Email notifications
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I'm looking for a few beta testers for a new email notification system. I promised this quite some time ago but was delayed in implementing it. Before I open it to everyone, I'd like to be sure there are no bugs when several people use it. If you'd like to take part reply and I'll set you up.
You'll get notifications when recipes are reviewed from cookbooks you own and comments are made on recipes you've reviewed or commented on.
Let me know! -
I'd be willing to help.
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Oh yes, I'd be happy to help out the testing. Thanks.
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Yes, please sign me up! I curently feel a need to check frequently so I don't miss anything, that would help a little.
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You can add me to the list of volunteers. Thanks.
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Me too. Thanks.
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Thanks everyone! I've added you all to the list of email notifiers. You can change your preferences by going to 'My Bookshelf' and 'tools', where you'll see a new 'notifications' section. You can then check or uncheck the notifications you'd like to receive. Anyone else who wants can easily turn on notifications in the same spot in their bookshelf - this is not limited only to the people who've replied to this post.
Currently there are four categories - these do not entirely duplicate the activity feed you find on the home page when you're logged in. You won't be notified when a friend posts a review from a book you don't have or adds a new book to their bookshelf. I thought it made most sense to keep email notifications to reviews from books/magazines/websites you have in your bookshelf, as well as comments on your reviews or replies to comments you've made. Currently the system checks and sends email every 30 minutes.
Please let me know how it goes and if you find bugs or have suggestions. -
Thanks Andrew. It'll be nice to have notifications when someone comments on reviews or replies to comments as well as when there are reviews from books we have on our bookshelf. I like reading what others have cooked from books I have.
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How's it going with the notifications? Any issues, anyone? Suggestions?
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Andrew, I am receiving email notifications for everything I should but I'm not certain how promptly they are being sent. eg 2 reviews were posted this morning a few minutes apart....I received an email for the first, shortly after it was posted. Over 2 hours later, I still haven't rec'd notification of the second. It's not an issue for me but I don't think it's the way you wanted it to work. Other than that, it's great!
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I've been getting the notifications. Seems to be working well. Thanks.
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Thanks! @zosia, it's possible that one was posted to the site while the email script was running, in which case it may have accidentally been marked as done when it wasn't. I'll look into that.
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Andrew, I did eventually receive email notification, but it came several hours later and it seems to be happening again today with another review. (edit: ~13 hours for this one)
No one else has commented so maybe it's just me :) -
The script runs every 30 minutes so it won't be the cause of the delay. I think what has happened is that the email is being delayed by your ISP because our email host is a new one (I'm using a hosted email solution for the notifications to simplify things). I've looked it up and definitely some of the emails are being delayed.
Usually it takes 2 to 4 weeks for a new IP address which is sending email in bulk to be verified as not being a spammer and for it to be allowed a normal speed and rate of email sending. So some users will see delays and some will not depending on how aggressive their own email host is. If this still is an issue at the end of April, early May, let me know. -
andrew said:
If this still is an issue at the end of April, early May, let me know.
Will do....thank you.
I'm enjoying the changes to the forum, by the way....
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This looks great, Andrew. Clearly you've been up late working on it. ~O)
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Thanks! I'm going to get cracking on a few more enhancements for the site also - I was unable to earlier this year, but things are opening up now. Good to see the icons are getting a workout, even if some of them are a bit silly... :o3
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Andrew, I've been getting the notifications when someone reviews a recipe from a book I own but expediently not when someone comments on one of my reviews. Zosia commented on a review I did a few days ago and I never received a notice. I just happened to notice it while I was on the site. Thought I'd let you know.
Thanks for all your hard work. =D> -
Good Morning Andrew,
I'm receiving emails more promptly now, but as per southerncooker, did not receive notification of a comment on a review. Also, and this may have been intentional on your part, I haven't been receiving notification of recipe reviews posted with star ratings only where the reviewer hasn't included comments.
Have a great day and long weekend!
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Thanks folk! Looks like a bug in the comments part of the system. I'll dig into it this weekend and fix it. And yes, @Zosia, I deliberately set it to ignore reviews without comments as I figured people wouldn't want to get emails if someone was going in and doing a bunch of star ratings only.
Have a nice Easter! My kids will be running gleefully through the woods at their grandfather's place searching for eggs in the forest while I whip up a nice Easter lunch for everyone. -
Fixed! To be completely sure, we'll have to give it a few days to see if the comment notifications come streaming in, but definitely I found a bug which was preventing them from being sent. Let me know your results over the next few days.
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Got a notification on a comment. Yeah! Thanks.
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Thanks, Andrew. This is a lovely system.
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Andrew, if you still need testers, I'm willing to participate as well.
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It's open to everyone now, @Leeka. Have a look at the 'tools' tab when you click on your bookshelf; there's a notification section and you just check off what you want to be notified about.
I'll send out a newsletter soon letting everyone on the site know about this as I don't think everyone checks out the forums. -
What do you think of notifications of new photos posted? It might be too much to get a multiple notifications if you posted a recipe and then added pictures. But I am now adding pictures to recipes that I am cooking for the second or third time since starting with cookbooker, and people might not have noticed those recipes because there wasn't a picture to catch their eye.
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What do you think of notifications of new photos posted?
Hmm, interesting. It would be possible to do, indeed. Though it would be hard to avoid the multiple notifications issue if someone uploaded three pictures, for example. I'll think about this one and see what I can come up with.
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Oh great! Thanks, Andrew. I'll check it out!
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@Zosia: I looked at the email stats and it shows that starting on the 30th, some emails were not getting through for some reason. Not many, so it may be just you, or you and one other person perhaps (I don't have exact stats at the moment). It's possible they're being blocked by your ISP. I'll look into it but if it's on your end, there's not much I can do, though I do have a couple of thoughts that might improve deliverability of our emails. I'll look into them this weekend.
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