solved auto-follow a discussion when you've posted to it

I just now realized that my sites are set differently for Admins than for regular members in this way-
when a regular member makes a post to either a jrForum forum discussion OR a Group discussion... they are NOT automatically set to be 'following' that discussion. I thought they WERE, because as Admin it works for me to be set to Follow any discussion when i make a post in it. My site was set up several years ago and i can't remember the area that controls this, even after looking around in modules and templates.
I know this is in effect here on the JR support forum, and I've come to appreciate it from a 'regular member' user's standpoint. I need to make it work for both jrForum discussions and for Group discussions.

Where/how do i apply the same 'auto-follow discussion upon posting' setting for my regular members, that i currently have set for Admin? Not sure where to find that. Thanks!


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 11/09/18 10:09:37PM

Its on and working on your site. I added a forum called TESTING and signed up as a regular user. When the regular user added a new discussion following that discussion was turned on.

When the regular user replied to a discussion created by the admin notifications were also turned on.
updated by @michael: 05/05/18 12:36:21AM

I'll have to test again, Michael.
I know when one creates a discussion, one is automatically subscribed to it, and that's fine.
But the other day i logged in as a regular member and made a post to a discussion created by someone else, and the yellow Follow button did NOT get activated, even after refreshing cache and refreshing browser. Let me experiment a little more here, with group discussions as well, and I;ll get back here again. Thanks!


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Michael, I just tested it again and it's not working for me when I'm logged in as regular member The Member (pw xxxxxxxx)
I just posted in both theose forum threads you created, and it did not result in my 'following' either discussion.
I also tested the same thing as The Member yesterday in a GROUP discussion, with the SAME results, here:
https://fotmd.com/strumelia/group_discuss/2142/where-to-start#cm145353

The question seems to be- why are you and I getting different results?

Can you maybe do the same test I just did, while logged on as The Member? (btw I have all notifications for The Member turned ON).


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

This is something I'll have to test on our PMP site. Thanks for raising the issue.

On your site strumelia for 'the member' you don't seam to have the 'Forum Updated' notification option. Its that that controls the auto follow.

Not sure why yet.

Micheal- brilliant find!
So I looked at the default Ninja skin (the 'parent' of my two JR sites are custom skins)... and Ninja DOES have that setting in the notification options. Also, my other JR site Pennywhistleclub.com DOES have the setting in my custom skin there (which was cloned from my FOTMD.com custom skin about a year ago).
So sometime in the past year, for some reason, that setting went missing -but only on my FOTMD.com site's custom skin. I would not have 'intentionally' removed it, but maybe something else that was done had that as an unintentional consequence.
I'm hoping you can figure out the issue/mystery when you have the time.
Thank you so much! Your help is so much appreciated.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

It looks connected to the 'Allow Profile Forum' quota setting. It shouldn't be but it seams to be. Looking more.

What is happening on your system with that user is that at some point they were in a quota that allowed a forum on their profile. During that period they set the notification 'Forum Updated' to 'off' then were changed into a quota that is not allowed a forum on their profile. The result is they are stuck with the 'Forum Updated' setting set to OFF.

In the next version of jrForum 2.2.6 this is fixed. The 'Forum Updated' setting no longer has impact on the watching button. Now only if all notifications are disabled will the notification watcher not be turned on.

Wow that is more complicated than I ever imagined- thank you for taking the time to figure this issue out Michael!

That "The Member" test member was created very early on in my site by one of my profile admins who then later left the site. BUT-
I am noticing that on FOTMD, NONE of my members (either admin or regular quotas) have the notification option available for "Forum Updated" anymore. I thought I saw that option in the dropdown previously when logged in as master admin and when I started this support thread... now it's GONE altogether, even after integ check and cache clearing?
Am I losing my mind?

Yet on my Pennywhistleclub site, everyone does have the "forum updated" option in their notification dropdown, and it's all working right.

This explains why on my other site all people successfully get set to 'follow' any discussions they post to. But on FOTMD (my main active site) it's


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Only users who are allowed a forum on their profile see the "forum updated" notification option in NOTIFICATIONS tab.

Hmm.. on my pennywhistle site, I have the Forum module quota config set to ALLOW forum on profile of ONLY the single "Forums" forum profile ... and NOT allowed on profile of Master Admin... yet I see the option is there in my notification settings as Master Admin. ? As Master Admin, I long ago created the Profile called Forums, to house the site forums- but I put it in its own quota which i cloned from the Master Admin quota and then turned off a few things. And the Master Admin (me) does NOT have profile forum enabled yet I see it in my notification settings. This doesn't make much sense?

