Too many email notifications for moderator

ragdoll · April 2013

I am moderating my new forum at http://www.fotocomefare.com/forum-fotografia. I have set the email notifications, only for my account, so as to be notified of every new discussion and every new comment (you can see the settings in the attached picture.
This way, I can moderate every message inserted by any user.
However, I often see comments notified to me many times.
Is there a way to reduce the notifications and still be able to moderate everything?

vrijvlinder · April 2013

The thing is that every time a person comments on that you will be notified.
You can see what is in your config.php settings and put 0 where you don't want notification. Also In the dashboard under Roles, certain plugins also send notifications you can uncheck.

$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['ConversationMessage']   = '1';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['AddedToConversation']   = '1';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['BookmarkComment']       = '1';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['WallComment']           = '0';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['ActivityComment']       = '0';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['DiscussionComment']     = '0';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['DiscussionMention']     = '0';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['CommentMention']        = '0';

ragdoll · April 2013

Sorry, the attached picture didn't show.
I already set the things as you suggest
But still seem to receive duplicate notifications.

peregrine · April 2013

@ragdoll

think about what @vrijvlinder said.

you need to remove "Every Checkmark" but the bottom two for admins and moderators, if you don't want duplicates, if you have the bottom two boxes in the image checked.

OR:

you can selective check any of the top ones and uncheck the two bottom ones and then disable advanced notifications in the dashboard.

if you don't do one of the methods above you will always receive duplicates.

ragdoll · April 2013

Thanks @Peregrine.
The text is in Italian, so you probably couldn't understand it, but I checked the last two notifications and the notifications which have nothing to do with discussions and comments to discussions (writings on my personale page, answers to personal messages, private messages).
So, I shouldn't receive duplicate notifications for new discussions and comments. Am I missing something?

vrijvlinder · April 2013

iniziate per muovere tutte le selezioni fino a vedere quale è quella che causa problema nel dashboard anche

remove all checkmarks from everywhere including the dashboard then check them one by one to see which is the culprit .

peregrine · April 2013

I'm lost now with Italian. I'll turn you back over to V. She can help you.

businessdad · April 2013

@ragdoll Are the notifications exact duplicates, or are they different in any way?

businessdad · April 2013

@vrijvlinder said:
iniziate per muovere tutte le selezioni fino a vedere quale è quella che causa problema nel dashboard anche

+1 Awesome for the translation effort.

vrijvlinder · April 2013

grazie che l'italiano e quasi spagnolo no?

ragdoll · April 2013

@vrijvlinder They are similar, but not the same. For example the two Italian sentences you posted are almost unintelligible ;-)
As regards your suggestion of removing all the checkmarks, it's already done. Now there is no more than one kind of notification enabled for comments and one for new discussions. The other are related to personal messages and they are not duplicated.
@businessdad In the attached screenshot you can see a typical notification in my gmail account. There are two identical emails which gmail grouped into a single conversation.

vrijvlinder · April 2013

yes my german friends say the same thing when I try to write in german, so you have two checkmarks, the one for discussion and the one for comment on a discussion.

you will receive email for both, every time someone comments on that discussion.

here is a list of everything that send notifications, I researched this and found these the github for Vanilla. I did not make these up.

// Default Preferences
$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['ConversationMessage']   = '1';
//$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['AddedToConversation']   = '1'; // merged with ConversationMessage
$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['BookmarkComment']       = '1';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['WallComment']           = '0';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['ActivityComment']       = '0';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['DiscussionComment']     = '0';
//$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['DiscussionMention']     = '0'; // merged with regular mention
//$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['CommentMention']        = '0';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Popup']['ConversationMessage']   = '1';
//$Configuration['Preferences']['Popup']['AddedToConversation']   = '1';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Popup']['BookmarkComment']       = '1';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Popup']['WallComment']           = '1';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Popup']['ActivityComment']       = '1';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Popup']['DiscussionComment']     = '1';
//$Configuration['Preferences']['Popup']['DiscussionMention']     = '1';
//$Configuration['Preferences']['Popup']['CommentMention']        = '1';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Email']['Mention']               = '0';
$Configuration['Preferences']['Popup']['Mention']               = '1';

Notice that two say merged with so and so , I take that to mean that instead of getting separate email notification for that , instead it is added as one with one notification, however I don't know if having or not having these are the cause of your issue.

I would copy these into the config.php and set all the values to 0 and then test to see if you get any more mail. First start with stopping all mail. Then enable one at a time. enable the email for discussion. Then wait to see if you get email. If it is not duplicate. Disable it and enable the comment email.

Remember there are also notification settings in the dashboard.

hgtonight · April 2013

@ragdoll Since private messages are handled by a separate application (inside Vanilla), it makes sense that the notification settings could be set differently.

At least we know for certain that your issue lies with the application vanilla. The real question is what actions trigger a notification. To answer that, I searched through the source code and found that notifications are stored in the ActivityModel and "sent" with the SendNotificationQueue method.

It appears that it is possible to send multiple notifications to the same person for the same activity by design.

EDIT - I cross-posted with @vrijvlinder

businessdad · April 2013

@ragdoll, @hgtonight is right. It seems that the notifications are not really duplicated, but rather triggered by two different events. Finding out which ones are the notifications that cause it might be complicated.

@hgtonight Just for completeness, notifications are not only sent with SendNotificationQueue(). I thought so when I developed the Post Scheduler plugin, but I found out that they are also sent by some the Models, which instantiate and use an ActivityModel on the fly. For example, DiscussionModel sends notifications immediately after it saves a new Discussion to the database. Working around it required a soft-override of some Core files, and it was not a walk in the park.

@vrijvlinder said:
grazie che l'italiano e quasi spagnolo no?

"Computer says no". It's a common belief, especially in English speaking Countries, but the two languages are different, simply sharing a common root in Latin. This leads to funny translation, sometimes, like a printer that kept showing the message "cambiare la correa". "Correa" is not a word in Italian, and the closest one to it is "correggia", which means "belt". However, I don't think anyone in Italy used that word since Renaissance. The correct word would have been "cinghia".

vrijvlinder · April 2013

@businessdad said: "Correa" "belt". However, I don't think anyone in Italy used that word since Renaissance.

That is bad even for spanish lol correa is not belt either it a strap with a buckle that is attached to something. Banda is the correct word for that part in spanish, but remember it is the chinese who write that stuff up in the manuals hehe

ragdoll · April 2013

Sorry for not responding before.
@vrijvlinder Thanks for the huge work.
If I change config.php, will members keep receiving their notifications, as set in their preferences?
Anyways, you mean that there are some notification settings that can't be configured to my preferences?

Too many email notifications for moderator

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