The exception to this are discussion forums like those run by www.thinkbroadband.com where you get a post update email every single time there is a new post in a thread you are subscribed to regardless of whether or not you have visited the thread again since the first post update email was sent. This latter arrangement can be maddening if you subscribe to a very busy discussion thread and then also don't read your emails for several days.

However moneysavingexpert.com operates the usual system of only sending a post update email the first time there is a new post in a thread. I then always visit the forum as soon as I can after getting the post update email but despite this I get some threads on MSE where I get no post udpate emails at all for weeks but then I get one that shows me there were intervening posts in the thread in the intervening weeks for which I got no post update email.

It is that situation I am complaining about and also as already explained I have white listed MSE's email addresses for sending post update emails with my ISP's spam filtering service.

fermi

Sorry, but I had to ask. You would not believe how many people don't realise how it works.

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

I get some threads on MSE where I get no post udpate emails at all for weeks but then I get one that shows me there were intervening posts in the thread in the intervening weeks for which I got no post update email.

That is very odd. I subscribe to a lot of threads with notifications, and I don't think I have ever seen that behaviour.

NonGeographicalMan

fermi wrote: »

That is very odd. I subscribe to a lot of threads with notifications, and I don't think I have ever seen that behaviour.

I also subscribe to a lot of threads in a lot of forums and have only ever seen this behaviour with MSE's forums and its post update emails. It has also been going on for a long time now like three or four years.

It is probably something to do with my ISP's spam filtering service and the way they treat MSE's emails since as you will know MSE does send out other marketing type emails about discounts etc that some ISP's might well classify as being spam. However in theory whitelisting MSE's email address ought to overcome this.

Former_MSE_Ian

Hi NonGeographicalMan,

How the thread subscription function works is inconsistent, confusing, and unreliable at the best of times. How well it works - indeed whether it works at all - depends on how you use the forum, your particular computer setup, and any spam blocking that is happening.

We did previously try to implement a change to resolve this. We made a change to make the thread notification straightforward and reliable. But this was unpopular as it resulted in users getting notifications. The present system was re-instated by popular demand. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Ian

NonGeographicalMan

MSE_Ian wrote: »

We made a change to make the thread notification straightforward and reliable. But this was unpopular as it resulted in users getting notifications. The present system was re-instated by popular demand. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Ian,

But how does your current system work as it does not seem to work like the two other variants run by other forums.

On other forums you either get one udpate email the first time there is a new post in the thread after your last visit but not thereafter or you get a post update email every single time there is a new post in a thread that you are subscribed to whether you visit that thread in the forum again following the post update email or not.

The majority of more high tech forums using one of various leading forum software packages actually give you the choice of either method (post update email only after the first new post following your last visit or post update email with every new post in the thread even if you haven't visited it again) however some of the more primitive home produced forums (in terms of the operating software) like thinkbroadband.com only give you the option to have a post update email every single time there is a new post in the thread (whether or not you have visited it again) if you are subscribed to it. This can be very annoying if you are subscribed to a very active thread and do not check in to the email account you are receiving forum post update emails on for some time.

The MSE forums seem to work in neither of these ways in terms of post update emails but thinking about it further what seems to happen is that if you have a period where you have stopped visiting the forum at all for say a week or two weeks and there is then a new post in a thread you are subscribed to you do not then get a post update email as you would expect. What seems to happen is that you only start getting post updates emails once more on threads you are subscribed to when you actively visit the forum again of your own choice (after say Googling a topic and finding an MSE forum result) and log in to it. At that point it seems to me I start getting post update emails again on all the threads I am subscribed to until due to a lull in posting in those threads I do not visit the forum at all for say 2 weeks or perhaps a month. At that point the forum seems to stop sending me any post update emails at all on all the threads I am subscribed to until I next proactively visit and log in to the forum myself.

I don't know is that is how it actually works but it seems like it could be as the person who first responded to me in this thread saying he had no problems with post update emails has 10,000 posts in the MSE forum and hence clearly never finds they are in a position where they have not visited the forum for 2 or 4 weeks and so the post update email forum inactivity clock appears to kick in.

If there is such a clock of the kind I have mentioned then I think it operates too early and only forum members who have not visited the forum at all for three months should stop getting posr update emails until they proactively visit the forum again of their volition.

fermi

There is no such timer in the forum code if I remember from looking when this was tweaked and then changed back last year.

The only time based condition in the logic for sending the notification email is that the user's recorded "user.lastactivity" timestamp is >= to the timestamp for the previous "lastposttime" on the thread. i.e. no matter whether it was seconds. minutes, hrs or weeks. The email should be generated.

Not withstanding that there may be a bug or alteration/hack added by MSE somewhere tripping that process up, but the basic intended logic in the unaltered code is really rather unambiguous.

NonGeographicalMan

fermi wrote: »

Not withstanding that there may be a bug or alteration/hack added by MSE somewhere tripping that process up, but the basic intended logic in the unaltered code is really rather unambiguous.

From repeat experiences of this phenomenon repeated over a long period of time that I am not getting with any other forum I can only conclude that there must be an unintended bug hidden somewhere in the forum code.

It really is very annoying as sometime I miss responding in quite important threads for many weeks after the important post has happened.