Yet on FOTMD, with the same setup I am indeed able to turn it on or off for Master Admin based on quota as you describe above... and it appears/disappears in my Masteradmin notification settings accordingly.
(btw, I don't see a Notifications at all for either of my site's "Forums" profile so I can't check in those... but that's ok I don't really need to see it, and I imagine it doesn't show because the profile sidebar etc are hidden on purpose.)

All this aside, I'm still not clear when you say:
"In the next version of jrForum 2.2.6 this is fixed. The 'Forum Updated' setting no longer has impact on the watching button. Now only if all notifications are disabled will the notification watcher not be turned on." ....

...are you talking about that glitch in my "The Member" test member on FOTMD ? Or are you talking about the main issue I started this thread for- that regular members don't get set to 'follow' a forum discussion when they make a post in it? Is there a problem with my Forum's 'auto-follow on post' function for all regular members, or is it just happening with "The Member" test member profile? ----If the bug is only on that profile, then ....should I apply to my own site as a NEW regular member profile like you did as "Michael", and see for myself that it's working as it should?


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

In the next version of jrForum (2.2.6) the auto-follow a discussion when you've posted to it issue should be fixed. Previously the module would check the 'Forums Updated' setting. In the new version it does not check that setting.

This should have the effect of any user who comments on a forum thread will then be following that forum thread.

There is nothing you need to do, just update it and it should work for everybody. Those that have a setting for 'Forum Updated' and those that don't. It should now work for everybody because that setting is ignored.

Ok I understand that now, thanks!

How does the GROUP Discussions function in comparison? - because in the beginning of this thread I explained how my auto-follow was also not working for those, the same way. Is that also because I was using my 'buggy' "The Member" as a test member? But... The Member DOES have Group Discussion Updated in their Notifications options, and set to 'send email'. But in my tests of May 3rd, when they posted to a GROUP discussion, they did not get set to following it either. (this is pretty confusing!)


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

The fix in jrForum 2.2.6 seems to have fixed the problem for Forums, Michael... YAY!!

However- I am still seeing the problem occurring in GROUP Discussions. When a regular member joins a Group and then makes a new post in an existing group discussion, they are not automatically set to be 'following' that thread.

How can we fix this for Group discussions as well?


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 06/13/18 09:36:01AM

Brian's got a fix for this added to jrGroupDiscuss 1.4.14 which will be in an upcoming release.

THANK YOU !!
These fixes for Forums and Groups are really going to have a SIGNIFICANT effect on member participation, for many JR site owners. Because it was working for me (as Admin), I always assumed the 'auto-follow thread' worked for all members but only recently discovered it wasn't.
But now (as I suspect it was intended to be), ALL members who posted in a discussion they were interested in, but later drifted away, will now by default be informed if that discussion gets new posts.

On my site we have a lot of Groups and Forum threads that have subjects and valuable info that gets added to over time by various members. I'm SO pleased you gentlemen have created fixes for both Group and Forum discussions! :D


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

I just applied this update for the auto-follow in GROUP discussions when any member posts in the discussion, and it's working properly. Now this feature works right for both Forum discussions and Group discussions.

Thank you so much, this is actually a BIG thing for improving site participation!
I'm now marking this thread SOLVED. :D


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

So I just want to make sure I get this.... if anyone posts in any forum discussion (general forum or group discussions), they will automatically get notified if someone else posts in that discussion as well, even if they didn't post the original discussion? Is that right? And they can stop notifications if they so wish by going into their settings and changing their notifications.

Deb

That's correct Deb.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Thanks!

Just as an aside - it would be nice if we auto-followed a support ticket when responding to one. It seems to default to 'not following' and I often forget to click the 'follow' circle.

Admin users are automatically notified of new updates on Support Tickets. The only way you are not notified is incoming "Email Inquires" tickets that are from users that are in a quota that is not setup with "priority inbox", and users that do not have an account on the system.

If you need EVERY ticket to a mailbox to notify you regardless of the user's quota settings, make sure the "High Priority Mailbox" option is checked in the Mailbox config (ACP -> Admin -> Support Tickets -> Mailboxes -> Modify).

You really should be able to set this up any way you want.

Hope this helps!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
updated by @brian: 08/11/18 08:41:48AM

Thanks Brian. I will look into it properly.