Forum Problem - Post Alerts

[tjb]

Are we the only ones having problems with the forum since it underwent some changes over a year ago.
Before the change if a new item was posted on the forum you received an e-mail alert.
As the posts often include events it was helpful to receive early notification, particularly if it is limited to numbers on a first come first served basis.
I raised this a year ago with Porsche Club and they were supposed to be looking into the problem but nothing seems to have changed.
I have recently raised this again and explained the problem but seem to be struggling to get a response!!
Does anyone at Porsche Club Head Office listen and respond to issues that we are having, names please so that I can contact them direct?

 

[ianthow]

There were problems at the outset which appear to have been resolved. All posts are not e-mailed by default, only watched forums, watched threads and replies to your posts will be notified. However, even if you have selected to watch a forum or thread, notifications will only work if your personal settings are set to receive notifications. For full details of settings available, see pages 3 and 5 of the document attached to this post:

https://www.porscheclubgb.com/forum/threads/forum-user-guide-2025.216874/#post-1324949

Setting as per the sample screenshots should resolve any issues.
Note, watching and un-watching forums and threads is mentioned on page 8.
Checking for new posts every few days will allow you to keep on top of topics of interest, see page 14 of the document.

 

[tjb]

There were problems at the outset which appear to have been resolved. All posts are not e-mailed by default, only watched forums, watched threads and replies to your posts will be notified. However, even if you have selected to watch a forum or thread, notifications will only work if your personal settings are set to receive notifications. For full details of settings available, see pages 3 and 5 of the document attached to this post:

https://www.porscheclubgb.com/forum/threads/forum-user-guide-2025.216874/#post-1324949

Setting as per the sample screenshots should resolve any issues.
Note, watching and un-watching forums and threads is mentioned on page 8.
Checking for new posts every few days will allow you to keep on top of topics of interest, see page 14 of the document.

Ian if I understand you correctly you confirm that new posts will not be e-mailed?
This is exactly the issue that I have raised as before the forum was changed we would receive an e-mail notification that a new post had been added to the particular forum that we subscribe to, in the case all new posts on the Region 7 Forum (Not every forum of the website)
This allowed early notification of events as I have mentioned above and prevented a situation where you missed a deadline or restriction in numbers to attend on a first come first served basis.
If, as it did, this process worked perfectly well before the forum was changed, then why can it not be reinstated?
I understand all the rest about notifications if you have already responded to a post you have seen our you are watching a particular post, this is about being alerted to a new post that you haven't seen.

 

[ianthow]

Ian if I understand you correctly you confirm that new posts will not be e-mailed?

Not unless
1 - You configure your settings as per my message above.
2 - You set the forums that you wish to follow to Watched. If the button on the forum shows Unwatch, you are good. If it shows Watch, press the button to receive notifications.

There are quite a few differences compared to the old version which was on a platform that was no longer supported and, therefore, insecure. Unfortunately these differences are compromises that had to be made to move to a secure platform.

The user guide mentioned above is an attempt to help members navigate through the changed forum.

 

[Lancerlot]

Unfortunately notifications nowadays are inconsistent.
All my boxes have been checked since inception, but no notifications arrive for new posts, my Register or Regional activity. Furthermore, posts I've subscribed to often fail to come through too. Only threads I've actually started seem to provide any consistent notification.
I've now adopted the habit of logging in daily to all new posts just to keep informed.
Regards,

Clive

 

[tjb]

Not unless
1 - You configure your settings as per my message above.
2 - You set the forums that you wish to follow to Watched. If the button on the forum shows Unwatch, you are good. If it shows Watch, press the button to receive notifications.

There are quite a few differences compared to the old version which was on a platform that was no longer supported and, therefore, insecure. Unfortunately these differences are compromises that had to be made to move to a secure platform.

The user guide mentioned above is an attempt to help members navigate through the changed forum.

Ian I have looked at your guide and the pictures of the screens you show, none of these look like anything under my account and under my profile, I do not have any facility to set any e-mail preferences or even a link to the location of private messages, my screen looks completely different to those in your pictures with only sparse information, am I looking in the wrong place?

 

[ianthow]

Ian I have looked at your guide and the pictures of the screens you show, none of these look like anything under my account and under my profile, I do not have any facility to set any e-mail preferences or even a link to the location of private messages, my screen looks completely different to those in your pictures with only sparse information, am I looking in the wrong place?

