Sending updates via email

joeschmoe998
joeschmoe998
edited February 2020 in General Discussion

This morning (2020-02-23), I was doing some updates to certain pages, when I found that I couldn't send any notification emails out to anyone but myself. 

I was unable to find any particular reason, were there changes made recently that people would have to specifically re-authorize emails to be sent to them?

Post edited by joeschmoe998 on

Comments

  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 1,090

    Hi @joeschmoe998 - yes, the notification checkbox setup was changed a little bit. The checkbox is disabled for those users who have unchecked that they wish to receive email notifications on updates for the element type in question (wiki page, character, etc.). The basic idea is that we're trying to balance the GM need to send notifications with respecting the wishes of those players who have specifically gone in and unchecked notifications for that element type.

    This is an area we're still making changes to, so please feel free to give us your feedback. We understand that different users utilize the site differently and that may require additional changes to make the system more versatile for more user needs. The present "ALL" portion of the checkbox setting may need to be tweaked also. Again, please give us your thoughts on notifications so that we can make the system work better for everyone's meeds.

    All the best,
    - Kallak
  • joeschmoe998
    joeschmoe998
    Posts: 73

    The ability to send the updates, especially new Adventure logs and changes to previous logs, would be  very helpful. 

    Member of my campaign, use the email notifications to know when something has been added, they don't visit the pages on a regular basis so the ability to send notifications of new adventure logs and character (NPC) updates would be very useful.

    Most of the people (especially the ones who are not DM/ Assistant DMs) don't need to see all of the updates, mostly they need to see the ones specifically sent to them because those are the ones that directly impact them/their characters.

     

    Thank you.

  • ragnarhawk
    Posts: 168

    Hi @Kallak,

    I am guessing that the current change is intended to minimize being categorized as spam.

    Perhaps a middle ground would be some process to be able to subscribe to a daily summary of changes to the wiki.  I know that I use e-mail notifications in my campaigns, and that about half of my players are selecting to receive them by default.  As it is, I generally end up clicking "All" twice, to deselect everyone, then add the players that I want to notify.  A summary would probably be a good middle ground for me.

  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 1,090

    @joeschmoe998, @ragnarhawk

    This change has turned out to be having a bigger impact than was originally intended, so we've rolled things back. I guess this is a workable opportunity to open a dialogue about the topic of notifications. So jump in and discuss please. 

    Apologies for the disruption. We definitely jumped the gun a bit.

    All the best,
    - Kallak
  • Krothos
    Krothos
    Posts: 230

    Suggestion...

    1. Setup the player notifications to campaign specific. The default will be all disabled for all campaigns.

    2. Change the notification checkboxes on the player's account to be Forum, Calendar, and Adventure Log. A single checkbox for other notifications to include the others (Wiki, Characters, and Maps). Oh, and include a checkbox for direct contact / Player Secrets.

    3. Remove the notification options from when creating/editing a new page, except the Wiki. Notifications will then be determined whether they get sent by the player set options.

    4. Change the notification at the bottom when creating/editing a Wiki to a single checkbox... On / Off to send the notification. As a GM myself, I make constant edits to pages and don't want to send out notifications EVERY time I make a change. I'll remove the notification at the bottom until I've completed the last edit.

    At the end of the day, the GMs can then ask their players in their active campaign to enable this in their account, telling them that if they don't do this, they will miss notifications when new stuff is posted.

     

  • Abersade
    Abersade
    Posts: 417

    I would like to take a moment to parrot everything Krothos said, I agree 100%.

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  • Kallak
    Kallak
    Posts: 1,090

    Some great stuff coming in this thread!

    All the best,
    - Kallak
  • Krothos
    Krothos
    Posts: 230

    I wanted to kinda "revive" this thread, and see if any updates are available to mention. Thanks.

     

  • thaen
    thaen
    Posts: 1,064

    @Krothos, thanks for bringing it back up.  There aren't any new updates at the moment.  (I don't like to promise anything until it's basically already done, so no one gets disappointed if things get off track.)

    From your list, is #4 the most pertinent to you?  The others (1-3) are larger changes, but a persistent switch to turn off/on notifications could be quick to implement and sounds like it would remove a headache for you.

    Throwing another option into the mix, we've also discussed dropping the "event based notifications" (for example sending an email every time a wiki page is Saved...whether there is a change made or not), and replacing them with a "notification summary email" that would be based on whether there were changes since the GM/Player last viewed that page, similar or related to the "UNREAD" feature on the (currently beta) Secrets tab.  Maybe sending those "notification summary emails" daily for anything that had changed that day.  That's not a fully fleshed out idea because it seems like there might be some situations where you would want to send more frequently than daily like maybe a forum discussion and/or the calendar.  But just throwing it out there as another idea to consider.

    Obsidian Portal Developer

  • Krothos
    Krothos
    Posts: 230

    To me, #4 is more in-line if the other options are implemented. It should be implemented if the other 3 options were also implemented. I would think that changing the behavior of the notification checkbox at the bottom of the Wiki/Forum/etc would defeat the purpose of settings in the user's account preferences.

    image

     

     

  • thaen
    thaen
    Posts: 1,064

    I was thinking we could leave the notifications at the bottom of the pages as they currently are, but add a slider just above the notification section that is "persistent".  So you as the GM could turn it to "Don't send notifications" while you're making constant edits, and then when you're done, you can change it to "Send notifications".  Thoughts?

     

    Obsidian Portal Developer

  • Krothos
    Krothos
    Posts: 230

    Oooooo, I do like this persistent slider option. It would definitely be handy.  :)

     

  • ragnarhawk
    Posts: 168

    The slider could certainly be helpful, but I think that the option to get summaries might well be more useful.

    Either way, both sound like good things

  • thaen
    thaen
    Posts: 1,064

    @ragnarhawk, cool, noting that as a "vote" for the summaries emails idea.

    Obsidian Portal Developer

  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998

    Love the slider idea!

    Just trying to help out.

  • twiggyleaf
    twiggyleaf
    Posts: 2,006 edited June 2020

    Hey @Krothos, where is that "Email Contact Settings" these days? I was looking for mine the other day to advise a new player on how to have it ticked off to avoid arbitrary edits by me.  I couldn't find it in my Settings section.  I just had another look.  I still can't find it!

    Post edited by twiggyleaf on

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  • Krothos
    Krothos
    Posts: 230 edited June 2020
    @twiggyleaf and anyone else who misplaced their email preferences... ;-)

    Upper left corner Welcome Twiggyleaf > My Profile

    Edit Your Profile on right

    Edit Email Preferences near bottom of page
    Post edited by Krothos on
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