Subscribing to threads

[andyhasit]

Here is how I use a forum:

1. I have a problem
2. If I can't find a solution, I create a thread on the forum
3. Get on with my work and my life, and expect to get notified if someone replies!

I do not expect to have to come back in here weeks later to find that someone did reply to me, but the way this forum is set up does just that.

I know there is a "subscribe topic" thing at the top of every thread, but Jesus...

a) It's checked by default, which is misleading - I thought this meant I was subscribed!
b) The reason that last thought made sense is because I can't imagine why anyone would design a support forum where being subscribed to threads you create is NOT the default. I can understand why you'd occasionally want to unsubscribe from a thread you started if it becomes viral and gets a ton of replies, but in EVERY OTHER SITUATION people would want to be notified if someone replies.
c) The terms "subscribe topic" and "unsubscribe topic" are not correct English, which combined with the checkbox indicating you are NOT subscribed and the cross indicating you ARE subscribed, makes for confusion.

All this achieves is:
a) Newbies who come and post questions never find out that someone has replied, wasting their time and that of anyone who bothered to reply, or find out long after the issue is resolved, because they fairly assume they would have received notifications.
b) If people are forced to come in and navigate to profile>user posts to find their post, and then realise there were replies waiting for them, it will just frustrate and annoy them, and Linux is seen as frustrating and non-user friendly as it is, the last thing we want to do is make the help forum frustratingly designed as well...

The reason I'm bothering with this rant (and I know it's a rant, there are CAPS ) is because I want more people to move to Linux, and Linux Mint in particular. But people get easily put off by Linux, and these extra little annoyances are EXACTLY the kind of things that will turn someone away, and solid Linux users tend to forget this.

So, can we please change this?

[richyrich]

Please notice the little "wrench" icon right beside the Reply button at the bottom of each post.

[andyhasit]

Thank you for your suggestion, but you missed the point, or rather several:

- It's great that there's a wrench next to the REPLY button at the bottom, but I was asking about when we CREATE a post. I don't want to have to post and then scroll to the wrench next to reply just to subscribe which it it should do by default.
- If there is an option to specify that we want to notifications at the point of CREATING a post, I don't see it... (Oops, now I see it!! There's a checkbox, but not very obvious!)
- The above points are moot, because this should be DEFAULT behaviour.
- I'm not asking for personal help, but rather initiating a discussion about changing this feature for the reasons stated above.

Linux Mint is a hot favourite for people moving over from Windows. But this transition is frustrating as it is, partly because it's a whole new world, partly because Linux malfunctions more often (not trolling, just my observation in the limited arena of trying to get a variety of Linuxes working on a variety of laptop models).
If we want people to stick to Mint or even Linux in general, then we need to make the whole experience, including the process of asking for help, as painless as possible. And annoyances/bad design/user-unfriendliness in the help forums matters too.

[Moem]

Open your user preferences: ucp.php
Go to Board Preferences => Edit posting defaults.
Mark 'Notify me upon replies by default' as Yes. Voici, voilà.

And I see your point, but I disagree that this should be a default. Linux is all about choices. Options are offered, but you still need to make your own choices. Everyone uses forums differently (personally, I would NEVER wait a few days after asking a question; I'd be hanging around seeing whether I got any answers, and if I needed to give more information). Everyone sets their own preferences. That is how it should be.

In my opinion, we do not want to cultivate a culture where people learn to expect that everything you (generic 'you') may want is delivered to you. It's fine if people have to search around a bit and find their feet.

Sorry to hear you found your arrival in the world of Linux frustrating. I'm a newbie myself and I cannot say that I share your experience (it was in fact a lot easier than I had pictured it in my mind) but I do see how it would be unpleasant to encounter malfunctions.

[andyhasit]

Moem,

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction for changing that setting, I did look earlier but didn't find it, so that's that solved for me, thank you, though the other points remain.

I'm all for choice of preferences, but that has to be balanced with two design principles of "sensible defaults" and "minimum surprise". My first encounter of Linux was Slackware, where I fumbled about for two weeks in the shell wondering what possible human use there could be for this, until I read about the startx command and found out I had a desktop environment, for those who optionally wanted that!!! That's perhaps an extreme example, and I maybe picked the wrong distro.

As for post notifications, the majority of Q&A sites with interaction (including the stackexchange suite) will notify you by default, so I think its fair to expect this as a default. Or perhaps more to the point: it's what newcomers will expect to be the default.

As for things "being delivered to you" well, my view is different Some people like to tinker and configure, but I use my computer to get stuff done. I run applications, and want the operating system to stay out of the way as much as possible. In an ideal world I would just have a choice of applications, and not even know the OS exists. Yes, understanding technology is great, but on the flip side all this technology is only possible in the first place thanks to the concept of abstraction. A desktop environment designer is able to do their job because they don't need to know anything about how a silicone chip works. I want to be able to do my job without having to install drivers, compile packages, or add lines to obscure config files in parts of the system I'd rather not go.

Every distro has its own approach to how much they give you on a plate, and how much they make you sweat to get things working, and to quote the LM user guide:

The Linux Mint project focuses on making the desktop more usable and more efficient
for everyday tasks performed by regular users.

I chose Mint over the likes of Slackware for that very reason, and believe many others do too. So I think the "Here's a basic working system but you have to tinker, learn and get the rest for yourself" approach is fine for other distros, but Linux Mint should do what it can to make it feel "delivered to you" (and I think it really does a good job of that, but the further we can take that, the better - I believe)

This is of course, just opinion, and I know this is going beyond just the notification feature, but I'd like to hear people's views (and if this is the wrong place for that, please tell me!)

[Joss]

I agree with the OP, there are things in this forum that leave to be desired,
the thread subscription should be activated by default (and yes, having the box pre-checked is misleading),
when clicking on a link it should open a new tab,
when posting and using the back button one should be sent back to the thread and not to the post draft

I don't know if it's the forum software or the implementation of it but there's definitely work to be done.