Multiple issues with notifications, part 2

[Jelena]

After the previous issues have been resolved, new ones have been introduced.

1. Notification link leads to dashboard when used for the first time (also reported here).

2. While I appreciate more text added to the notifications, now their titles are not helpful anymore as they just say the same thing "new comment added" etc. Exhibit A:

3. I assume "Community" in the screenshot above is supposed to be the tag name. If so, this is not working as every single notification just says "Community". If that's intentional then I'm confused what value does this add.

4. For one mention I've received multiple notifications. Exhibit B:

5. While it is at least possible to right-click on the small text items in the notification, right-click on the title just opens the same notification in the single-notification view. TBH I don't care for this type of view at all but it would be logical to open it when the title is just clicked. Personally, I'd very much prefer the old functionality when right-click on title opens the actual item I'm notified about. Looking for the exact link to click in the small grey text is not good for my eyesight, unfortunately.

Thank you.

[jerryjanda]

jelena.perfiljeva2 We agree that it's annoying, but we can't change how those links work. The new setup is designed to accommodate different notification types (beyond SAP Community).

We did, however, just roll out a change that should make things simpler for members who want to get to Community content with a single click.

Each Inbox notification includes an excerpt of the notification message, and the very beginning of these excerpts now includes a direct link to the content. So instead of clicking on the notification, members can click on the link in the excerpt to go straight to a blog post, question, comment, and so on.

We've made this change for the seven most common notification types and we'll continue to work our way through the rest.

Oh...and everyone can stop being tense over the tenses. We've edited/improved the titles and copy for those notifications too.

--Jerry

[jerryjanda]

Hi, Jelena:

Wow, I haven't posted one of these responses in a while. I hope I still remember how... 🙂

1) We're aware of the issue and working to fix.

2) There are plenty of issues with the copy. That's my department and I'm going through all of the notifications to improve them. I've already rewritten some, and I'm shooting to finish the rest next week.

3) Community in this case actually refers to the category (not the tag) -- meaning it's a Community notification. That looks odd right now because Community is the only group sending notifications, but that will change. For example, you may eventually see notifications categorized as Training. Please check out the "Changes to Notifications" entry in What's New for details about longer-term plans: https://www.sap.com/community/resources/what-is-new.html.

4) This should be fixed now. If you still experience the issue, please let me know.

5) This isn't something we can change -- again, the new Inbox is meant to accommodate notifications beyond SAP Community -- but we are working to add clear links at the beginning of the Community notification excerpts to take people straight to the question, blog post, etc .This approach will spare members the need to go through the single-notification view (and also save them a click).

Please let me know if you have any other questions or experience any other bugs.

--Jerry

[former_member186338]

6. Page refresh of #inbox is slow! (compared to old notification page)

[Jelena]

Thanks for a reply, Jerry!

Is it possible at least not to make Community a designated line? Can it be like an icon or something? I'm not sure what other notifications are expected exactly but am guessing vast majority of notifications will be all the same. "Community... Community... Community" on every item on the list doesn't seem like a winning UI choice.

And not to neat-pick buuuuut the mixed use of past tense "confuses and infuriates us". 🙂

[jerryjanda]

jelena.perfiljeva2...I'm not the UI guy, so I can't address the icon suggestion. But I am the word guy, so I can comment on the confusing and infuriating tenses.

I can tell you that "accepted answers" is in the top 5 of my priority notifications. It should be an easy fix, compared to some of the other more complex types.

Eventually, I'll get to 'em all, and if necessary, I'll continue to tweak 'em (if members are reporting issues with the copy).

--Jerry

[Jelena]

Looks like the issue with multiple notifications for a mention has been fixed (I got only one notification this time). But I can confirm that the right-click on the big notification header taking you to the notification and not to the question/comment/etc continues to be rather annoying. Sigh...