I would like for wwwthreads to incorporate a "bump list" feature. i.e. the ability for a poster to notify everyone on his/her address book (or separate "bump list") about an interesting thread. Thus, if a user was interested in a particular thread, and thought others in her "bump list" would be also, she could "bump" the thread to them.

It would be an "internal" mass-mailing to everyone on her address book or "bump list" (a separate "bump" list might be even better), which would serve to notify individuals of a particular thread. This feature already exists in at least one forum that I am aware of, and is indispensable in promoting interaction between users in a forum.

This feature combined with a Self-Search feature (see <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.wwwthreads.com/perl/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=feedback&Number=34007&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=14&part=>this thread</A> for a description of "Self-Search") would allow users to be notified by other users of threads they might have otherwise missed. A great "community building" feature IMO.

Thanks for listening Scream

Derek

I call that "Spam"!

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

I call that "Spam"!

[/quote]

You mean like the new "Email Post" feature?

Excellent suggestion for a feature BTW. People not wishing to receive notification of threads could make themselves "invisible" to "bump lists."

Derek

I have to agree with Eileen on this one... I think this would be so annoying that hardly anyone would want to have that enabled. To avoid trouble, I would set it by default to be off, and I really doubt there would be many who activate it.

Gerrit
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No. What you propose is Mass mailing. The Email a friend just goes to One person.

Gerrit,

Thanks for your response. Actually, the best way to judge this feature is to see it at work and see how many people complain. You can see a sample of this feature at work in <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ad3c4ae4e32.htm>this thread</A>. There are 33 posts in the thread, several "thank you's" for the "bump" and not a single complaint.

I have observed this feature at work in this particular forum for several months, and have yet to se a single complaint. More often than not, I see thank yous posted, and lively debate since people are able to "bump" those of like mind to join them in a particular discussion and help them vanquish the opposition

Derek

Ah, I see, okay... I just can't see myself wanting it activated... but if you say it works, I guess I wouldn't mind seeing it as an opt-in option (even though I personally don't care so much about it... but that's just my opinion...)

Gerrit
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Hi Eileen <blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

No. What you propose is Mass mailing. The Email a friend just goes to One person.

[/quote]

Yes, the Email a friend goes to one person . . . at a time (with number per minute being dependent on how fast the server responds and how fast my macro can fill in the form), to a person who might consider the mail sent to them as unsolicited and thus spam.

The bottom line is that people love to share their findings with others (hence the email a friend feature right?). They need to interact and the more you allow people to interact and share, the more your community will grow. Perhaps the feature I am suggesting could be turned on or off at the Admin level, thus giving concerned admins control over what happens in their forums, perhaps the Admin could limit a user's bump list to 25 people, or 50. There are many ways of going about allaying your concerns. The bottom line is that this is a feature that works and it is a feature that my users are asking for. Used judiciously it can enhance rather than detract from any online community.

Best regards,

Derek

Anything that gives a user easy and quick access to a group of people's email is usually a bad idea, unless that person is an admin or moderator or someone who's obviously not someone who will add as many people to his addressbook as he can.

This would be a better hack or plug-in, IMO. Anything like this should be kept out of the main distro.

6
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://myth.jccc.net/wwwthreads2/index.pl>Screamers</A>

Not that I want the feature, but what about sending it to the PM system?
then at least it would all be internal to the forum and not sending emails and spam.
Of course I would also want to see a system where my users could easily get off other people bump lists and/or only let approved members add them to the bump list.
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