Unreliable email notification of message

[+klossner]

In the message center, I have "forward messages to e-mail" set.  Today I got one such email.  I looked at the message center and was horrified to see that I have received six other messages in the last three months, none of which caused an email.  This failure caused me to miss out on some opportunities.

 

I would very much appreciate a way to opt out of the message center so that the "Send message" link on my profile is grayed out and users fall back to "Send e-mail".

 

[+arisoft]

You can also opt in to all message center notifications here

[+The A-Team]

31 minutes ago, arisoft said:

You can also opt in to all message center notifications here

Either way, the user should still receive an email at some point, though there may be a slight delay with the first setting. However, it seems pretty clear from all of the reports that there's a fundamental flaw with the MC emails and they don't always get sent when they're supposed to.

[+noncentric]

7 hours ago, The A-Team said:

Either way, the user should still receive an email at some point, though there may be a slight delay with the first setting. However, it seems pretty clear from all of the reports that there's a fundamental flaw with the MC emails and they don't always get sent when they're supposed to.

Although it's possible the OP didn't have the "Message Center" check box selected at all.

It does seem odd to me that the "Forward messages to e-mail" option that the OP mentioned is only available from within the Message Center, while the preferences in arisoft's post are in Account Settings -> Email Preferences.

[+barefootjeff]

16 minutes ago, noncentric said:

8 hours ago, The A-Team said:

Either way, the user should still receive an email at some point, though there may be a slight delay with the first setting. However, it seems pretty clear from all of the reports that there's a fundamental flaw with the MC emails and they don't always get sent when they're supposed to.

Although it's possible the OP didn't have the "Message Center" check box selected at all.

It does seem odd to me that the "Forward messages to e-mail" option that the OP mentioned is only available from within the Message Center, while the preferences in arisoft's post are in Account Settings -> Email Preferences.

 

My understanding is that the "Forward messages to e-mail" option in the Message Centre only applies to outgoing messages, while the Account Settings one applies to received messages. I have the former unselected (I don't want to get emails about messages I send) but still got an email notification of a received message a few days ago (but didn't get one a month or two back).

[+noncentric]

4 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:

 

My understanding is that the "Forward messages to e-mail" option in the Message Centre only applies to outgoing messages, while the Account Settings one applies to received messages. I have the former unselected (I don't want to get emails about messages I send) but still got an email notification of a received message a few days ago (but didn't get one a month or two back).

Yes, that is the difference.  I think the "Forward messages to e-mail" functionality was added to help address concerns of cachers that wanted to have an email copy of messages they sent to CO's for things like EC's and VC's. Similar to how the option is present when using Emails.

But still, I think it's odd that one setting is chosen within Message Center, while another setting is chosen within Account Settings.  It seems to me that users should go to ONE place to select the settings related to Message Center email preferences.

[+barefootjeff]

1 minute ago, noncentric said:

But still, I think it's odd that one setting is chosen within Message Center, while another setting is chosen within Account Settings.  It seems to me that users should go to ONE place to select the settings related to Message Center email preferences.

 

Yes indeed, that'd make things a lot simpler and help reduce confusion.

[+arisoft]

11 hours ago, The A-Team said:

Either way, the user should still receive an email at some point,

 

Do you know or do you guess?

[HiddenGnome]

6 hours ago, arisoft said:

 

Do you know or do you guess?

 

barefootjeff's explanation describes the distinction between the notification settings on the email preferences page and within the MC very well.

 

If you have one of the settings selected on the Email Preferences page you should receive a notification. We are aware that there have been issues with players not receiving notifications consistently and we will have a team looking at the MC notifications soon. For now I would recommend using the notification for every message as the "notification after 30 minutes of inactivity" setting has been particularly problematic at times.

 

On a side note: it is probably not particularly clear so I wanted to clarify the intention of the "send me a notification after 30 minutes of inactivity" option. When this is selected you should receive a notification immediately if neither participant has sent a message in the last 30 minutes. The idea (for what it is worth) was that if you had received a message the conversation was "active" and did not require ongoing notifications to reduce "spamming" users.

