Bug - Replies to a watched thread Alert Pref. not working

[Aikion]

I have the "Replies to a watched thread" alert preference turned off. See pic.

Today, I received a non-'Thread Starter' watched thread reply email alert. As I don't constantly receive these email alerts, there's obviously an edge case bug of some kind involved. I've noticed there have been other alert-related bugs posted, and wonder if this is a result of a fix breaking something else.

Not a big deal, but was saddened that it wasn't a story update. Thanks for running this site.

edit: Okay it's happened 4 more times in less than an hour. The option is definitely broken.
edit2: I noticed that I don't receive these alerts on QQ. I just receive them via email.

 

[alethiophile]

I have the "Replies to a watched thread" alert preference turned off. See pic.

Today, I received a non-'Thread Starter' watched thread reply email alert. As I don't constantly receive these email alerts, there's obviously an edge case bug of some kind involved. I've noticed there have been other alert-related bugs posted, and wonder if this is a result of a fix breaking something else.

Not a big deal, but was saddened that it wasn't a story update. Thanks for running this site.

edit: Okay it's happened 4 more times in less than an hour. The option is definitely broken.
edit2: I noticed that I don't receive these alerts on QQ. I just receive them via email.

Click to shrink...

The setting for alerts and the setting for E-mails is separate. Each thread you've watched has a separate setting for whether to send E-mail on thread updates.

Unfortunately, there's no way to set this centrally -- the only way to do it is to go through to each watched thread, unwatch it, then watch it again while selecting "don't receive E-mail". You can set the default for threads you watch under Preferences -> Options -- deselect "and receive email notifications of replies".

Due to third-party spam filter issues, QQ's E-mails are unreliable. It may well be that you always had E-mails on, but are only now receiving them.

 

[Aikion]

Worth a shot. Don't think I chose that option when watching the thread. Sorry for the trouble if that's what caused the problem.

 

[FieryInfantry0184]

Hey

 

[GenDex]

I have this same issue, but nothing to do with emails.

If I turn off "Replies to a watched thread", I get no alerts (the on-site alerts that pop up a little notification on the top right or wherever the theme puts it) for posts in threads I've watched. I have my alerts set up exactly as pictured above because I do want a little alert telling me when one of those threads I'm watching received a post from the thread author.

I'd basically like a setup so that I get notified on the site when the author of a thread posts, and at no other time.

I mean, I keep a tab open to my watched threads anyway, so I always see when something new happens on a thread. But if it's just readers voting (and it's not my own Quest, because God am I an eager puppy to see what they've voted on my own), then I'll click last unread when I get curious enough what others are voting or saying.

 

[MissileTeatime]

I have this same issue, but nothing to do with emails.

If I turn off "Replies to a watched thread", I get no alerts (the on-site alerts that pop up a little notification on the top right or wherever the theme puts it) for posts in threads I've watched. I have my alerts set up exactly as pictured above because I do want a little alert telling me when one of those threads I'm watching received a post from the thread author.

I'd basically like a setup so that I get notified on the site when the author of a thread posts, and at no other time.

I mean, I keep a tab open to my watched threads anyway, so I always see when something new happens on a thread. But if it's just readers voting (and it's not my own Quest, because God am I an eager puppy to see what they've voted on my own), then I'll click last unread when I get curious enough what others are voting or saying.

Click to shrink...

...To the best of my understanding, the setup pictured in the OP should create exactly the behavior you describe wanting. But if I understand you correctly, you have exactly that setup, and are not getting the behavior you want.

Which means either I'm misunderstanding your setup, I'm misunderstanding your desired behavior, or I'm wrong about how those settings work. The third one is... not a bug exactly, but a bug in the sense of a major weakness in the documentation.

Have you already double-checked that the settings saved? That's the kind of oversight I could see biting me and leading to this type of bug report.

 

[GenDex]

...To the best of my understanding, the setup pictured in the OP should create exactly the behavior you describe wanting. But if I understand you correctly, you have exactly that setup, and are not getting the behavior you want.

Which means either I'm misunderstanding your setup, I'm misunderstanding your desired behavior, or I'm wrong about how those settings work. The third one is... not a bug exactly, but a bug in the sense of a major weakness in the documentation.

Have you already double-checked that the settings saved? That's the kind of oversight I could see biting me and leading to this type of bug report.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I just double-checked them.

Spoiler: My Alert Setting

I've gone back and forth, and switched it back to the pictured set up about 24 hours ago. Since then, I've received three notifications today, all of them for being quoted in a thread (one of which was your response). In one of the threads I follow, the author has posted twice today, and neither of those created an alert.

I'd say it's a bug because "thread starter replies to a thread" is getting overridden by "replies to a watched thread". It kinda reminds me of conditional formatting rules in Excel. You have to put them in the correct order, or an early rule will stop checking rules or a later rule will overwrite the formatting of an earlier rule.

Either that, or "thread starter replies to a thread" just straight up doesn't work.

Y'know... that "thread starter replies to a thread" and the sub-option "thread starter replies always alerts" seem like they're just different wording of the same thing. I'm gonna try deselecting the sub-option and see what happens.

 

[GenDex]

I have also been getting a lot of emails. I have gone through the email and followed the "disable all emails" link several times now but it seems that every time I follow a new thread it starts sending me emails for every reply.

Click to shrink...

Have you tried unwatching a thread and then watching it again, and selecting the "without receiving email notifications" on each thread?

And to change the default of email replies when replying to a thread, click the "More Options" button while you're posting. There should be some checkmarks allowing you to uncheck email notifications. I don't know what to say if you've already done these steps and you've already gone to the "Preferences" page of your profile and unchecked the email notification buttons there.

 

[GenDex]

When I watch a thread I never set email in the first place. But I did just notice something, I don't think I watched this thread just commented on it. Does commenting on a thread cause it to auto-watch because I got an email from this quote when I don't usually get emails from quotes and I am watching this thread even though I don't remember doing so. I unwatched and am testing with this post here.

Edit: Okay I found what was happening, there is a setting in preferences that auto-watches threads you comment on. It also has emails turned on by default so if anybody is having this problem go to preferences and turn of the "Automatically watch threads that you create or when you reply..." option, or at least the email sub-option.

Click to shrink...

Yes. There are also options to watch, not watch, and to receive email notifications available to you every time yo reply to a thread. Instead of clicking "Post Reply", click "More Options".

 

[GenDex]

Yeah I already turned it off. It is annoying that the default is emails on especially since it does not show any evidence of you auto-watching the thread unless you go into more options. I usually watch threads without email alerts and then comment but the few times I commented first were causing confusing problems.

Also on your author alerts problem I am pretty sure that author posts over a certain word length get alerted even if they are not threadmarked. So maybe the setting is just omitting the "over a certain word count" part of the description and the setting only alerts on posts over 500 words or something like that.

Click to shrink...

Nah, I tested that. It wasn't alerting me to large author posts the way I had it set up. I've since deselected the duplicate sub-option and am waiting for a large post to test it.

 

[GenDex]

I've confirmed today that deselecting that duplicate option has achieved my desired result. I do not get an alert notification for every single comment or reply in a thread, but I do get an alert when the OP replies with a certain amount of words. This one I just got was 1.4k words. I don't know what the lower limit is, but still, this is perfect.

Spoiler: Effective Alert Settings