Hello Everyone, and Happy Holidays.

Class Creator has a feature whereby
any classmate can send a message to the entire class -- Without their message being required to be approved by the Administrator.

Is anyone else concerned about this "feature" ?
I feel it is a terrible feature -- that it's a time-bomb waiting to blow up.
We had one classmate send out a few messages to the entire class. (I asked her to stop.) But what if there were to be a "flame war" or political discussion or some other irresponsible misuse, my class would be receiving all of these messages. This is bad. My classmates appreciate this site because they do NOT receive gobs of senseless messages.

Back in November, I posted about this -- and I thought it was a BUG and put it in that forum.

What can be done so that the Admin (me) has approval over the messages that a classmate wants to send out to the entire class ?

Brad and Scott:
Could the "Notify me by email when ...A Classmate posts a message to the class" parameter have a one-time mass reset to "Never" ?

For me, I really do NOT want a classmate to be able to post a message to the entire class. I realize that each classmate has the capability to adjust their "Notify Me" parameters so that they don't get messages that classmates post. For my classmates, the settings are:
Notify me by email when ... A Classmate posts a message to the class Immediately Once Daily Never 2 361 29

So close to all of the classmates have it set so that they do receive messages that a Classmate posts. Yes, I know that each person has the ability to change the setting so that they do not receive Classmate messages. If I could, I would reset that parameter so that they don't -- Make "Never" be the default -- and let each person re-set it to "Once Daily" if he or she wants.

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I want to be able to approve any message sent out to the class before the message gets sent.
I cannot emphasize this enough. The Admin needs to have approval of messages sent to the entire class.
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If a classmate abused the "Send a message to the class" then I would have a lot of apologizing and making up to do. My concern is that classmates would also make ALL the Notify parameters be Never, including when the administrator sends an email to all Classmates. Or classmates would simply remove themselves from our website entirely.

Your view on this ?

Fred,
Part of the problem is that the "Message To The Class" is misleading. Someone who posts a message in their own profile - currently labeled as a "Message to the Class" - results in a notify about that message to those who have subscribed to that classmate.

That could indeed be everyone, or just a few who have subscribed. And in fact, that message will show up in the What's New page where everyone can see it - and it's displayed there in the profile for anyone who views that profile to see.

But it's really no different than a message posted in the Message Forum or In Memory - which will probably notify most members. Or someone posting a message in another classmate's profile which will notify those subscribed to that classmate and also show up in What's New.

So for all those, notifies will be sent, and admins are in react mode, reviewing - and deleting anything that's inappropriate - after the fact. I really don't see any reasonable way to be pro-active in these cases without making any post of any kind subject to admin approval.

That said, we've asked in the past that the system be expanded to add a set of check boxes for all classmates like you see for a co-admin, allowing (or disabling) most functions. But even then, assuming that the default would be all functions enabled, disabling functionality for someone who abused the options would be after the fact.

I think this was explained in your prior Nov post. That's basically how "what's new" works. The comments reside in "profiles" but are accrued in "what's new". IOW, it's not really a message to the class per se.

Compare it to FB with a similar features (that CC is mimicking). If one posts a message to one's own profile, it goes to all your friends (choice). Even if one made it a poster's choice on CC, they would probably say "all" otherwise it defeats the purpose of "what's new".

If you turn off "what's new", then no messages will go out. Having to confirm/approve each message brings up a new can of worms

[John posted at exactly the same time - ]

John and Jack --

Thank you for your thoughtful replies. Your explanations are clear. I can see the points that you both make.

I think ultimately what I am seeking is a "Notify Me" setting of Once Weekly.
We've brought this up with CC before. There are people for whom Once Daily is too much, and I don't want them to select Never. "Weekly" would solve the problem.

With our class, very few people are putting posts on their own profiles. If it were being done regularly, then all the classmates would be getting the daily notifications -- which I'm guessing they would find excessive.

The class website is not like Facebook, where a post to one's page will send a notification to all subscribed Friends -- and just the Friends. Here, a post to one's page sends a notification to almost everyone, regardless of whether that classmate has subscribed to that person's profile.

John, you wrote:

Quote:

Actually, when classmate posts a message in their own profile, that results in a notification that goes out to the entire class -- whether or not those people had subscribed to that classmate. As you point out, John, this is the same as a message being posted in the Message Forum or as a post on In Memory. The notification of that post goes out to the entire class (unless a Notify Me setting is set to Never).

To repeat, it seems that an additional choice in the "Notify Me" selection of "Once Weekly" would solve this.

Thank you for your help on this.

A little correction. We seldom have messages posted, so I did a quick test after a message from John about when a post gets sent out.

Posting at the top of a profile goes out to everyone. Posting below to another message does not (at least no message has been sent yet).

The other thing I noticed in looking at past notify emails, is that the content of the message is not always shown. Just that a message was posted.

