Forum Activity for @researchcooperative

How to use the notifications dropdown menu - more clarity is needed

Using Jamroom

1. Today I received a request from Guardian News site to update my notification preferences at their site. The member account management system seems similar to that provided by JR, but they offer much more obvious explanation of the notification options. This reflects the fact that they are a content rich site with paid writers and information that they would like to push to users. So I do not expect that the same level of communication is needed for all JR sites. Nevertheless, it is a good example to consider (see attached screen shot from my own Guardian account page).

2. Looking again at the JR system (see second attached screenshot), I find that there is no help button (with question mark) that can be used to identify the dropdown menu for controlling notifications as a dropdown menu, and to explain how to use it.

3. The help button system imposes an extra step on users: they have to actively seek explanation and have to be familiar with the button system, which most new users or infrequent users are not. In some contexts, this may not be critical, in others it may be.

It would be nice if the system could more generally give administrators the option of displaying a static help message that is automatically displayed alongside an item, as well as the help button. I would like to place a static help message (aka label) alongside the dropdown menu for notifications.

In the case of the signup create and update forms, and other forms, both the label and help messaging are already possible. Can this be provided for the notifications page?

How to use the notifications dropdown menu - more clarity is needed

Using Jamroom

It may be worth the effort for the options that most members of a network are likely to see.

I will try to think about this some more.

Thanks.

Display tag search results as panel, not as list

Suggestions

When a tag hits on many items, they are currently displayed as a single column list.

This maximizes scrolling effort and minimizes information access via the tag system.

Can tag search results be displayed as a panel, not as list?
updated by @researchcooperative: 08/07/18 10:01:43PM

Is it possible to see the usage rate of private notes?

Using Jamroom

Thanks,

It worked with this sequence:

ACP -> MODULES -> DEVELOPER -> TOOLS -> DATABASE ADMIN
->Choose jr_jrprivatenote_note in left hand column -> Select Data (above table body area) -> click on Note ID at top of ID column to toggle the order (oldest at top, newest at top) -> scroll to bottom of page to see more data (if there are pages of notes in the file).

I'll call this solved. Thanks!

Is it possible to see the usage rate of private notes?

Using Jamroom

Hmmm.... did not find any poetry, just a backend table that says that the total "data length" of the private notes is 311,000, with an "index length" of 33,000.

Does this mean 311,000 characters? Assuming an average word and space length of 5, that could be 60,000 words of private note messaging.

Which means that some kind of communication is happening, as intended, I hope.
updated by @researchcooperative: 04/21/18 01:53:00PM

Is it possible to see the usage rate of private notes?

Using Jamroom

Yikes. I have no idea what I will find!

Hopefully nothing more than a private poetry circle.

P.

Is it possible to see the usage rate of private notes?

Using Jamroom

If I look at obvious records of activity on my site, there is clearly very little. So this probably means there is very little hidden activity in the form of communication with private notes.

Nevertheless, I feel I should at least know at a broad level how much the private notes are being used, by any measure that is possible.

It might also be useful to be able to identify users who use private notes in an extraordinary manner.... for (relatively) large volumes of data, or at strange frequencies. I don't want my network to be used (too much) for unwanted purposes.

I don't expect or want total control, just enough to reduce the risk of the site being hijacked, and having its existence put in danger as a result.
updated by @researchcooperative: 07/22/18 02:05:52PM

How to use the notifications dropdown menu - more clarity is needed

Using Jamroom

It would also be good to think about how the help notes are placed.

In the original layout recovered by Michael, there were help notes for every single option. These could be reduced to a help note for each functional category.

How to use the notifications dropdown menu - more clarity is needed

Using Jamroom

Would it be possible to sort notification options under headings in the manner shown below?

Even when there are not many options displayed to a user, the arrangement according to function might help. (The "options" here are invented for the purpose of discussion).

The headers (Mail, Support, etc) should only appear if the account holder has options to select under them.

Mail:
Private notes
Newsletters
etc.

Support:
Support tickets
Support replies
etc.

Forums and Groups:
Your posts
Replies
Discussions you follow
etc.

How to use the notifications dropdown menu - more clarity is needed

Using Jamroom

Thanks for the previous layout.

The problem there is that there is no obvious structure to the list. If the items could be organised into functional sets, with a title for each set, then this would help guide users to the decisions they might want to make.

At first glance, it looks like a random list. Making it a long alphabetical list would not help, as the different functional areas would remain mixed up.