Hi Tim,
You were almost there. The guide could be clearer on this topic.
From the screenshot you attached, I suspect that you simply clicked on the text of the My Profile button in the main menu bar, so did not get the dropdown menu shown on page 3 of the guide. Click the down arrow to the right of the text, to see the dropdown menu. Alternatively, from the screen you attached, click the EDIT PROFILE button at the top right to switch to edit mode which will take you to the same place as EDIT MY PROFILE on the dropdown.
The image below shows the top part of the resultant editing page. Select Forum details to jump down to that section or scroll down the page to find the section (as shown in the guide). I can see that the explanation in the guide was, perhaps, not clear enough. Also, I now notice that there is a quirk in how the My Profile button in the top menu bar works. Once on the My Dashboard page, clicking the text of the button will drop down the sub-menu. One more quirk of the forum which I cannot control.
To keep the guide as concise as possible, most images were cropped from pages rather than showing whole pages. For the same reason, I tried to avoid excess in the text.

 

[ianthow]

Unfortunately notifications nowadays are inconsistent.
All my boxes have been checked since inception, but no notifications arrive for new posts, my Register or Regional activity. Furthermore, posts I've subscribed to often fail to come through too. Only threads I've actually started seem to provide any consistent notification.
I've now adopted the habit of logging in daily to all new posts just to keep informed.
Regards,

Clive

Hi Clive,
Like you, I log in to see new posts most days so are no longer dependent on email notifications. Thinking about your problem, I now realise that I have not received any e-mails for new posts in my watched forums either, notably region and register. Emails are coming through for new posts in watched threads (including those not started by me) and replies to my posts.
I am not sure about your "posts I've subscribed to" problem. I thought the subscribe term in the old forum was replaced by watch which applies to threads rather than individual posts. Please correct me if I am wrong.
I will contact forum admin to ask for their help in resolving the lack of notification of new posts in watched forums.

 

[supersport]

I've had my settings the same as in your guide since the change, and the new Thread emails don't arrive and haven't done so since the upgrade.

Oddly the email settings seem to relate to notifications to existing threads, which quickly becomes annoying, so there's no alternative but to watching regularly.

The alerts section implies that you can get alerts for new Threads, but you have to go to the alerts section to see them, which doesn't actually seem to contain alerts to new Threads. Ho hum

 

[tjb]

Hi Tim,
You were almost there. The guide could be clearer on this topic.
From the screenshot you attached, I suspect that you simply clicked on the text of the My Profile button in the main menu bar, so did not get the dropdown menu shown on page 3 of the guide. Click the down arrow to the right of the text, to see the dropdown menu. Alternatively, from the screen you attached, click the EDIT PROFILE button at the top right to switch to edit mode which will take you to the same place as EDIT MY PROFILE on the dropdown.
The image below shows the top part of the resultant editing page. Select Forum details to jump down to that section or scroll down the page to find the section (as shown in the guide). I can see that the explanation in the guide was, perhaps, not clear enough. Also, I now notice that there is a quirk in how the My Profile button in the top menu bar works. Once on the My Dashboard page, clicking the text of the button will drop down the sub-menu. One more quirk of the forum which I cannot control.
To keep the guide as concise as possible, most images were cropped from pages rather than showing whole pages. For the same reason, I tried to avoid excess in the text.
View attachment 3907

Hello Ian, sorry but I still cant see any menus to allow the settings shown in your guide, when I follow your above, Edit Profile, I am presented with a screen that looks like the screenshot attached, it also includes my personal contact details address etc.. not shown on the screenshot I have taken.

 

[supersport]

Hello Ian, sorry but I still cant see any menus to allow the settings shown in your guide, when I follow your above, Edit Profile, I am presented with a screen that looks like the screenshot attached, it also includes my personal contact details address etc.. not shown on the screenshot I have taken.

Tim,

Get it to like this. Hover you mouse over the "Forum" at the top of the page, a menu appears, the last of which is Forum settings

.

 

[supersport]

If you are on a phone / tablet use the hamburger menu to got to forum..Form Settings

 

[tjb]

Tim,

Get it to like this. Hover you mouse over the "Forum" at the top of the page, a menu appears, the last of which is Forum settings

.

