Site Notifications Feedback

We launched the Site Notifications feature today! Here's the thread for feedback and bugs!

Known Issues (Updated Dec 18):

• Site notifications do not appear on the blog or wiki.
• Clicking directly on a notification from the See More page doesn't open the link for that notification.
• Notification links are set to open in the current tab and right-clicking does not open a context menu to open in a new tab. Links now open in a new tab; we may revisit this behavior later. The notifications now behave like links. (Dec 18)
• During initial rollout, the number shown in notifications will not be accurate. This is because it includes notifications that went out during rollout and testing, and which have since been deleted.

Specifically, how can we disable specific types of notifications?  If that isn't implemented, then can we please disable all of them?

To clarify, there were 3 unsolicited advertisements in the first 4 notifications.   I don't want any of these.

Stephanie B. said:
Notification links are set to open in the current tab, but new tab is more user-friendly.

I disagree with this assumption. A left click should open in the same tab, you need a very good reason to break the default behaviour that every web browser follows for good reason.
If someone wants a new tab they will middle click or use the right click context menu.
Edit: For that matter, this made me notice that middle and right click functionality has been broken on the notification list. Fix that rather than further breaking default behaviours; not everything needs to be Javascript event handlers.

Good feedback, Turbo Nerd! I've updated the Known Issues list to better reflect the current limitation. 

Turbo Nerd said:

Stephanie B. said:
Notification links are set to open in the current tab, but new tab is more user-friendly.

I disagree with this assumption. A left click should open in the same tab, you need a very good reason to break the default behaviour that every web browser follows for good reason.
If someone wants a new tab they will middle click or use the right click context menu.
Edit: For that matter, this made me notice that middle and right click functionality has been broken on the notification list. Fix that rather than further breaking default behaviours; not everything needs to be Javascript event handlers.

Ammo and Jasper,

Thanks for your feedback on the types of notifications you don't want to see. There was actually some internal miscommunication on this feature-- the default will be set to notify for feature releases and important notices, like security information.

We're still figuring out what kinds of opt-in systems we might implement, which will likely include the sorts of posts you saw (job postings, product releases, etc.) for a limited time frame yesterday.

Ammo said:

Specifically, how can we disable specific types of notifications?  If that isn't implemented, then can we please disable all of them?

To clarify, there were 3 unsolicited advertisements in the first 4 notifications.   I don't want any of these.

Thanks for your candor.   It definitely felt like that... like someone built the emergency broadcast system and then someone else decided to play with it.

Honestly, I would be perfectly happy to just subscribe to a thread on the forum where you post all new updates and other "emergency broadcast system" things, so I can use the existing email notification system.  I don't see the point of a notification flag that is separate from my forum subscriptions and only shows up in my roll20 browser window(s).  But I am sure someone worked hard on building this, so you will probably continue to use it.

Stephanie B. said:

Ammo and Jasper,

Thanks for your feedback on the types of notifications you don't want to see. There was actually some internal miscommunication on this feature-- the default will be set to notify for feature releases and important notices, like security information.

We're still figuring out what kinds of opt-in systems we might implement, which will likely include the sorts of posts you saw (job postings, product releases, etc.) for a limited time frame yesterday.

Ammo said:

Specifically, how can we disable specific types of notifications?  If that isn't implemented, then can we please disable all of them?

To clarify, there were 3 unsolicited advertisements in the first 4 notifications.   I don't want any of these.

It would have been nice to know before the entire system was shut down, yet the new bell icon stayed black and, after the fact, there was a nearly illegible pastel-on-pastel note "hidden" on the page.

Thanks for the feedback, Helen. We also put out a couple of tweets about the maintenance, but you're right-- that probably should have gone out in the bell! We're still refining our usage rules for those notifications so as not to spam our users.

Site notifications now work like links and can be right or middle clicked to open in new tabs, like normal link behavior.

Huzzah, thanks.