For example, User A sends User B a message. User B receives a notification immediately. User A sends a second message 1 minute later. User B does not receive a notification. A third message is sent to User B 35 minutes later. User B receives a notification immediately.

[+arisoft]

5 hours ago, HiddenGnome said:

For example, User A sends User B a message. User B receives a notification immediately. User A sends a second message 1 minute later. User B does not receive a notification. A third message is sent to User B 35 minutes later. User B receives a notification immediately.

 

This proves that "Either way, the user should still receive an email at some point," is false statement, because there will be messages without email notification.

 

This is very problematic in regular correspondence. Players seems to reply to the first question immediatelly but to the second question it may take days without any other explanation as the missing notification.

Edited July 12, 2018 by arisoft

[+The A-Team]

41 minutes ago, arisoft said:

This proves that "Either way, the user should still receive an email at some point," is false statement, because there will be messages without email notification.

They won't get an immediate notification, but they'll still get the delayed notification, so the statement is still true.

[+arisoft]

8 minutes ago, The A-Team said:

They won't get an immediate notification, but they'll still get the delayed notification, so the statement is still true.

 

I would prefer to trust @HiddenGnome in this guestion. There is no "delayed notification".

[+The A-Team]

32 minutes ago, arisoft said:

I would prefer to trust @HiddenGnome in this guestion. There is no "delayed notification".

@HiddenGnome: There seems to be some confusion about this particular setting. Can you please help us clarify how it's supposed to work? Based on its name, it's my understanding that the following should occur assuming the "30 minutes of inactivity" setting is enabled:

1. Cacher A sends message to Cacher B - notification is sent immediately
2. 2 minutes later, Cacher A sends another message to Cacher B - no notification is sent
3. 30 minutes after (2.), notification of (2.) is sent (right?)

If this is not correct and the notification at (3.) is not sent, then the labelling of the setting is flawed and doesn't actually describe its function. This could explain why so many people complain of missing notifications: they're expecting a notification, but the system is designed not to send the notification at all.

[HiddenGnome]

tl;dr - there is no delayed notification.

 

Settings:

Cacher A - Always receive a notification

Cacher B - Receive a notification only after 30 minutes of inactivity in a conversation

 

Cacher A sends the first message:

1. (minute 0) Cacher A sends Message 1 to Cacher B - Cacher B receives a notification about Message 1
2. (minute 1) Cacher A sends Message 2 to Cacher B - no notification is sent
3. (minute 2) Cacher B sends Message 3 to Cacher A - Cacher A receives a notification about Message 3
4. (minute 3) Cacher B sends Message 4 to Cacher A - Cacher A receives a notification about Message 4
5. (minute 35) Cacher A sends Message 5 to Cacher B - Cacher B receives a notification about Message 5

Cacher B sends the first message

1. (minute 0) Cacher B sends Message 1 to Cacher A - Cacher A receives a notification about Message 1
2. (minute 1) Cacher B sends Message 2 to Cacher A - Cacher A receives a notification about Message 2
3. (minute 2) Cacher A sends Message 3 to Cacher B - no notification is sent
4. (minute 3) Cacher A sends Message 4 to Cacher B - no notification is sent
5. (minute 35) Cacher B sends Message 5 to Cacher A - Cacher A receives a notification about Message 5
6. (minute 65) Cacher A sends Message 6 to Cacher B - Cacher B receives a notification about Message 6

Does that help to clarify when the system will send Message Center notifications?

[+arisoft]

6 hours ago, The A-Team said:

If this is not correct and the notification at (3.) is not sent, then the labelling of the setting is flawed and doesn't actually describe its function. This could explain why so many people complain of missing notifications: they're expecting a notification, but the system is designed not to send the notification at all.

 

The main problem is that you can not do anything about how B is receiving notifications from your messages.

 

Monday 11:01am A: Hello, are you there? I have somenthing urgent to ask from you.

Monday 11:03am B: Yes, I am, please tell me more.

Monday 11:05am  A: Do you remember final coordinates to GCXXXXX?

Monday 11:15am A: Please answer, I am waiting at the bogus.

Friday 8:07 pm B: Sorry I did not get your messages for some reason.