litphoria

Really just have to find a balance somewhere. The current system really only wants to send e-mails when you're not on line, because they're very spam-y and require you to be watching your e-mail instead of the site. I certainly don't watch my e-mail that often. Between the delay of the site sending the e-mail, your e-mail service accepting it, and then whatever delay your e-mail client has in polling for updates, this can potentially be about 20-30 minutes before you realistically see the e-mail about the new post, making it completely unreliable in terms of immediate notification.

This is why it focuses mostly on people who are not online. If you want the immediate notification, the only realistic option is something on the site - either a toast, the inbox, or the suggestions to move the inbox to a small version to connected play (or just duplicate it there). Consequentially, some leaving the site because they were tired of checking the site is never going to go away.

I also really, really don't like the idea of tying e-mails in any way to your viewing of content. If we're talking about making it more predictable, we have to simplify the rules as much as possible, so it can be immediately understood, and recognized when it will cover you or when you won't. Remember, the whole reason people find it reliable right now is because it's tied to page views!

But of course, sending e-mails with every post will get spammy, no matter what. There's a few more reliable ways I can think of preventing e-mail spam:

• Do not send an e-mail about something which I already have (one or more) inbox notifications for.
• Do not send an e-mail unless the second to last IC post is mine.
• Do not send an e-mail unless it is my turn to post.

The issue of "missing toasts" is another matter entirely, and should be solved with appropriate suggestions about moving inbox notifications into chat.

Also, not sure how I feel about customizing the behavior if people are complaining it's not reliable enough as it is. The last thing you want before you get reliable functionality is configuration! The default behavior should be good enough for almost everyone, and there should be options to handle exceptional cases, like, "this e-mail isn't private", to which there'd be a toggle to silence e-mails entirely.

I was writing up suggestions about what more we could do. It got large enough I decided to make it its own feedback: a set of recommendations for making notifications more reliable and robust across the site (litphoria.com)

When it comes to spamming an inbox, I think that

Do not send an e-mail about something which I already have (one or more) inbox notifications for.

covers pretty much all the bases. You get that email, you know the site has stuff waiting for you to read. You visit the site, you'll get a new email next time there's stuff.

As for there being a delay, the thing is, for forum roleplays in particular, email alerts are pretty standard. Firefox and chrome both have extensions that can intergrate with the browser to alert you of any messages within 5 minutes or less. Mine is around a minute.

Making the in-site notification system better should also be a priority. Putting alerts at the top and bottom of the page, making them flashier, making the site send toasts even when you're not connected to a chat or roleplay, all things that will improve the site. But, ideally, we should have the best of both worlds.

Right now, the lack of reliable notifications can make slower paced roleplay a very hard sell for the site, even when it's got a ton of other great features.

Notifications had an update recently: you'll receive an email after 15 minutes about any notification you haven't touched, regardless of whether you're online.

Are you also seeking the ability to get immediate emails, as if that 15 minute delay was instead 0 minutes?

ideal email alert system (litphoria.com) would be relevant for its suggestion to have very aggressive notification & email alert tactics.