Thanks Ian that is really helpful as I can now see these settings and noted that they are all ticked, however the issue I originally raised is not fixed by these settings and it is a crying shame that the ability we all used to have to receive instant e-mail alerts when a new post is added to your watched community forum no longer happens, this was obviously technically possible so I do not see why it cannot or is not been done anymore. We are all busy people and don't spend everyday looking at the forum on the off chance that someone has posted an event that you may be interested in joining, nor should it be necessary for these to have to be duplicated or flagged on other external medium such as Facebook or WhatsApp groups if the Club system worked perfectly well as it did before. I know other members are also very frustrated by the removal of this facility, which is clearly a backward step.
Thanks again for your assistance in finding my settings.

 

[ianthow]

Oddly the email settings seem to relate to notifications to existing threads, which quickly becomes annoying, so there's no alternative but to watching regularly.

The alerts section implies that you can get alerts for new Threads, but you have to go to the alerts section to see them, which doesn't actually seem to contain alerts to new Threads. Ho hum

Hi Mark,
You are correct, email notifications of new threads or posts in watched forums do not seem to be working. I have informed forum admin of this.

 

[ianthow]

Are we the only ones having problems with the forum since it underwent some changes over a year ago.
Before the change if a new item was posted on the forum you received an e-mail alert.
As the posts often include events it was helpful to receive early notification, particularly if it is limited to numbers on a first come first served basis.
I raised this a year ago with Porsche Club and they were supposed to be looking into the problem but nothing seems to have changed.
I have recently raised this again and explained the problem but seem to be struggling to get a response!!
Does anyone at Porsche Club Head Office listen and respond to issues that we are having, names please so that I can contact them direct?

Tim,

I have not had any response from forum admins re this issue, but I have looked into this.

1. From memory, when the forum was migrated to the new platform, watched forums were not set in the new forum. I seem to recall that someone organised to extract the previous watched forums by user and apply these to the new forum. Following that, e-mails still did not come through and I am not aware of any resolution.
2. Following that, I have a recollection that I tried unwatching and re-watching forums with no success.
3. I decided to try this again and found that setting to Watched brought up settings options as below:
   
   The checked settings appear to be a default and do not include Emails. Since checking Emails, I have received an email advising that a user had "posted a new thread to a forum you are watching at PCGB Forum". I had checked to receive both email and alerts (to view Alerts, go to Forum>Forum Settings>Alerts. The new thread also showed there). This is definitely worth a try.
4. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a way to check your watched setting, all you can do is unwatch and re-watch, editing the settings as appropriate.
5. Also, there does not seem to be anywhere to view a list of watched forums, as suggested in the text of the the settings box.

 

[pwebb]

I have raised these issues last week with Comms and will revert when I have a response.
Peter
Forum Admin

 

[ianthow]

I have raised these issues last week with Comms and will revert when I have a response.
Peter
Forum Admin

Thanks Peter.

 

[tjb]

Tim,

I have not had any response from forum admins re this issue, but I have looked into this.

1. From memory, when the forum was migrated to the new platform, watched forums were not set in the new forum. I seem to recall that someone organised to extract the previous watched forums by user and apply these to the new forum. Following that, e-mails still did not come through and I am not aware of any resolution.
2. Following that, I have a recollection that I tried unwatching and re-watching forums with no success.
3. I decided to try this again and found that setting to Watched brought up settings options as below:
   View attachment 3936
   The checked settings appear to be a default and do not include Emails. Since checking Emails, I have received an email advising that a user had "posted a new thread to a forum you are watching at PCGB Forum". I had checked to receive both email and alerts (to view Alerts, go to Forum>Forum Settings>Alerts. The new thread also showed there). This is definitely worth a try.
4. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a way to check your watched setting, all you can do is unwatch and re-watch, editing the settings as appropriate.
5. Also, there does not seem to be anywhere to view a list of watched forums, as suggested in the text of the the settings box.

Thanks Ian, as this issue has been a problem for over a year now and no resolution or explanation has been forthcoming as why this has been stopped and not reinstated then perhaps an item to be raised at the forthcoming AGM may unblock things?

 

[tjb]

I have raised these issues last week with Comms and will revert when I have a response.
Peter
Forum Admin

Peter, rather oddly I have received notification this morning of a brand new post on the Boxster Forum which along with R7 forum I subscribe to.
This is the first time since the forum changed and the issue was noted over a year ago that I have received an email notification of a brand new post.
Seems odd.

 

[Motorhead]

I’ve no idea what’s happening ATM. I’ve always turned-off nearly everything [forum notifications in particular!] and over the past few days have been receiving updates when there’s a new post on the Cayman forum!

Jeff