I find it more than useful, I lost track on 90% of interesting topics while notification wasn’t working, it should been no1 on a “to fix” list. If there are no updates in some particular topic/thread for several hours it “falls” down to page 2-3, a day or two without update and that thread will be lost on god know which page and if OP decides to change title (which happens quite frequently) it might be lost forever if there were no email notifications.
Yes but, information is available, it’s like a hole in a wall to a neighbour apartment, only curiosity is what stands between your eye and that hole…
P.S. is there a way to turn off this “no notification for last 10 active minutes” “featre”?
BLF mostly uses “Web 1.0” tech, meaning you send a request for a page, the server sends back the requested page, and then no further interaction happens until you request another page. If you don’t click anything, no data is transferred either way. “Active” time just means the last time a page was requested by your logged-in account.
Unlike, say, facebook, which has javascript running all the time to chat back and forth between server and client whenever a page is open.
So, the BLF server has no idea whether you have a bunch of tabs open. All it knows is which pages you requested and when. I would assume this is logged in a standard apache access log, with a log rotation system deleting anything older than a given length of time. It probably has a list of requests from the past week, but not from, say, six months ago. And it likely does not track on a per-user basis, but rather a per-IP-address basis. That’s default on most web servers. IP addresses do not correlate 1-to-1 with users, so it would take some non-trivial effort to figure out who did what based only on the data in the logs.
Note, “Web 1.0” is often a good thing. I prefer that all sites be built this way unless they have specific and significant reasons to do otherwise. Like, use “Web 2.0” for full-fledged interactive applications like Google Maps and Google Docs, but use “Web 1.0” for forums and blogs since they work fine with older technology.
Right, the site has no idea whether you have it loaded in a browser window or tab.
I can disable the 10 minute waiting period if most prefer it that way, but I’m surprised that I’m the only one who wants this feature. I find it very annoying after a day of browsing and posting to receive a plethora of email notifications for updated threads that I’ve already viewed because I saw them under “My Subscriptions” or in the “Recent Posts” list.
I actually don’t have the Nginx access log enabled, just the error log. And in any case Drupal can’t even see those logs, and instead keeps its own access log (normally as a table in the database, but can optionally use the syslog) which is retained for 2 days.
I can assure you that putting it as #1 on the todo list would have much easier said than done. O:-) It took me a good solid 20 hours almost non-stop to re-implement the notifications system, as it is custom designed and coded by yours truly. And let’s just say that it’s a good thing I don’t write code for a living, because I’m AWFUL at it! The most irritating part is that it was working flawlessly with the old site engine, but with this upgrade they went and broke most of the APIs and data structures I had come to know and hate from the old version.
In my personal case it’s actually much easier to lose track of something in my email inbox. Regardless of the status of the email notifications system, you might try using the My Subscriptions page a bit more to keep track of posts you don’t want to lose track of.
I’d be glad to if the majority prefers it that way. First I’m going to try to add it as an option, except that I’m running into a bug with the site engine that is preventing me from doing it in the easy and straightforward way I had planned.
I think that pretty much everyone who has an opinion already posted it here. So far it appears that most people want to receive notifications all the time, so I’ll revert it to the old behavior tomorrow unless I can figure out how to make it optional.
I forgot to say, thanks for all the effort in rejuvenating this place (mostly under the hood) to keep the pace with time and running smooth
I am aware of “My Subscriptions” page, I just never got used to use it that much, it’s something like last resort when I can’t find some thread and I am sure I posted in it.
I don’t think polls would help poor SB here. He could make a change that 80% think is great then would quickly be notified that the other 20% are furious at the change and the dislikes tend to be much louder than the likes. You’re doing a great job SB! Thank you.
I think there should be a referendum to decide the number of options the poll should include. Any number may be nominated, however the highest number currently voted for will become number one on the list of potential options. The numbers after that will be shifted reverse chronologically to accommodate this. Each member may then go back and edit their post to reflect what number they actually voted for.
Added a user account option under “Subscriptions” for “Send me new post notifications by email even while I am logged on” to disable the 10 minute delay after last seen time before receiving new post notification emails. In other words, this option will restore the classic BLF email notifications behavior.
I already enabled this option for the three users in this thread that requested notifications all the time.
Okay now you’re just showing off.
I want and option that makes the glowing tailcap of my X6 to blink once every 10 seconds when someone responds to one of my posts and a double blink each time a new PM comes in.
I know it’s a joke but there are some very cheap small wifi modules that could fit in larger lights. Of course beyond the cool factor it doesn’t seem very useful. Plus there is the issue of battery life and I think the aluminum body of our lights might reduce the signal.
The most irritating part is that it was working flawlessly with the old site engine, but with this upgrade they went and broke most of the APIs and data structures I had come to know and hate from the old version.
