Notifications for MeMail?

January 17, 2018 5:22 AM

Checking for new MeMail is just not I regular thing for me... I get one every once in a blue moon. Can we have notifications within the site (like an info banner at the top of the page) or emails sent when we get MeMail or make it more obvious when there's MeMail waiting in your Inbox (blink tag!!) ?
posted by kokaku to Feature Requests at 5:22 AM (19 comments total)

This is an easy answer, and a good chance for a reminder for anyone who isn't aware: Email alert is one of the options configurable in your preferences. Scroll down to "Contact / Privacy Preferences" and you'll see an option to "Forward MeFi Mail to email." Check this and you will get an email with the body of the message sent to the email address you have associated with your account. (You'll see the email address you are currently using as the first item in that same section, with an option to change.)

Additionally, if you have unread mefi mail, in standard Modern theme (not mobile), you will see a number in a red circle partly overlapping the word "Mail" in the topmost menu. In Classic, you will see a less eye-catchy notice in the "view" menu underneath the search box.
posted by taz (staff) at 5:25 AM on January 17, 2018 [3 favorites]

In Classic, you will see a less eye-catchy notice in the "view" menu underneath the search box

...and then you will think "Ooh someone memailed me!" and then you will realise it's a notification for a meetup in England that you can't go to and then you will cry.
YMMV
posted by billiebee at 7:47 AM on January 17, 2018 [28 favorites]

No blinky no blinky kthxbi
posted by Melismata at 7:57 AM on January 17, 2018 [3 favorites]

then you will realise it's a notification for a meetup in England that you can't go to and then you will cry

Or that it is a memail from billiebee, and then you will cry out with joy, because she is great.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 10:48 AM on January 17, 2018 [7 favorites]

No blinky no blinky kthxbi

/untz untz untz untz
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:52 AM on January 17, 2018 [8 favorites]

In Classic, you will see a less eye-catchy notice in the "view" menu underneath the search box.

eh? I see mail notifications on the very top right. For example, it says

welcome back AFABulous | [1 new mail [envelope icon] | logout
posted by AFABulous at 11:54 AM on January 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

No blinky no blinky kthxbi

It's okay, the browser-makers ruined the idea first :(.
posted by mosst at 12:42 PM on January 17, 2018 [2 favorites]

Scroll down to "Contact / Privacy Preferences" and you'll see an option to "Forward MeFi Mail to email."

Oh, that's very helpful, thank you. I never noticed that.

Now all I need is a way to remember to respond to messages, and I'll be all set.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:35 PM on January 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

The traditional mnemonic is a string around the finger.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:57 PM on January 17, 2018

I know for a fact that I have 32 unread MeMails - the number is displayed in the upper right in the line that says “welcome back bendy | 32 new...”

It’s the first place my eye travels to when I load MetaFilter. When it’s become a 33 I get really excited. Aren’t you seeing that message?
posted by bendy at 10:00 PM on January 17, 2018

The traditional mnemonic is a string around the finger.

But then I need a string around the second finger to remind me of the first, and before you know it I am mummified!
posted by Literaryhero at 10:56 PM on January 17, 2018 [4 favorites]

So you're saying you have a bad mummy-ry?
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:31 PM on January 17, 2018 [3 favorites]

I believe the proper term here is mnummified
posted by oulipian at 6:35 AM on January 18, 2018 [3 favorites]

I do see the message but it's so small that it often escapes my attention. It's good to know about the options that I didn't know about....and also that I had an old unused email address attached to my account :(
posted by kokaku at 8:01 AM on January 18, 2018

There's also browser notifications, as described here https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/notification

It would be a cute and relatively painless thing to do, but I doubt that I'd personally benefit from it.
posted by zerolives at 9:13 AM on January 18, 2018

One receives hardly any MeMails (sad Wordshore is sad), and oft in days yonder the few one has received have lain unopened, through unobservance and a lack of MeMail routine. Would it be possible for MetaFilter to incorporate some kind of more formal notification that one has received such a missive, please.
posted by Wordshore at 6:17 AM on January 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

> the quidnunc kid:
"then you will realise it's a notification for a meetup in England that you can't go to and then you will cry

Or that it is a memail from billiebee, and then you will cry out with joy, because she is great."

I wouldn't know. SHE DOESN'T MEMAIL ME! So I GUESS there's ONE thing you are #1 at...
posted by Samizdata at 1:53 AM on January 26, 2018

> zerolives:
"There's also browser notifications, as described here https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/notification

It would be a cute and relatively painless thing to do, but I doubt that I'd personally benefit from it."

Innagaddadavita NO!

I get SO tired of every one off site I visit saying "Hay, can I notify you, because I have no idea you are only visiting here one, and this stupid notification request is just making sure of it!" that I would automatically click no, and then I would forget I turned it off, and then all that work from MeFi staff would be for naught. Then, about a year from now, something would make me remember I turned it off, then I would turn it on, and I would recieve notifications continually until the end of time...
posted by Samizdata at 1:58 AM on January 26, 2018

Some days I think I’m the only mefi mobile user. I gets none of the cool things.
posted by greermahoney at 12:23 AM on February 2, 2018