Maybe things have changed.

And yes, once a week option sounds like a good natural option to me too.

I did some testing too, and it does appear now that the "Message to the Class" notify option overrides the 'normal' subscription choices when someone posts a message in their own profile.

Granted, posting a message in your own profile could be described as a "Message to the Class" since it can be seen by everyone, both in your profile and in What's New. But sending a notify email to those who have NOT subscribed to that member strikes me as overkill - and would probably be seen seen as spam by all those who have not subscribed to that classmate. I'm wondering now if setting that notify choice to "Never" would override the normal subscription options for those who DID want to see messages posted in that profile by anyone - including the owner.

As I recall, the subject of adding a Weekly option to the notify choice was raised in the past - and rejected.

That said, we're still back to the original subject of this thread where admins need to monitor all posts and react if needed.

Why don't you just go to Preferences and change the setting so that no one can post a message to the class?

PROFILE PREFERENCES

Post Message to Classmates
   Allow Classmates to post a message for all classmates to read on their Profile.
   Do not allow Classmates to post messages to other classmates on their Profile.

Much too simple - lol

I wonder how that works with 'what's new' interaction.

Debbie -- Thank you for pointing this out. This will definitely do the trick. Very simple.

As John pointed out:

Quote:

But by not allowing people to post a message on their own profile, the issue is no longer a problem.

Thank you, John, Jack, and Debbie -- I think you got my point, and Debbie you provided the simple and appropriate answer.

Now... As to the Weekly option on notifications....I'd still like to see it as an option.

i had also left "What's New" inactive.. so no one can see that page nor all those comments at all.

we also have concerns about too many annoying email notifications.

i appreciate the tips given in this thread. to cut down on email notifs, I'm going to change our Preferences Settings to:

Do not allow Class Members to post messages to other classmates on their Profile.
and
Allow Class Members to make comments only at the bottom of Profiles

I am urging the Members to use Private Message rather than posting Comments.

it would be nice if, like Facebook, one could turn off all email notifications, and only receive Notifications in the "app" or in the CC web page.

I agree!!! All the members do not need to be able to email the entire class. They have the ability to email their friends already. Please disable the ability of each classmate to automatically email all the class.
Thank you,
Judy
elyriaclassof58

On your Preferences page, under PROFILE PREFERENCES

You can make an adjustment to your setting for the following: Post Message to Classmates... Option 1.    Allow Classmates to post a message for all classmates to read on their Profile. or Option 2. Do not allow Classmates to post messages to other classmates on their Profile.

This may just be me but I don't look at it as a classmate being able to send an email out to the class. A classmate can post in the Message Forum and anyone who has selected to be notified of a new post will get a notification. It is then up to them whether they choose to go take a look at what has been posted. When a classmate posts a comment on a profile, those who have selected to be notified will get that notification. I don't see this as a bad thing. It keeps the classmates up to date on what is going on, not only on the site but in the lives of their classmates.

What I've done in the past is add an announcement to the Home Page, directing everyone to their Notify Me settings. I ask them if they are receiving too many, not enough, or none at all. They can select what they want to receive and when they want to receive it. I activate my announcement every few months as a reminder. So far, this has worked just fine for us.

Judy, you can disable it yourself if you wish. As I mentioned above in Post #6, go to Preferences, scroll down to Profile Preferences, then Post Message and select "Do not allow Classmates to post messages to other classmates on their Profile."

I agree with Debbie. Messages, comments, and the resulting notify emails which trigger site access are the life blood of our site. Since the update to the Social format, private messages have dropped off, and profile messages and comments have taken their place. In fact, an average of 75% of our members visit the site in a 30 day span now, up considerably from a year after our 50th reunion when participation had dropped to one or two a day.

That said, my guess is that the way a message posted in your own profile is handled was probably part of the design for the What's New page. When you post a message in What's New, it's actually stored in your profile. And for the person who posted in What's New, the intent was probably to share it with everyone. My problem with the way it's handled is that the entire class is welcome to see the post in What's New (or the profile) but probably doesn't want one more notify about someone they're not subscribed to. I'd much rather see it go back to sending notifies about messages posted in profiles to only those who have subscribed to that classmate.

" I'd much rather see it go back to sending notifies about messages posted in profiles to only those who have subscribed to that classmate." ... to address this... The notify that goes out to only those subscribed to a profile pertains to the Profile Update info rather than the info that is in the messages / comments area of the page. That portion of the page is what is also pulled in under the What's New page and while one person may interact with the interface from their profile, others may be doing so from the What's New page. It is not the same as a profile update.

Understood. But when someone else posts a message in a profile, we get a "Profile Updated (comment added") notify although the last updated date is not changed and there's no entry in the home page Profile Updates box. And I believe that notify only goes out if we're subscribed. It should act the same way if someone posts a message in their own profile.

Says it all John

John Ralph wrote: