Core: Show notifications chronologically, make flags a type of notification, and allow filtering notifications by type

[tobyzerner]

Chronological order

Currently notifications are grouped by discussion, and thus they are not displayed entirely chronologically. The discussion with the most recent notification is shown first, but much older notifications may be included in that, and then the second-most recent may be pushed down. For example, currently the first discussion in my notifications list has three notifications under it: one from 2 days ago, then two from 10 days ago. Only then is the next most recent notification (3 days ago) from a different discussion shown.

I think this is a bit counter-intuitive, seeing as notifications are all about reporting what's happened most recently. In my experience, there is little tangible benefit to having them grouped this way, apart from saving a bit of room by not repeating discussion titles. So I think pure chronological order would be better than grouping by discussion.

Flags and filtering

Also, flags are in their own separate dropdown, independent of notifications. This is OK, but it's not ideal for the tab bar in the new mobile UI (#867). While there would be room for another tab for flags, I don't think they are important enough to be front-and-center like that. I think it makes more sense, and will simplify implementation, to merge them into notifications as a new notification "type".

In order to still be able to view a list of flags, we should add a dropdown to filter by notification type. Flag notifications would still disappear when the flag is dealt with.

Here's a mockup implementing the above suggestions. I've also added color to the notification icons (making them like badges), to make them more visually distinctive from each other.

Thoughts?

[tarunmarkose]

Have always felt that the grouping of the notifications were a bit counter
intuitive. Going chronological is a good idea!

On Friday 18 March 2016, Toby Zerner [email protected] wrote:

Chronological order

Currently notifications are grouped by discussion, and thus they are not
displayed entirely chronologically. The discussion with the most recent
notification is shown first, but much older notifications may be included
in that, and then the second-most recent may be pushed down. For example,
currently the first discussion in my notifications list has three
notifications under it: one from 2 days ago, then two from 10 days ago.
Only then is the next most recent notification (3 days ago) from a
different discussion shown.

I think this is a bit counter-intuitive, seeing as notifications are all
about reporting what's happened most recently. In my experience, there is
little tangible benefit to having them grouped this way, apart from saving
a bit of room by not repeating discussion titles. So I think pure
chronological order would be better than grouping by discussion.
Flags and filtering

Also, flags are in their own separate dropdown, independent of
notifications. This is OK, but it's not ideal for the tab bar in the new
mobile UI (#867 https://github.com/flarum/core/issues/867). While there
would be room for another tab for flags, I don't think they are important
enough to be front-and-center like that. I think it makes more sense, and
will simplify implementation, to merge them into notifications as a new
notification "type".

In order to still be able to view a list of flags, we should add a
dropdown to filter by notification type. Flag notifications would still
disappear when the flag is dealt with.

Here's a mockup implementing the above suggestions. I've also added color
to the notification icons (making them like badges), to make them more
visually distinctive from each other.

[image: screen shot 2016-03-18 at 12 40 06 pm]
https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/128862/13866559/9585b04a-ed06-11e5-887e-e1f51e56f384.png

—
You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
https://github.com/flarum/core/issues/868

-Tarun

[dcsjapan]

Although I used to like the grouping by discussion feature, I'm starting to think chronological will be better. I'm not sure the badges are necessary, but I'd need to try using them a while to be sure. They might grow on me. Overall, I like this direction.

How will likes be affected? Will a new notification be added for each and every like? That could cause the notifications to pile up rather quickly.

I'm not sure I like the idea of combining the flag and the bell. Alerts from Flags, being a moderation tool, have a much higher priority than other types of notification. When I'm moderating, I like having the flag there as a separate icon because it allows me to see at a glance whether there's anything that requires my immediate attention. (Come to think of it, we should probably have email notifications from Flags as well!) If you merge the flag and the bell, I think you'd also need to add another state to the icon, e.g. color the icon bright red if there are any flags.

An alternative approach might be to generalize the flag icon as the place for moderator functions. For example, if you someone wanted to add something like a moderation queue or "PM the mod team" functionality to Flarum, these things could go there as well.

[tobyzerner]

@dcsjapan

When I'm moderating, I like having the flag there as a separate icon because it allows me to see at a glance whether there's anything that requires my immediate attention. If you merge the flag and the bell, I think you'd also need to add another state to the icon, e.g. color the icon bright red if there are any flags.

One of the todos in #321 is "Show a little bubble every time a notification is received (again, this is something that would probably belong in core)". Do you think this would work to that effect? i.e. whenever you open Flarum, there would be a temporary little popup below the notifications icon that gives you a summary of what new notifications you have (like how many new of each type maybe).

Come to think of it, we should probably have email notifications from Flags as well!

This is somewhat of an argument in favour of making flags just another type of notification, so they can take advantage of the email notifications system already in place :P

_All that said_, I'm still definitely open to the idea in your final paragraph. You might be right that keeping moderator functions separate from notifications is wise. I'm not sure :)

[luceos]

The bubble could also show a color depending on the state of the containing messages. Normal for informational notifications, warning (orange) if containing flagged posts and perhaps danger (red) for a future type.

Also from Gitter, before this gets lost; group by type in the dropdown and then after 24 hours create a new entry instead of combining them.

[dcsjapan]

One of the todos in #321 is "Show a little bubble every time a notification is received (again, this is something that would probably belong in core)". Do you think this would work to that effect?

That might do the trick. I'm guessing it would have to auto-fade? You wouldn't want to force the user to click something to get rid of it, and leaving it there permanently would probably not be good. If the user misses it (because they were AFK for a sec or whatever) then he'd have to take action ... click the bell and display flags only or something ... in order to know there's something that needs checking.

This is somewhat of an argument in favour of making flags just another type of notification, so they can take advantage of the email notifications system already in place :P

Oh, I didn't realize there was anything preventing Flags from using that system.

All that said, I'm still definitely open to the idea in your final paragraph. You might be right that keeping moderator functions separate from notifications is wise. I'm not sure :)

It's also just occurred to me that having that extra flag (or whatever) icon up there serves as a subtle reminder: "you're logged in as a moderator now, so be sure to comport yourself as such." That could be a useful thing to some people.

[dcsjapan]

Hey, here's an idea...

If we feel we can do without whatever advantages there are to be had from leaving the flag as a separate icon ... would it be possible to replace the bell icon with the flag icon whenever there's at least one active Flags notification in the queue?

(And then have it turn back into the bell once all the flags have been cleared, of course.)

[dcsjapan]

Just adding an idea that @tobscure brought up in #957 ...

... we can add a row to the per-user notification settings grid: "Notify me when a post is flagged".

[jordanjay29]

Bumping this from the line in the recent API draft. Keeping flags alive, and also their flag header on posts would be useful for mods (in an inactive state and replace buttons with the action taken and by whom). It keeps a history of what happened and how it was resolved for future reference.

Also tying this into the user would be helpful (which is getting beyond the scope of this issue but still), if action were taken besides Dismiss/Not Spam on a flag, recording it on the user's profile somewhere for admins/mods would help with keeping a history on troublemakers.