E-mail Notifications - How To

[trymes]

UPDATE!!! - The forum has been upgraded since I first wrote this. Please see my post below for new instructions. In fact, the forum now works much more like most other forums, so this thread has become somewhat obsolete.

OK, so this board has annoyed me since I joined because it did not seem possible to have the forum e-mail me when a new reply was made to a thread I had created or to which I had replied. In fact, other members had indicated to me that it was not possible (see this thread). I did find one other thread here, but the information given was incomplete.

However, I finally figured out how to make it happen, and I think that this is an essential feature of any board, so here goes:

• Before you do anything else, you have to edit your profile and "Opt-In" to receiving e-mails. At the top of the page, click "Profile", and then click "Bookmarks" in the area directly to the right of your user name.
  
• You will be presented with a list of threads that you have bookmarked in the past. Above the list is a dark green bar with a link labeled "Manage Bookmarks" on the right-hand side. Click that link.
  
• On that page you will see the same list of bookmarked threads, but each will have a drop-down menu that allows you to select how you want to be notified if a reply is made to that thread. Modify these threads as you like.
  
• THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART!!! - At the bottom of the list is a menu that allows you to choose "By default, when you bookmark a thread, what type of notification would you like to receive when a new post is made in that thread?" Select "E-mail notification" and then click the "Update Bookmarks and Preferences" button.

OK, now that you have told the site to e-mail you every time a reply is made to a thread that you have bookmarked, all you need to do to receive e-mail notifications is bookmark a thread. There are two basic ways to do this:

• When creating a new thread or replying to an existing one, check the box labeled "Check this box if you wish to bookmark this thread."
  
• When viewing a thread, there is a small icon at the top and the bottom of the window labeled "Bookmark". Click it and you will receive notifications of new replies to that thread.

Lastly, if you no longer wish to receive notification of new replies for a given thread, open that thread and click the "Remove bookmark" icon at the top or bottom. You can also do this from the "Manage Bookmarks" section of the Profile area.

I hope that this helps others, as it has been a major frustration of mine!

Tom

[trymes]

OK. It seems like my first post was only half of the solution. What I posted above works for forum posts, but it does not work for Private Messages (PMs).

To enable e-mail notifications of new PMs, you must do the following (don't worry, it's easy!):

• Go to the forum home page. Scroll to the top of the page and click on "Home" in the toolbar directly below the image at the top.
  
• At the bottom of the home page, below all of the forums, you will see a section titled "Forum Statistics". On the right hand side of this section you will see "Your Personal Messages: 2 New: 0" (the numbers might vary...)
  
• Click on either of the numbers for your PMs and you will be brought to your Private Message inbox (If someone knows of an easier method to do this, please let me know!).
  
• On the right hand side, you will see a red toolbox icon and the word "Preferences". Click on this.
  
• At the bottom of this page you will see a section titled "Notifications". Here you can enable e-mail notifications and pop-up notifications of new PMs. Select yes for either or both of these and then click "Save Preferences".

THAT'S IT!

I hope that's helpful for someone!

Tom

[Deleted]

Thanks heaps for this and the previous email notification information

[trymes]

Glad it has been helpful. I know it drove me nuts when I first joined the forum!

[davewright]

I cannot get the drop down menu by each topic so I cannot bookmark them Any idea why this might be?

[davewright]

The instructions above say that if I go to manage bookmarks there will be a drop down menu to all existing posts that I have made that allow me to bookmark these but I cannot see the drop down menu so cannot bookmark existing posts.

[David]

First things first. Welcome to the club and forum! ;D

If you are set up to receive email notifications you simply select 'bookmark' at the bottom left hand side of the page to receive notification on specific posts.

See attached pic

Attachments:

[davewright]

I see it. Ta.

[trymes]

Instructions for new forum version

The recent upgrade of the forum software has made this whole process much easier. I would even submit that it is easy enough now that a special thread like this one is pointless, but seeing as it already existed, I'll update it.

1. Click on "Profile" in the top navigation menu, just below the photo at the top of the page.
2. Click on the green "Edit Profile" button on the right side of the page, opposite your username.
3. Click on the "Notifications" tab just to the left and above where the green button was.
4. You will see two columns of checkboxes, one for forum notifications and one for e-mail notifications. Adjust these to your liking (I just chose "Select All" in the email column).
5. Click the "Save Notification Settings" button at the bottom

Unless I have missed something, that's it! Enjoy your e-mail notifications.

Tom