send email to users when a message is posted to a forum

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lisaannphillips
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send email to users when a message is posted to a forum

Post by lisaannphillips »

Is it possible to send emails to users every time a message is posted to a forum they have permissions in? If so, can it be setup to just send the topic heading as the subject line, and a link to that new post? I would NOT want the contents of the post in the email, just the topic heading as the subject line, and a URL taking them directly to that post.

Thanks for your help,

Lisa
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stevemaury
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Re: send email to users when a message is posted to a forum

Post by stevemaury »

This is exactly what subscribing to a forum does. However, they will get only one email until they revisit the forum.
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lisaannphillips
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Re: send email to users when a message is posted to a forum

Post by lisaannphillips »

So, I just want to make sure I understand. After a user subscribes to a forum, the next post in that forum they will receive an email. But if they don't go to the forum after that, all other post to that forum will not trigger an email to them (until they visit it again). Is that correct?

Is there a way for me to set the board up where the default is to have users subscribed to forums they have access/rights to by default? I'm open to make changes to make that happen.

Thanks for your response,

Lisa
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Lumpy Burgertushie
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Re: send email to users when a message is posted to a forum

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

you are correct and no, there is no way to do that without some type of MOD.

this is a web based bulletin board. that assumes that people will come to the web site to view it.
if they do not wish to do that, then you should not spam them with a bunch of emails trying to get them to visit.

let people make their own choices.


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lisaannphillips
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Re: send email to users when a message is posted to a forum

Post by lisaannphillips »

this is a web based bulletin board. that assumes that people will come to the web site to view it.
if they do not wish to do that, then you should not spam them with a bunch of emails trying to get them to visit.
The people that will be members of the board are currently communicating via. an email list, so they currently get this "spam", that they signed up for, every day. There are a number of reason we need/want to move to the board forum, and off the email list server. The only way the system will continue to work is if members receive all the emails.

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Re: send email to users when a message is posted to a forum

Post by Pony99CA »

Lumpy Burgertushie wrote:this is a web based bulletin board. that assumes that people will come to the web site to view it.
if they do not wish to do that, then you should not spam them with a bunch of emails trying to get them to visit.

let people make their own choices.
Agreed, so in the UCP, instead of just having the Notify me upon replies by default option, there should be a secondary option (radio buttons, drop-down list, whatever) with at least these options:
  • Notify me on every new post
  • Notify me on first new post since last visit to topic
I also think a check box option of Include post content would be useful. If people want to use the forums as a mailing list surrogate, why not let them?

For simplicity, the Admin should be able to choose those defaults, but the users could override them to choose their levels of spam. :D

Steve
Last edited by Pony99CA on Fri Apr 02, 2010 11:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: send email to users when a message is posted to a forum

Post by legsforum »

Great suggestions!
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Lumpy Burgertushie
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Re: send email to users when a message is posted to a forum

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

but it probably won't happen. phpbb is a web based bulletin board and probably always will be.

if you want to be on a mailist type of email thing, then there are plenty of those type of scripts still around to install and use.


I am not trying to be a smart alec here, it is just that web based bulletin boards like phpbb were designed to replace the old style email mailing list type of thing. It just doesn't make sense to me to go 20 years backwards with phpbb because a few people don't get it. God knows, I had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the the 21st century but I finally got most of the way here.

:D

robert


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Re: send email to users when a message is posted to a forum

Post by Pony99CA »

Lumpy Burgertushie wrote:but it probably won't happen. phpbb is a web based bulletin board and probably always will be.

if you want to be on a mailist type of email thing, then there are plenty of those type of scripts still around to install and use.
The suggestions that I made above don't turn it into a mail list. You still have to post from the Web; my suggestions just control the frequency and content of the notifications you get.

As I've pointed out many times, getting notified of every post with content could be very beneficial to moderators. They could screen the posts in their inbox without having to visit the Web site every so often. If there was a problem post, that's when they'd visit the site.

More importantly, it seems as if there is a demand for such features. I know that vBulletin includes the content of the post (possibly as an option), but don't recall whether you could get notified of every post without visiting again.

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