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Notify Me 'statistics'

Forums: General Discussion
Created on: 04/10/13 05:37 AM Views: 2458 Replies: 37
Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 5:37 AM

When classmates click the different options in the Notify Me section, is there a way that we as Admin's can EASILY find out which classmates have opted for which options? - particularly, the one for "A new announcement has been posted," since it tells us the NUMBER of classmates that have been notified after posting a new announcement.

I admit to being a bit of a 'numbers persons' as I like to check daily to see how many classmates have visited the site each day, how many private messages have been sent daily, etc.

Thanks, Steve

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 3:50 PM - Response #1

Steve,

Doesn't this get into "Privacy" issues? If you know who has signed up for different "Notify Me" options, are you invading their privacy?

I think that if you are allowed to know the different people they are interested in for the "Notify Me" (birthday reminders, profile updates, etc.) that would be more of an invasion of privacy (someone looking for a romantic interest among classmates or a classmate stalker).

I agree that we do show something similar that might be considered a privacy issue - when a classmate fills out a survey, we know that they filled out the survey and their answers, but that is different because if we didn't know the results, the survey would be worthless.

I also agree that I would like to know these numbers, but it really isn't up to me. My wife and kids say that I am more of a "stalker" and I admit that I like to just view the profiles and the Facebook pages of classmates without leaving a reply to their posts.

I doubt that we will ever reveal the "Classmate A is interested in Classmate B" type of information, but I think it would be useful to know information about the other NOTIFY ME options so that the admin can know if there is anyone out there that knows about the "Notify Me" feature and is using it. If nobody has signed up for a feature, the admin should send out another e-mail to let classmates know about the "Notify Me" feature.

I will check with Brad to see what he thinks.


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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 5:00 PM - Response #2

I completely agree with the 'privacy issue,' and respectfully request you delete this!

What was I thinking?

Obviously I did NOT think it through!

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 6:23 PM - Response #3

I find this rather interesting actually Steve. While we've always been on the side of Privacy, you've got a membership system here and you could certainly make the case it's valuable to know which members have signed up for what. For instance, if somebody has elected to be notified when your home page has been updated, and you the Admin can see this, is that really violating somebody's privacy? It's not like personal information of any kind is being shared. This is simply knowing what information will be sent to your members. Fair request I say!

We could set it up so under each instance of the editor where we list the number of Classmates signed up for a particular feature, the number is clickable to see the people who will actually be getting the notice. Then you'll know. Smile

One thing we could do on the Notify Me page is state that the Class Administrator can view your selections made here. While I certainly can't speak for everyone, as a classmate I wouldn't care at all if my Class Administrator knew I was getting updates about the various pages, announcement, etc. After all, that's sorta the entire purpose of the site to begin with. As an Admin, i WANT my members to sign up for things. I WANT to see what they're interested in. I WANT to know what's popular and being followed, and what's not.

So... I think it's something we can open up for discussion below. If people understand something they're signing up for can be seen by their Class Admin I don't think we have privacy issues here. This is not the type of information typically in play when it comes to privacy. Again, it's not like we're revealing street addresses, phone numbers, private email addresses, etc. You knowing that a member is going to get an update doesn't seem like a big deal to me and as stated above has real value. So I kinda like your idea myself. I think it just needs to be implemented in a way that everyone agrees with.

So with that the floor is open. Chime in. Is this a violation of privacy? Or is this a helpful feature a membership system should include. If the later how should it best be implemented to address any potential member concerns?


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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 6:38 PM - Response #4

I'm sorry....I'm still laughing about Kyle being a stalker!
But, I have been curious as to who wanted notifications on certain things only because I wondered if they really did or if they regrettted it, forgetting that they could turn it off -like hundreds of updates to every modification I made before you made the default not to notify.

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 6:44 PM - Response #5

I always thought the option of being notified cancels the whole idea of the web site. Those that "Choose" to NOT be notified had defeated the purpose of signing up in the first place. One mans opinionConfused

If you take away the option is it a privacy issue then???

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Edited 04/11/13 6:46 PM
Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 7:01 PM - Response #6

I said my WIFE and KIDS call me a "Stalker", I don't consider it a stalker, just curious.


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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 7:07 PM - Response #7

Since we are talking about options: You could give the option to the classmate to let the admin know whether or not one you want them to know who you are.

OTOH, all these intertwined options lead to a bit of "too much". In making options myself in programs, I've made the mistake to make every possible contentious thing into an option, resulting in some thinking my program was way too complicated. And in hindsight, I agreeIdea

I'd err on the side of caution here. Just leave it the way it is. Not that I think it's a big deal either way.

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 7:08 PM - Response #8

Sure Kyle, but who knows you bestVery Happy

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 7:22 PM - Response #9
Old Time Stalkers.jpg

Kyle,
Look at it this way....

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 7:46 PM - Response #10

As an admin, I would really like to be able to know which classmates are signed up to be notified for what content. Perhaps, on the page where classmates check their preferences a note could state that admins only have access to this information.

