Not a bug Receiving watched threads emails despite "Receive news and update emails" option is unchecked

[ivp]

Affected version

2.2.13

Even after deselecting "Receive news and update emails" option in /account/preferences, the user is still receiving emails regarding watched threads.

I was getting email alerts on a watched thread... went in and turned off all email alerts in my user preferences... but still got email. Seems that if you had started watching those threads and had email alerts enabled, then went in and turned off all email alerts in your preferences, it did not update those watched threads...

Detailed discussion:

Turn off emails option

It would be nice to have an option to stop all email notifications being sent to user. XF/Service/User/EmailStop->stopAll() function already exists, just need to be able to trigger it as admin for particular user. Occasionally receiving spam reports because some user flagged forum emails as...

xenforo.com

 

[Chris D]

Watch notifications are not controlled by this option. This controls whether or not admins are allowed to send emails via the "Email users" system in the admin control panel.

Whether you receive a watch notification or not is decided for each item of watched content.

A user can change their settings via the relevant watched content list e.g. Watched threads or they can opt out of emails via the links that appear at the bottom of every email.

 

[ivp]

But how would regular user know that? I would expect to be able to stop emails using some option in profile.

Another issue is that admin cannot do that for particular user, so not able to combat false spam reports.

The solution would be to add option to disable emails for all watched threads both in /account/preferences and /admin.php?users/xxx.yyy/edit.

 

[TPerry]

Whether you receive a watch notification or not is decided for each item of watched content.

It may have been an add-on in action on the site, but there should be instead of having to go find a "watched threads" link, it would be more user friendly if that ability was in the user preferences with other email alerts to be able to turn them all off. Your "normal' user isn't going to think to dig through the site to a obscure "watched threads" link... assuming that email alerts would be a preference that could be turned off where all the other alerts are controlled at.

 

[Kirby]

Your "normal' user isn't going to think to dig through the site to a obscure "watched threads" link... assuming that email alerts would be a preference that could be turned off where all the other alerts are controlled at.

Agreed.

We often get complaints from users that turning off watched content notifications "doesn't work", even though there is a link to easily stop receiving all emails (of this watch type) at the end of each notification email.

As also shown in this thread, users don't understand that changing the option just changes the preference but does not affect existing watches at all.

There is already a suggestion to simplify that:

Make it less convoluted to stop receiving email for watched content.

When I want to disable alerts or push for watched content, I can just go to my preferences and turn it off. This is simple and intuitive. When I want to disable email for watched content, then its missing from this obvious page where it seems it should be. Instead I need to go to the content...

xenforo.com

A relatively easy approach (that does require core support though as there currently is no central "registry" for watch types) could be to simply display a confirmation message ("You have chosen to disable watched content email notification preference. Do you also want to disable email notifications for all existing watches?") when changing the email notification options.

Silently disabling email notifications for all watches would to be a good idea IMHO as existing users might be used to the current behaviour and such a change could thus cause them unintentionally loose email notifications.

 

[Chris D]

But how would regular user know that? I would expect to be able to stop emails using some option in profile.

The option to stop the emails they're receiving is right there. In the email they don't want.

Another issue is that admin cannot do that for particular user, so not able to combat false spam reports.

There is.

The solution would be to add option to disable emails for all watched threads

The management is already there. In the Watch threads page.

Frankly, if your worry is users reporting your emails as spam, they are not under any circumstance going to bother logging into your site to look for a preference to disable them anyway. They've already looked past what is a single, essentially one-click link in a fairly industry standard place for unsubscribe links and gone straight to submit a spam report instead. There's little we can do about that, and users will take the option that is the least friction for them. Unfortunately, for many, that is to report it as spam, rather than going the very minute step further to look for an actual unsubscribe link. That level of stupidity/vindictiveness/laziness is not something we can fix by adding a preference somewhere that they're not going to log in to find anyway.

Your "normal' user isn't going to think to dig through the site to a obscure "watched threads" link... assuming that email alerts would be a preference that could be turned off where all the other alerts are controlled at.

You're right. They won't log into the site at all. They'll just report it as spam. Ignoring the link in the very email they've received. It doesn't matter what preferences are where, they ain't going to look for them.

Other feedback noted, but this isn't a bug and there's already a suggestion as noted.

 

[jayhawku]

Don't mean to bump an old thread but I've been inundated with users complaining about getting too many emails "every time someone replies" even though they've "turned off emails". I had to manually go in and change everyone's email preference in ACP in regard to watched content and then set the default for new users to not be on. Further, after doing that, I think some people may still be getting emails though I need to make sure that's accurate before I report it as a bug.

Just my opinion but no one wants a bunch of emails in their inbox generally. The default of it being on and a user creating a thread or interacting with another one and leaving for several hours means they'll get like 30 generated emails by the time they come back to their computer/device.

Again, just my opinion. This software is the best thing on earth. My users feel like they've moved on from rubbing two sticks together to flying around in floating cars.

 

[Chromaniac]

tbh, to get 30 emails, 30 different threads subscribed for email by the users would need to get updates. each thread only generates one email until the time user visits the thread logged in. and of course, all emails do include the unsubscribe link for that thread AND all threads which sort of make it easy for users to disable future emails. yes, i understand that people are inherently lazy. but xenforo has pretty nice settings for email alerts from subscribed content!

 

[jayhawku]

tbh, to get 30 emails, 30 different threads subscribed for email by the users would need to get updates. each thread only generates one email until the time user visits the thread logged in. and of course, all emails do include the unsubscribe link for that thread AND all threads which sort of make it easy for users to disable future emails. yes, i understand that people are inherently lazy. but xenforo has pretty nice settings for email alerts from subscribed content!

If I were to start a thread, would I not get a new email every time someone responds to it? Additionally, if I were to quote you and then you replied to this and then perhaps someone else quoted me down the line, would I not get an email related to those interactions? I thought the default setting was basically anytime someone interacts with a thread you create or a post you make or tag you or anything, you'll get an email.

Again, I'm not attacking XF or something, merely giving feedback. Further, I just think it's important because a lot of people are probably doing everything they can to make their forum as attractive as possible to new users and any little thing that can make the experience less than optimal for a new user will cause them to leave or not come back. So, some user being like holy cow what's with all the emails could be reason enough for them to abandon the forum. My forum base is what the kids like to call mostly boomers. This stuff is just hard for them.

Again, just giving feedback. But, I agree with your sentiment that XF is great!

 

[Chromaniac]

iirc, xenforo does not generate any email alert out of the box if someone quotes your post. or even mentions you. and if someone replies in a thread user is subscribed to, only one email is generated even if there are 100 updates, until the time user visits that thread. this alone should stop flooding of email. this however does not stop the flood of email in an active thread if YOU are online on the forum and opening that thread after every update. this is where xenforo might end up generating tens of emails because every time you visit a thread, any new post on that thread would generate an email.

attached image would show the emails generated by xenforo. no option for quotes or tagging.

xenforo batch update user does not seem to have an option to disable auto subscribe to threads. so yeah, no easy way to disable it for users in bulk. a thread informing users on how to unsubscribe to all email alerts and changing the settings for auto subscription might help in the meantime. there is an easy option to disable all subscribed threads on this page for instance: https://xenforo.com/community/watched/threads (apart from a link in the footer in all emails generated by xenforo iirc)!

i really like this option in the email alerts sent by xenforo.