Email Notifications and Throttling

Hello, these are two related questions.

1. Can the system be set to send out notifications when something is posted in CB. I know this is vague but I don't know the specifics yet of what posts. So can this be set up for different types of updates? E.g. a user posts a new update and all users would get an email alert?

2. Can the emails be throttled like a newsletter system to avoid email limits on the server or is it a BCC-type email blast?

Also, can you set the entire system to default to getting these notifications and users can turn them off if they want?

Thank you

1. Can the system be set to send out notifications when something is posted in CB. I know this is vague but I don't know the specifics yet of what posts. So can this be set up for different types of updates? E.g. a user posts a new update and all users would get an email alert?

Yes, you'll need to make copies of the on-site notification system actions in CB Auto Actions > System Actions and turn them into emails.

2. Can the emails be throttled like a newsletter system to avoid email limits on the server or is it a BCC-type email blast?

No, it will send to each recipient individually.

Also, can you set the entire system to default to getting these notifications and users can turn them off if they want?

Yes, the notification actions already check for a field value to allow users to toggle the notification off with the notification being on by default.


With CB 3.x I will implementing a email queue system so non-system critical emails can be queued up and emailed as batches. It will also allow email digests so for example if 5 emails are queued for a user it sends it as 1 digest email. This is to allow for things like daily digests for profile activity, etc.. I do not have a timeframe for when this will be available though since CB 3.x is effectively a complete modernization and rewrite of CB.

Hello, this sounds promising! But for now, you are saying it's just a giant batch of emails being sent? So if you have 600 users set to get a notification the system sends out 600 emails all at once?

But for now, you are saying it's just a giant batch of emails being sent?

Correct.

So if you have 600 users set to get a notification the system sends out 600 emails all at once?

Yes.

It depends on what kind of userbase you expect to have right now. Sending 600 emails is pretty trivial and not really an issue. It becomes a problem when you need to send to thousands of users at once. That's what you need a mailer queue (delayed sending) and batching system (sending in groups of say 100). A digest system (grouping of emails to same recipient) is needed for stuff like activity stream posts as you don't want them getting for example 3 emails 1 after another because people are commenting on a post.