E-mail notifications and previously "subscribed" topics (fixed)

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rainwarrior
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E-mail notifications and previously "subscribed" topics (fixed)

Post by rainwarrior »

Since the phpBB upgrade, I have been getting e-mail notifications for a topic that I guess I had previously "subscribed" to. I wanted to turn them off, but I couldn't find a way to do that in the site. The "subscribe to this post" / unsubscribe button is gone.

In its place seems to be a "bookmark" feature that can be used for the same thing, at least if you enable e-mail notificaitons for bookmarks. However, the topic I was getting notifications was not bookmarked (my bookmarks list was empty). I tried bookmarking and un-bookmarking it, which seemed to have no effect.

So, what it feels to me is happening is that all of my old subscriptions still exist and will still generate e-mails? ...except there's no visible place in the current UI to disable them.

The notification e-mail gives me a URL something like:

Code: Select all

https://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?uid=XXXXX&f=X&t=XXX&unwatch=topic
Not sure if following that link does the trick of unsubscribing or not (still waiting for another new post on that topic), but is there any way to just bulk delete these vestigial subscriptions, maybe, or otherwise make them accessible?

Edit: issue now fixed
Last edited by rainwarrior on Thu Nov 28, 2019 8:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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nesrocks
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Re: E-mail notifications and previously "subscribed" topics

Post by nesrocks »

This happened to me with only one post. An "anonimous" user replied to the topic, which wasn't true, but I got the e-mail anyway. It coincided with the theme incompatibility upgrade. I'm almost certain I'm subscribed to some other topic too, but I only got one notification. And it was only once on the update. Are you getting more notifications?
The problem persists that one cannot subscribe to a topic currently though.
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rainwarrior
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Re: E-mail notifications and previously "subscribed" topics

Post by rainwarrior »

So the unsubscribe link from the e-mail did not work. Further posts in that thread have generated more e-mails. No current idea for how to stop these e-mails about that thread.

Considering the possibility that it's a problem with the thread itself, it's this "More NSF Requests" thread specifically:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=115&e=1

Thinking back I don't think I was actually subscribed to this thread before the PhpBB update... I think I did subscribe to it at one time, and then later unsubscribed. (Hard to remember, though, since notification e-mails were broken for a while there? I'm pretty sure I remember unsubscribing though.)
nesrocks wrote: Thu Nov 21, 2019 9:40 amThe problem persists that one cannot subscribe to a topic currently though.
If you click on the wrench icon and "bookmark" a topic, you can receive notifications about bookmarked topics. You have to turn e-mail notifications on in your preferences (username in top right, user control panel, board preferences, edit notification options).

Bookmarks are working perfectly fine, as far as I can tell. I can bookmark a topic (like this one) and get e-mail notifications. The bookmark notification e-mail is different than the subscription notification, e.g. it gives me a link to my bookmarks management where the other one had a (apparently non-working) unsubscribe link.
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Re: E-mail notifications and previously "subscribed" topics

Post by nesrocks »

I cannot find a bookmark option anywhere, inside or outside the post editor.
edit: oh, okay, the wrench, got it. I was looking inside the pencil.
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rainwarrior
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Re: E-mail notifications and previously "subscribed" topics

Post by rainwarrior »

It's not in the post editor, just on the thread view. Should be at the top or bottom of the page like this:
phpbb_post_wrench.png
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Re: E-mail notifications and previously "subscribed" topics

Post by rainwarrior »

I'm still getting e-mails and notifications for that one thread whenever someone posts in it.

The "unwatch" link in the e-mail does nothing, and there doesn't appear to be any interface on this forum for "watching" anything.

A further annoyance: the notifications won't actually clear even when I visit the thread. There's still a red (1) up next to my notifications. Only way to clear a notification from that thread is to "mark all as read" apparently? This is very odd.
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Re: E-mail notifications and previously "subscribed" topics

Post by Drag »

I did a quick lookaround phpBB's support system, and it seems that bookmarks and subscriptions are two different features. It's possible that subscribing to topics and forums got turned off when we upgraded, but without wiping out existing subscriptions and therefore there's no front end for managing your subscriptions despite the fact that you still have some.
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Re: E-mail notifications and previously "subscribed" topics

Post by rainwarrior »

Yes, it is a completely separate thing, but there is no control given to me over it. I can't stop getting e-mails and notifications about these old threads. The "unwatch" link it gives me in the e-mail has no effect.

So... can some admin either restore access to the "watch" or "subscription" feature, whatever its called? The name is ambiguous, it used to be called subscribe but the e-mail uses watch.

Alternatively, maybe it would be better just to wipe all of the old subscriptions globally?
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Re: E-mail notifications and previously "subscribed" topics

Post by tepples »

Apparently "Allow subscribing" in General > Board features in the previous version of phpBB would also stop mails to existing subscribers. I'm guessing that the upgrade may have allowed existing subs to continue but hidden the UI to add or (importantly) delete them. So I'm turning subs back on.
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Re: E-mail notifications and previously "subscribed" topics

Post by rainwarrior »

Thank you. That lets me manage my subscribed/watched topics again. (...and also choose whether to receive notifications or e-mails about them, etc.)

Though... redundant with the bookmarks feature I guess, maybe that was supposed to replace it, but whatever. I'm glad I can finally stop getting e-mails I don't want. :)
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Re: E-mail notifications and previously "subscribed" topics

Post by Drag »

There's subtle differences between bookmarks and subscriptions. Subscriptions will send you both a notification and an email by default, whereas bookmarks will only give you a notification by default. Plus, you can only bookmark threads, whereas you can subscribe to both threads and forums.

At the end of the day, you can customize which feature sends you what, but I'm thinking this was the original intended use; you could save threads for later by bookmarking them, whereas if you have a project thread and you want to immediately know when you get feedback, you could subscribe to it.

Also, I forgot we had disabled subscribing back when the 500 errors were happening, so yeah, what was happening just now makes perfect sense. :P
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