Quite honestly, I'd prefer there NOT be an option to opt out of the following notifications:
Announcements, An administator sends an email to all classmates, I receive a new personal message, A new reunion or event is planned, Someone leaves a comment on my Profile or Pages on the site have been added or updated.

Communication is the whole idea behind these class websites! Hey, either you're in or your out. Very Happy

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 7:46 PM - Response #11

Robert,

Yes, I like to think that I am that way, too!


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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 7:50 PM - Response #12

I agree with you, Rhonda. Seems innocent enough info/stats.. but if they object they can always opt out.

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 7:59 PM - Response #13

I see no problem with admins knowing who signed up for a particular "Notify Me" option. The "Profile Subscriptions" are an entirely different story. Letting us know that information would be a gross invasion of privacy.

If implemented as above I see no need to inform classmates that their selections are visible to the admin.

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 8:26 PM - Response #14

I'm with F C on this one. There's no way we can let anyone know who's profile somebody is subscribed to. That's personal stuff. But knowing somebody is going to be updated when you make a change on your home page, or post an announcement (or whatever) seems consistent with what the whole system is all about. I just don't see this is a privacy issue.

I had to think about this for awhile earlier this evening. I can only conclude this would be helpful.


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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 8:36 PM - Response #15

Brad,
What am I missing? So they choose not to be notified. We now know about it. What then? Does that mean now we have to use "Snail Mail" to notify them? Seems easier to eliminate the option to make "Our" lives easier!

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 9:12 PM - Response #16

The problem I have with this topic in general is that people who are not participating on our page are going to be even more out of the loop if they don't take time to ask to be notified about updates. Other than the fact that this has been set up for a while and it might cause confusion to change, it might be more logical to give Classmates the option NOT to be notified about specific page updates?

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 9:17 PM - Response #17

It would be interesting to be able to see if classmates' logging in followed their receiving notifications. We already see a surge after emails go out. Admins are interested in what works best to encourage participation. We already are in a position of trust not to disclose information we have access to.

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 9:34 PM - Response #18

I'm in agreement with F C and Brad on the privacy topic. Although, I can foresee my distracted curiosity about "which 673 want to be notified" eating up whole hours of my day!

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 10:05 PM - Response #19

This is a great suggestion, Steve! I believe I agree with Brad's last comment.

Notifications to profile updates should be private. Period. (Except we (Admins) know we best be checking on them. We never know how a new member may affect our site!... one of my newest members wrote his memoirs. He just sent me a chapter of his book... landing on the deck of the USS Midway in a Corsair! (with a tail hook, so those who understand!) The chapter is for a new page I have 'under construction'... Authors Among Us. So, Kyle... keep on LQQKin!)

As to site pages, I like a number regarding the # of members who will be notified of changes. I hope the number will have a link to view a list of members, as in surveys. There are times that simply knowing 'who' is interested gives us good insight as to what we are doing right and/or wrong.

Hope to see this addition soon!
Thanks again, Steve for the suggestion... and Brad for seeing there is a good reason for this. Smile

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Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 10:08 PM - Response #20

Heh. Funny. Smile

FYI you can't force people to get notified about something. You MUST have an option of not being notified. Otherwise mandatory emails would go out to people (in some cases at least) who don't want them. You'd then have them asking how to stop the emails with no mechanism for doing so. Their only recourse would be to opt out of ALL emails, which they could easily do from the bottom of every email that goes out. You definitely don't want that.

There's very stringent rules about email today. You send stuff somebody doesn't want and often whole email servers get blacklisted. When that happens it's tough to undo it. So you want to make sure that EVERY email that goes out to somebody was OPTED INTO and never send out things somebody didn't deliberately sign up for. You can always send manual Email The Class emails of course. Big difference between doing that and forcing something that's automated. With anything automated you definitely want to ensure each and every person knows how to opt into it, and how to opt out of it.


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Edited 04/11/13 10:11 PM
Friday, April 12, 2013 at 12:37 AM - Response #21

Ruth Music wrote:

The problem I have with this topic in general is that people who are not participating on our page are going to be even more out of the loop if they don't take time to ask to be notified about updates. Other than the fact that this has been set up for a while and it might cause confusion to change, it might be more logical to give Classmates the option NOT to be notified about specific page updates?

Most of our class will turn 70 this year and many of them are not too saavy anyway about computers so even though I have sent out two emails regarding the Notify Me page I suspect that many have not used it or set up their options.

What if certain ones such as page changes, photo additions, announcements and admin emails were set up as a default notifications "on" and leave it up to the classmate to turn them off -- opt out?

Jim

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Friday, April 12, 2013 at 10:48 AM - Response #22

Thanks everyone for sharing your input. I did send a group email which focused primarily on the NOTIFY ME feature. So far I heard from one. But it wasn't directly related to NOTIFY ME but was about something else. So I asked if she'd looked into Notify Me yet. Her reply was " sure I made my selections". So I checked the number of notifications when on edit the page, and found the number hasn't changed. So either she forgot to save or hasn't done it. I felt like this was "policing" for lack of a better word and decided not to spend another minute into it. There are a lot of other big things that need that extra minute. Some parts of the Notify Me are close to invasion of privacy and like what Brad referred to. some aren't. So if we change to allow admins to view selections,( after I sent email that their selections are for their eyes only), that will be hard to pen.

