difference between subscribing to a forum and a topic

DaveH · Post by **DaveH** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:34 pm

Hello all -

I want to make sure that I understand this simple concept and I didn't see it in the FAQ. What is the difference between subscribing to a forum and a topic?

Is this correct?

I understand that if you subscribe to a topic then you'll get a notice when there is a new post.
When you subscribe to a forum, you will get a notice whenever there is a new topic to that forum.

And if there is an existing topic in a forum (and you are subscribed to both) then you'll just get a single notice. In other words, only a new topic in a forum will send you a notice (due to the forum subscription) because otherwise you would be getting duplicate notices all the time (one for the forum subscription and one for the topic subscription).

Heh I think I could have asked that question in a more coherent way. Any advice? I am also looking for a way to auto-subscribe people to a particular forum. I have such a small userbase, I could easily just do it manually in the db if I knew how.
thanks!

Pit$Bull · Post by **Pit$Bull** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:43 pm

You are correct in your assumptions.
You may want to check this out http://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/board_watch

DaveH · Post by **DaveH** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:50 pm

Hi - thanks for quick response!

That mod looks good, but actually my user base is so tech-unsavvy that I don't want to give them more options. They barely understand what a forum is!

There is only a single forum and I'd like everyone to be automatically subscribed to it (or I could do it manually) so that they'll get notices. I will put a sticky up which explains how they can UNsubscribe if they wish to get less email, but for now I actually want them to get lots of notices. This is a group of older people who I am moving from a listserve type thing to a forum, and it's a struggle

Is there a way to get them all subscribed? I was thinking that if I had the forum ID I could probably write an update statement that just subscribes everyone to the forum that I want them subscribed to. We only have about 40 users and just about everyone is registered now so it seems fine to do that.

Pit$Bull · Post by **Pit$Bull** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 5:01 pm

http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... #p12940687

DaveH · Post by **DaveH** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 5:13 pm

Pit$Bull wrote:http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... #p12940687

I'm not sure why you sent that link.
This isn't spam, this is what my user base wants.

Pit$Bull · Post by **Pit$Bull** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 5:18 pm

Have you ask each user individually? If not it would be considered spam.
I will leave this topic as unsolved, someone may provide more assistance.

DaveH · Post by **DaveH** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 5:25 pm

Pit$Bull wrote:Have you ask each user individually? If not it would be considered spam.
I will leave this topic as unsolved, someone may provide more assistance.

This user base consists of the 40 or so members of a homeowners association for a small cluster of homes in S. Thailand. I have their express permission do set things up however I feel will work best. I have known these people for 15+ years and am on an elected committee which makes decisions on behalf of the users.

So, this is not a problem at all.

DaveH · Post by **DaveH** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 6:41 pm

Looking at the table phpbb_ forums_watch I think I might be able to do this manually.
Can anyone give an opinion if this would work or not?

The table has 3 fields:
forum_id
user_id
notify_status

I only have one forum and it's ID is 2.
I can see the user ID's easily enough in the phpbb_users table.
Could I simply take each of the user ID's (remember, there are less than 40 and it won't grow) and do an insert statement which sets forum_id=2 and user_id=<users id> and notify_status=0?

That seems like it would do it but want to be sure since I'm not much of a DBA! Am I understanding this?

DaveH · Post by **DaveH** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 8:39 pm

This is still driving me crazy. I have a small user base, and I keep hearing from users that they weren't notified when there was activity on the forum. There is only a post every few days, so people have a hard time keeping up.

What I would really like would be for all users to be subscribed to all forums, permanently. There is no issue of spam with this private community.

Can anyone help with this?? I'm dying over here

Oyabun1 · Post by **Oyabun1** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 9:11 pm

Have a look at the Board watch MOD, it has an option to subscribe everyone to all forums and topics and notify on all posts (not just the first unread post as the standard subscriptions do), Also look at the FAQs page for the MOD for some add-ons that may be of use.

dhecker wrote:That mod looks good, but actually my user base is so tech-unsavvy that I don't want to give them more options. They barely understand what a forum is!

Board watch makes use of the permissions system so you can set it so that members are subscribed to all posts but they aren't presented the options to change that.

Lumpy Burgertushie · Post by **Lumpy Burgertushie** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 4:56 am

and keep in mind that they will only get one email when a new post has been made until they have gone to read it. it doesn't matter how many posts are made, they will only get one email until they visit.

once they have visited the board ( logged in ) then if any new posts are made they will get one email again.

this is to cut down on so many emails. imagine if it was a very busy board.

getting a bunch of emails because there were a bunch of posts would be like the old listserves/mailing lists that web based bulletin board were developed to replace.

robert

advertisements