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Being Automatically Subscribed To New Topics

Discussion in 'PriusChat Website Questions' started by Sid, Nov 8, 2005.

  1. Sid

    Sid New Member

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    I'm being automatically subscribed to new topics that I have not participated in, (email notification) I don't know if it's all new topics, or just some. Then I must go and unsubscribe to them.
    I know this had been a problem after the switch to the new server/domain, etc. but I thought it had been corrected.
     
  2. IsrAmeriPrius

    IsrAmeriPrius Progressive Member

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    Go to the Board Preferences settings and uncheck the box next to the Enable 'Email Notification' by default? field.
     
  3. moneytrain8

    moneytrain8 New Member

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    I don't think that's a solution to the problem. This has happened to me on and off as well.

    I just got an e-mail stating that there was a topic reply for a thread that I have never read, replied to, or seen at all. I went into my CP, and it had me subscribed to that thread, as well as another thread that I had never seen before. For whatever reason, the system is subscribing people to random threads... Kind of like th TiVo "Suggestions," maybe? :)
     
  4. Wayne

    Wayne Active Member

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    Yea, mine's not set either. However, I have to go into my topics and prune out topics I have never marked for notification, nor in some cases ever seen or read, every single day...
     
  5. Sid

    Sid New Member

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    I know I could do that, however, I still want notification of threads I've actually participated in. Along these lines, it would be nice to have the thread name in the email subject line instead of just Topic Subscription Reply Notification ( From PriusChat )

    I don't mean to sound overly critical of PriusChat beacuse it is a fantastic forum for the Prius, but other forum sites are able to put the thread topic as the email subject line and not subscribe me to thread in which I've not participated.
     
  6. Wayne

    Wayne Active Member

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    In all fairness, this is a malfunction that has developed since the crash, and is not by design...
     
  7. Sid

    Sid New Member

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    I understand that, and was not implying that PC is deliberately subscribing its members to threads that they did not participate in, nor subscribe to. :)
     
  8. Danny

    Danny Admin/Founder
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    Yes we are - we want you to see ALL OF THE THREADS! MUHHAHHAHAHHAHA!

    No seriously, what it sounds like is that you are subscribing to a thread, and the sytem is giving it a certain thread id #, but that thread id # is wrong because of when we lost all of those topics before. It sounds like something need to be re-syncronized. I tried yesterday to re-syncronize the forums but I guess that didn't do the trick.

    Hmmmm.... let me do some research and see what I can find out.

    Are you getting email notifications for threads that you are subscribing to?
     
  9. Sid

    Sid New Member

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    Hi Danny,
    Thanks for responding.
    Yes, I am getting the notifications for threads that I'm subscribed to.
     
  10. Danny

    Danny Admin/Founder
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    Hmmm... that makes it more of a mystery, then.
     
  11. Wayne

    Wayne Active Member

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    I can't say, myself. I know I get subscribed to things I've never subscribed to (or even opened, in some cases), but I always trusted what I was subscribing to was there also.

    I guess the best thing for us to do is to check our subscriptions every time we subscribe, and report the results here. I'll start by tracking this thread!

    Enable email notification of replies? ON!
     
  12. Wayne

    Wayne Active Member

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    OK, just checked, and I am now subscribed to this topic. However, I also am subscribed to another one I replied to today (Lifetime MPG), but I haven't been checking the email notification box for several days now. That was the only 'extra' subscription so far today.
     
  13. DanMan32

    DanMan32 Senior Member

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    It's not a mystery if phantom subscriptions are correct subscriptions created before the crash and now mislinked to the wrong thread, yet new subscriptions created after the crash are correct.

    However, if phantom subscriptions are to threads created after the crash, that's a mystery, as they should have the correct current ID.
     
  14. Wayne

    Wayne Active Member

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    Yep, they have all been to threads created after the crash. Always new topics, never old ones.
     
  15. DanMan32

    DanMan32 Senior Member

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    Ah, another thing, and you might not be able to determine this:
    If the link is old, it could still point to a new thread.

    For example, lets say the crash occured on August 1st, with the last post ID being 12345. The website is backreved to June 1st, with its last ID being 10067.
    Now you have a subscription link pointing to ID 12056 that was generated July 10th. As of August 2nd, that link no longer exists, but in September, the IDs reach 12056, and you now point to a thread you never subscribed to, but that thread happens to share an ID to a thread that used to exist with that ID that you had subscribed to.
    But then, that's if the subscription links were not lost in the crash. If they were lost, then restored links would have IDs that go no further than 10067.
     
  16. Sid

    Sid New Member

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    Here's another "bug" in the email notification, the following message is included in every email:

    There may be more replies to this topic, but only 1 email is sent per board
    visit for each subscribed topic. This is
    to limit the amount of mail that is sent to your inbox.


    However, it doesn't really work this way. Even if I haven't been back to the thread since the first new post, there will be a notification for every post that's new. There should be only 1 email notification regardless of new posts untill I visit that thread again. The key phrase here is: This is to limit the amount of mail that is sent to your inbox. But that mechanism is not working correctly.
     
  17. Danny

    Danny Admin/Founder
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    Yeah, now I'm thinking the only solution is to delete the contents of the "subscriptions" table and have everyone start fresh with their thread subscriptions.

    Which is worse - losing your subscriptions or being subscribed to multiple topics you didn't mean to be subscribed to?
     
  18. Sid

    Sid New Member

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    I'd rather lose my subscriptions than keep getting "false" notifications.
     
  19. Wayne

    Wayne Active Member

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    I also wouldn't mind the subscription database being purged, if it will get it to stop notifying me of threads I never subscribed to.

    BTW, the problem has lessened considerably since I stopped subscribing to topics. Maybe it was subscribing me to more than 1 topic at a time.

    I just checked, and I have received no false subscriptions since the 'test' subscription I did above. Of course I have not subscribed to anything since then, either...
     
  20. Wayne

    Wayne Active Member

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    OK, I put myself down for a couple of subscriptions today, and I'm back to getting subscriptions I never asked for. For example I'm now subscribed to "Some simple buying questions", a brand-new post. I think I may discontinue subscribing if that helps... :(