Don't have time to check in regularly, but would like an update of recent topics discussed in the forums? Check out the latest feature from the Summer of Code, courtesy of Nico the intern!



It's still being tested, but if you'd like to try it, you can subscribe here. The daily format summarizes posts while the weekly/bimonthly/monthly format summarizes topics. Currently it only supports HTML format e-mails (not plain text). We'd welcome your feedback!

Since it's likely that people will want to watch more than one topic, it seems like the list of topics should have check boxes and not require Ctrl+Click to select multiple items.

Ira

Nico mentioned the same thing, but using checkboxes prevents range selection (Shift+Click) and select all (Ctrl+A). My assumption was that most members will either subscribe to all forums or just a few. I suggested he optimize to that choice, i.e., radio buttons "All forums" and "Only these forums:" that would enable the existing list behavior.

Another option we talked about was keyword searches. For example, I only want to get an update if there's topics including "cremina" or "marzocco" in the subject, similar to Google alerts.

Adding a select all button means you can uncheck what you don't want, or a simple "invert current selection" button solves all those problems but requires users to think. None the less, the way it is means you have to know about multiple selection in lists, ctrl+click in Windows, no clue what it might be on a Mac or my Android phone.

Ira

Woohoo! I mentioned the idea of sharing HB-only member coupons via the newsletter to the sponsors. Proposals include a 30% off coupon for coffee. If you're interested, sign up here.

ira wrote:Since it's likely that people will want to watch more than one topic, it seems like the list of topics should have check boxes and not require Ctrl+Click to select multiple items.

I finally got around to implementing your suggestion. While I was there, I also added a "preview" link for the newsletter:

That seems much better than it was before.

Thanks, Ira