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Friday, April 12, 2013 at 1:34 PM - Response #23

Just in case I need to say this...

I'm all for members choosing the notifications they want. (How is that? Wink)

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Friday, April 12, 2013 at 2:26 PM - Response #24

I am coming late on the discussion, but I am more interested in knowing how many classmates view which pages.

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Friday, April 12, 2013 at 2:56 PM - Response #25

"I am more interested in knowing how many classmates view which pages." ... you can add Google Analytics code to the box provided at the bottom of your Preferences page to gather this data.


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Saturday, April 13, 2013 at 1:35 PM - Response #26
capture_001_13042013_102648.jpg

The new feature allowing admins to get in-depth information regarding the Notify Me feature is great. I do have a comment after a very quick review of the data.

When I click on the Admins Only category and look at the details none of those listed are admins. A screen shot is attached. This would seem to be an error. I just noticed that the four are the classmates and guest to have most recently joined the site.

Interestingly when I click on the other category to which four members have subscribed I get the same four names.

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Edited 04/13/13 2:55 PM
Saturday, April 13, 2013 at 3:51 PM - Response #27
notify_me_statistics_admin_only.jpg

I also noticed the new Notify Me Statistics this morning, and I have a similar situation regarding classmates and guests being shown as subscribing to notifications on ADMIN ONLY updates, and possibly other categories.

There are 5 people listed in the ADMIN ONLY category and none of them are admins. See attached screen capture. Obviously, we would not want to have notifications on admin-only issues be sent to non-admins. I also notice these same members are listed under several other notification categories.

These 5 members all joined our site AFTER the new notification system was active. I believe they are the only new members we've had during the same time period. Are new members prompted to sign up for notifications as a part of joining the site? When new members join, are there any system defaults set re notifications? How can non-admins even sign up for admin-only notifications?

It is interesting to be able to see this information and it will be helpful as we try to appropriately notify our members about situations they are interested in and those things they should know about. But I guess it goes without saying that if we're going to be given this information, we hope that the system is working as it should and that the member names displayed are accurate. Wink

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Saturday, April 13, 2013 at 9:47 PM - Response #28

Didn't realize that Notify Me Statistics were available until reading these posts. So, I just clicked on the link and at the bottom was "Email the following 8 classmates" and 8 random classmates were listed. I have no idea what that meant, but a minute later the "email the following 8 classmates" and their names had disappeared. ??????

This will likely be added to the stupid question category, but what does the column labeled "Not Answered" mean? Is this (unfortunately large) number the number of classmates who have not chosen any of the three notification options? I guess I assumed that if the classmate had not visited his/her Notify Me page, then the options would have defaulted to one of the three: Never, Once a Day or Immediately. ?????

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Sunday, April 14, 2013 at 7:11 AM - Response #29

Rhonda, I have a 'dummy' classmate on my site so I can see what the non-admin classmates see, and yes, none of the questions are answered, even though my 'dummy' classmate has visited the site, NO changes were made.

[I hope that made some sense] Rolling Eyes

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Sunday, April 14, 2013 at 12:19 PM - Response #30

Thanks for clearing that up for me, Steve. Smile

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Sunday, April 14, 2013 at 12:24 PM - Response #31

Hey, Steve . . . I'm thinking the dummy classmate is a good idea, but is there any way to add that so that classmates are not notified of a new "dummy" joining the site? : )

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Sunday, April 14, 2013 at 12:39 PM - Response #32

When you add the fake classmate, be sure to select No....for Show o class list. Then a new classmate notification should not happen.


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Monday, April 15, 2013 at 12:16 AM - Response #33

The count for "ADMINS ONLY: Receive maintenance notices, periodic updates, and helpful tips from Class Creator" has been corrected.


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Monday, April 15, 2013 at 11:51 AM - Response #34

Appears to have been, thanks.

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Monday, April 15, 2013 at 1:51 PM - Response #35

Love the new "Notify Me Statistics"! Thank you!

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Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 8:57 AM - Response #36

Question on these new stats.... With my most recent Email The Class I was cross checking my Statcounter info with the Notify Me stats. I had 2 people who went to the unsubscribe page and when I look in Notify Me, it shows 2 people in the An administrator sends an email to all Classmates (strongly recommended) and it lists their names. My question...I have other people with the Notify Flag Off in the Email The Class list. Is there a way to connect those names/stats in with the 2 who have opted for this since the addition of this feature? Just easier to see them all together if possible.

I am also assuming that if they select Unsubscribe from an email it automatically sets this Notify Me option to Never. Is that correct? When one unsubscribes, do they receive a warning message like "by doing this you will not receive any emails from the website. Are You sure? You may miss some important information." Just curious as I sometimes think people do this is error.

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Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 2:52 PM - Response #37

If the Notify flag reflects Off - that means that no notifications or emails can be sent to that person. They would have had to have clicked the unsubscribe link at the bottom of an email they received to trigger this. They are given a link to the Notify Me page to confirm their settings.


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