TechSpot Weekly: Email notifications for news comments

[Julio Franco]

First things first, I'm glad to report our on-going giveaway is doing extremely well, in fact, I'd dare to say it's going to be our most popular contest ever as more people continue to join every day and we haven't promoted it beyond the sticky news post on top of our homepage.

So far the Apple iPad has the edge on the poll but don't worry, if you adhere to the rules of quality posting and happen to win, we won't have a problem replacing the prize with the product of your choice. Let me also reiterate that a wide majority of participating members are keeping the discussion at the desired quality level, this only encourages us to offer subsequent prizes after this contest is over.

Our newly revamped homepage has been a success during this first few weeks of operation. On top of that we have tried our best to deliver on various other fronts. The algorithm behind the "What's Trending" tab has been tweaked to penalize older stories. This was a common complaint as old stories were taking precedence over the most recent headlines most of the time. Inevitably, if a story that is a few days old has been very popular (measured in terms of views, comments, etc.) it will still show among the top trending headlines but that's precisely the idea, to give you an additional tool to track what's been going on during the past few days, or even the last month.

I'm also happy to announce that we have added the option of instant email notifications to our news discussions. Look for the checkbox right below the posting form that will let you subscribe to any news story, so you can easily track whenever someone replies to a comment you have posted. This is a common feature on our forum but we didn't offer the same functionality for our news comments until now. You can manage all your subscriptions on this page.

Last but not least, we've performed several improvements to our site backend this past week, which should result in a snappier browsing experience for you. Just in case you had noticed any slowdowns lately, those should be gone now. That's all for now, until next week, make sure you let us know of any suggestions you might have in mind for improving TechSpot.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/40939-techspot-weekly-email-notifications-for-news-comments.html

 

[JMMD]

I noticed this feature when my inbox had a ton of messages in reply to an article. Would be it be possible to have it turned off by default? Is there a setting somewhere to set the default?

 

[Julio Franco]

As with all new features, there could be bugs, though we tested for repeated emails and that shouldn't be happening.

The email notifications work exactly the same way as in the forum:
* If you have subscribed to a discussion and someone posts a new comment you will get a new reply notification
* You won't be notified again no matter how many new replies there are until you visit the site again

You can manage your subscriptions here:
https://www.techspot.com/vb/subscription.php

Also, every email comes with a link to unsubscribe to that particular discussion or to all of them.

When posting a new comment, unchecking the box means you won't be subscribed. This setting will be remembered on a cookie for all future comments.

 

[grvalderrama]

Not cool, too many people joint to the contest, that means it would be harder to get the prize =P
Oh well, not really a problem winning or not, but it would be a really nice feeling to win something without doing much of an effort. Keep going with the good work on the web!

 

[grimm808]

I was scratching my head, wondering why my inbox was getting this notification, when I had no actual reply's to a comment posted, lol. And then the "subscribe to a threa" tab below comment posting was auto checked.

 

[treeski]

I like the feature because it gives people more options, but I'll probably keep it unchecked myself.
Keep up the good work TS!

 

[Cueto_99]

I really like the notification feature, it give you the chance to really start and continue a good debate without having to keep reloading the article every once in a while... Keep it up techspot!

 

[Serag]

Might come in handy but please make it disabled by default.

 

[maXimus4444]

Love getting notifications, it's like TechSpot's little reminder that it loves you.

But... I do agree with Serag. Please make it disabled by default.

 

[Archean]

Not a bad start to new week; so far, I haven't noticed any 'missing alert' from the threads I've subscribed too. Having said that, I think would it not be a good idea to let people choose how they want to configure this option in their profile settings? So people who want to keep it as default and the ones who doesn't both have the option to choose as they like. Regards

 

[ChrisG683]

The amount of communication has definitely skyrocketed for this conference, hopefully this will keep last even past the contest since a lot more of us (myself included) are registered now.

It might be worth investigating a slightly easier way to view comments since the amount of replies is reaching 50+ on a consistent basis now

 

[spyx]

This is nice but cant u adjust the settings so that not EVERY time someone posts something you get it in your inbox...it kinda becomes liek spam especially when u subscribe to more than one....

 

[motrin]

i'm very impressed how fast techspot website loads on my slow internet. makes me visit here even more!

 

[Xero07]

The subscribing is nice but also vote for an unchecked box by default. Im glad the contest is going well and that there is flexibility on getting the prize you want. thanks for the update.

 

[treeski]

Something I just noticed...
If you use the 'Quote' feature, there is no option to uncheck (or check) your subscription to whatever the current thread is.

 

[Tanstar]

Needs to be unchecked by default. Shouldn't make us work NOT to get emails.

 

[tonylukac]

Like your new look. Have no problem in that the Subscribe to thread box remains unchecked due to the cookie. No need for any more complexity.

 

[sMILEY4ever]

Serag said:
Might come in handy but please make it disabled by default.

Yep, I got some mails too and I agree with you. It should be disabled by default.

 

[killamoves]

It seemed to auto subscribe me after i commented on a few threads.

 

[Puiu]

i noticed the subscriptions right away, but i would have like it to be off by default. )not that it's annoying me or anything - it's just my personal preference).
and i just commented before reading this news that the site felt a lot snappier.
good work!

 

[vangrat]

As I post this comment, the check box for the Subscribe to thread is checked. This is before I have decided to subscirbe or not. I have to agree with the above posters, this should be disabled by default. That being said, I really like the idea of being able to subscribe to certain threads. It helps me win more internet points.

 

[St1ckM4n]

Yes, I noticed I've been getting emails from Techspot, and wondered why as I never checked the box. Still handy to keep up with topics, especially older ones with low traffic.

 

[Julio Franco]

I will look into making the subscription box unchecked by default, in the meantime if you simply deselect it on your next comment your preferred setting will be saved. Thank you everyone for the feedback.

 

[vangrat]

Julio said:
I will look into making the subscription box unchecked by default, in the meantime if you simply deselect it on your next comment your preferred setting will be saved. Thank you everyone for the feedback.

You Julio, are the win. I have noticed that when using the "Quote" option (such as this post), the option to subscribe to the thread is not listed below the comment box.

 

[killamoves]

Well I guess all i needed to do was uncheck the box. I wasn't paying attention.