# Occasionally missing thread subscription e-mails



## maxwells_daemon (Apr 9, 2005)

Hi,

I rely on the email notification system to inform me of new posts to a few threads (in particular [THREAD=286631]the one about EndPad[/THREAD]) where I help with support. That works most of the time, but occasionally I miss a notification. This is exacerbated by the fact that it only sends one message until you go and look on the web site, so an entire discussion can take place without one noticing or being able to help.

My e-mail system is pretty reliable in other respects (and when it isn't I notice), so I can only surmise that the problem is at the TCF end. It's difficult to diagnose, but the last time it happened (starting with [POST=4918748]post #195[/POST]), I had posted another message a few minutes beforehand. Does it have some sort of delay before sending any more alerts?

Is this a bug, or an annoying "feature"? It would be simplest if the "instant email notification" option (that I have selecting in my profile) meant that I received instant email notification of *all* new posts to subscribed threads, regardless of when I last posted or visited. If that isn't possible for some reason, how can I ensure that I'm reliably notified of at least the first new post?

Without reliable notification, I cannot do my bit to help provide reliable support to my fellow Community members. I do not "lurk" on the site during the week, so it is often some time until I see a new post.

Can you help? Thanks,
Tim.


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## David Bott (Jan 1, 1999)

Hello...

The issue you do not see is the thousands of messages that would be sent with it sent mail EVERY TIME a new post was made to a watched thread. The idea here is to alert you that something new was posted on a watched thread from your last visit time to the site. 

If it is a active thread, where some times we could have 30 or more posts come in quickly...and you then have 50 people subscribed to that thread, well, you can see the e-mail mess it would make and the major server overhead. 

Sorry, but this is the way it is and has been. All Vb powered sites are like this.

Thanks


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## maxwells_daemon (Apr 9, 2005)

Hi David,

I see your point. (It would still be nice to have such a feature, but as an alternative to "instant email notification", for those of us who are not subscribed to many busy threads (this is the model I like and am used to in other BBS/news/MLM systems, where there traffic is maybe a hundred messages a day). But I see that is something for the Vb software wishlist, and even if you are persuaded, I won't see it any time soon.)

So, to return to my original question, do you have an idea why I am missing some of the single notifications?

Thanks,
Tim.


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## David Bott (Jan 1, 1999)

Sorry...Hard one to answer. It will only send them from the last time you logged it. And as you know, only once. Based on what may have been in that post, maybe a spam filter got it? Unsure. Sorry


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## maxwells_daemon (Apr 9, 2005)

Ah, so it's based on when I logged in, not when I last read that thread?? That seems counterintuitive to me, but could explain the problem: in response to a notification (itm's [POST=4918632]post #187[/POST]), I logged in to TCF, but while I was composing a reply, itm posted again (post #190) and I got that notification (which didn't tell me anything I didn't know, since I was looking at the thread). When I was finished, I reloaded the thread to check for more messages, but there weren't any. I never received notification of itm's subsequent reply (post #195), because you'd already sent one since I logged in.

Does that explanation hold water? What's the best way to avoid missing additional replies? Do I really have to log out and in again if I received any email notifications while I'm on TCF? Does it count as a new login if I just close the browser session (without clicking "Log Out") and return a few minutes later? Or is there a quicker way of resetting the "login time" marker?

Tim.

PS. I already checked my spam folder, and there was no notification there.


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## David Bott (Jan 1, 1999)

Yes, when you log into the site. Not a thread. If we needed to also keep track of every thread you visited, well, that would be A LOT of data to store on each user.


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