Tag Members In A Thread

[Legal Hydro]

A few threads back I credited some members I haven't met yet for a helpful forum I found. I would like these members to know I used their name without sending a PM. I've found a solution to this and I think it could be very easily done. On top of that it would cause more user interaction, which leads to more traffic, which leads to more knowledge being spread around on these forums.. catch my drift?

So here's how it works...

SweetSue I'm borrowing you and ColoradoGriz for this one. (Hope you dont mind)

Lets say ColoradoGriz has an issue with his plant. Since I am a beginner grower and don't know much about diagnosing a sick plant, but what I do know is this is SweetSue's forte. I would be able to simply "Tag" her in his thread, she would then get a notification stating (Legalhydro has mentioned you in ColoradoGriz's thread)

You may ask, how would you tag somebody>? Well it's quite easy... you would put the "@" symbol in front of their name. Here's a sample:

"Hey Coloradogriz, I don't know what's wrong with your plant but my friend @SweetSue knows a whole lot about diagnosing plants."

Hope this makes sense.. The hardest thing for me to do is to put something in "Laymen terms"

Thanks for reading! Love you all!

 

[Legal Hydro]

Nobody feelin this? Thought I was on to something.. ha

 

[Weaselcracker]

Yes! Sorry man I subbed to the thread- but it took me a long time to get back and reread the instructions- thanks for this one - now I'll have to find a chance to use it...
Edit- I notice that @SweetSue didn't get lured in to coming over and responding here though yet...

 

[Legal Hydro]

Yes! Sorry man I subbed to the thread- but it took me a long time to get back and reread the instructions- thanks for this one - now I'll have to find a chance to use it...
Edit- I notice that @SweetSue didn't get lured in to coming over and responding here though yet...

Weaselcracker,

Thanks for stopping in brother! @SweetSue knows about this through PM and my journal. Not quite sure if she knows about this specific post yet. Now see if we could tag each other than she would know just by the simple tag I just did that her name was mentioned in a thread.

 

[Teddy Edwards]

Hi Everyone

We just wanted to comment on this 'Tagging' question. Good of you to explain it, Legal Hydro. All ideas and help for members are truly welcome. However tagging is not available on our software. It could be programmed in, and we've considered it, but at the moment it's not a priority.

The reason is twofold. Firstly, it could be a real irritant. Imagine, in addition to your email notifications for updated threads, getting perhaps dozens of tagging notifications a day. It may be useful for sites like Facebook and Instagram, but it could also be an unwelcome distraction.

Secondly, it would be another tool for the spammers that daily try and reach our valuable member base. We spend half our working lives sweeping up and scrubbing away spammers; the last thing we want to do is give them another channel to use. And imagine if the increasingly sophisticated spambots got hold of it. Just thinking about it is enough to make this moderator want to go and lie down in a darkened room.

Hope that explains where we are on tagging.

Greenest Regards to all!

Your 420 Magazine Moderating Team

 

[Legal Hydro]

Hi Everyone

We just wanted to comment on this 'Tagging' question. Good of you to explain it, Legal Hydro. All ideas and help for members are truly welcome. However tagging is not available on our software. It could be programmed in, and we've considered it, but at the moment it's not a priority.

The reason is twofold. Firstly, it could be a real irritant. Imagine, in addition to your email notifications for updated threads, getting perhaps dozens of tagging notifications a day. It may be useful for sites like Facebook and Instagram, but it could also be an unwelcome distraction.

Secondly, it would be another tool for the spammers that daily try and reach our valuable member base. We spend half our working lives sweeping up and scrubbing away spammers; the last thing we want to do is give them another channel to use. And imagine if the increasingly sophisticated spambots got hold of it. Just thinking about it is enough to make this moderator want to go and lie down in a darkened room.

Hope that explains where we are on tagging.

Greenest Regards to all!

Your 420 Magazine Moderating Team

Mr. Teddy,

Thank you for stopping in and explaining the moderators stance on 'Tagging'

Solely relying on email to notify a user of activity within this website is great in a sense. However, often times I've found myself opening my email from my phone because of a subscription to a thread has been updated. While my intent is to read/reply to such thread, I tend to find myself reading other emails pertaining to my business and forgetting to reply/read to a thread im subscribed to. The question is how can we notify a user of activity without email?

There's several options, some easier to complete than others. Allowing a user to sign up for text alerts would be beneficial. Some people turn data off to conserve when away from their house. By opting in to text alerts the user would be instantly notified and therefore turns data on to reply/read a thread he/she is subscribed to. The only other option I can think about would be a multi-platform app which will allow push notifications.

Now on to the spambots. What ever y'all do to combat the unwanted nuisances must be working greatly because I have yet to see spam anywhere within this site. To take a load off of the moderators why hasn't 420 implemented captchas? I can understand having to go through a captcha everytime you post is a bit annoying and should involve certain factors that make it to where you don't have to enter a captcha every post. So if you factor in the length of membership combined with average daily post along with time in between post this formula should combat these bots. Back in the day it was easy to create a script to run right on through these captchas but now days their far more advanced. You could even gear the captcha towards a 420 friendly game.

As for actual human spammers y'all could/should already have a pre-screening process that includes, but not limited to, the combination of keywords to determine the user's intent. For an example: the combination of "Buy" and "LED" should instantly be flagged and should move to the top of the 'awaiting' moderation list and stay on top until reviewed.

By allowing a user to 'tag', in my opinion, should be a priority. This sites whole goal is to create cannabis awareness. By programming this feature their is more user interaction, and in return spreads the awareness around even more. I understand that having too many notifications is a bit overwhelming. But by separating 'notifications' and 'subscriptions' would ease the overwhelming effect. So basically, likes, rep points and tags would be 'notifications' and 'subscriptions' ... well.. would just be subscriptions lol. Beside a members username he/she would see something like a marijuana leaf with numbers beside it showing the amount of notifications and for subscriptions one would see a small 420 mag image with numbers stating how many subscriptions that has been updated. I've expressed this with admin and will state again. A user shouldn't have to search for notifications and/or subscription updates. It should stand out first thing when you come to the site. Currently their is nothing stating how many of your subscriptions have been updated.

420 mag is proficient and a fun site to be apart of. I really enjoy coming here and hope my suggestions are taken into consideration.

Legal Hydro

 

[Teddy Edwards]

Thanks for your ideas and input, Legal Hydro. We appreciate your motives and your engagement in our Mission.

I have passed your post onto our Admin and Programming teams for consideration. If they decide to proceed on any of these ideas they will conduct due diligence and testing.