Email reply
 

When we start a new post and someone replies we get an email. It works great! We know when to go back and check our thread.

Why not create a checkbox for when you are posting a response to someone elses thread to get a email notification when someone else replies?

For example:

Under Hilton someone started a thread about the Hilton Cancun. I was the second reply, asking for anyone to post their opinions on the hotel as well.

I would love to click a checkbox so that I know when someone answers the "originators" post. It almost does not seem "fair" (for lack of a better word) that the people repling do not get email responses when they participate in threads.

Just something to think about.

tasnam

PS do you think i'm gonna click "email notification" now? ;-)

I've wondered that myself since I'm like you - the second one to the party. I'm not sure what it would take to create some new code for that function but i know if possible, my guys and gals could do it. Thanks for the suggestion - this one i really like.

I would find this feature VERY useful. I suspect it would be highly popular.

One of my concerns would be that people would then be tempted to reply to a thread simply so that they can receive email notifications upon future replies. That could reduce the signal-to-noise ratio.

Allowing people to just register themselves for when a new reply was posted, without having to reply themselves, would prevent this problem, but then there might be a scalability problem where the FlyerTalk server(s) would be burdened by having to send lots and lots of email when somebody posts a reply.


[This message has been edited by pshuang (edited 07-08-2001).]

This works? It used to work, but the last couple of weeks I have not received any notifications even though I always click that box when starting a topic. Strange...

I still think this is a good idea Randy, can we do it?

BTW Randy when are you coming to Maine for that Lobster meal?

PS thanks for putting my interview/profile Inside Flyer last Oct/(Nov(?))

I too really like that feature. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif

Several flyer type boards I visit offer it like ..www.BiddingForTravel.com ..www.USAviation.com and www.FrequentFlyer.com.au and even the very basic www.1KFliers.com

However none of those are UBB based boards as this one is - such as www.MoreMiles.org

I recall reading a post from a FT'er expert in UBB capabilities that this feature is not supported by that specific platform?

But as Randy says .. maybe the techies can hack in the facility? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 09-01-2003).]

Yes, that's definitely a nice feature in the newer BB softwares, but to hack it into our UBB would take a lot of time to do, and who knows what side-effects that would cause within the system.

We'll keep that in mind, though...

Wow!?!

Not even willing to try???

Dan has already given a very polite response indicating

1) it could take a lot of time with unpredictable results

2) it would cost money

I accept that as a polite Asian way of saying NO.

Some readers of this thread may not realize it, but the folks who support and maintain FT do it on their own time on a volunteer basis. (While I haven't seen Randy's books and probably never will, I suspect income from ads doesn't come close to paying for the server space and comm lines, let alone leave anything to pay them.) Expecting them to spend much of this time trying to hack something that may or may not work and may have negative side effects is unreasonable. They have enough to do as it is.

(It's not that the original suggestion was unreasonable - it wasn't - but a snide reply to Dan's polite refusal is.)

Randy says And though many kvetch about the ads on FT, Randy does appear to be quite careful (to the extent possible) in what he accepts. But as Randy also observed, free products like Google and Flyertalk may not always be exactly the way we want them, but they have their bills to pay.

weird - i was just about to request that & you already requested that! I think it's a great idea!

The code for the software we use is old, and not very easy to hack. If you're patient this is definitely a feature that we want for software we use in the future.

We are not willing to do something that could cause the current software to function worse than it does now.