Pages on TWiki.org are (mostly) written to by valid user ids with associated emails. Why are we not using the list of editors of a page to auto generate page subscriptions, so that when someone edits they get emailed if someone else replies?

Because we don't do this:

• the community loses all the passes by who come in, ask a question but never see the reply.
• the community loses key answers from core people who were involved in a question but happened to miss the update in the flow of content flowing past them.

-- Contributors: MartinCleaver - 20 Oct 2008

Discussion

I completely agree with that idea. I cannot implement it. But it would be also a great plugin for enterprise wikis based on TWiki!

-- MartinSeibert - 20 Oct 2008

: MartinCleaver: interesting idea : We need something like SubscribePlugin for TWiki.org : but a variation : if you want to say "pre-subscribe me to pages I create"? : (please make it optiional) : this is so common on forums : Yes, auto-subscribe to anything you create or edit : of course, optional : but global : on by default : I commented online: "I completely agree with that idea. I cannot implement it. But it would be also a great plugin for enterprise wikis based on TWiki!" : Jep, I like it. : Just subscribe plugin on T.org would be useful : It's the first step : any objections to that? : none here : none here. : will there be any performance issues? : Polling could be done by a second machine, or at quiet times : Please vote on http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/UseTWikiDotOrgPageSubscriptionsToRetainCommunity?topic=PleaseInstallPluginsAtTWikiDotOrg : SubscribePlugin uses MailerCOntrib - very nice and useful : at Y! we run the crontab nce a day : once a day : y : Should be so uncontroversial that it's not worthy of discussion

-- MartinSeibert - 20 Oct 2008

SubscribePlugin already is capable of doing this. Not for topics in the past, but its trivial to ammend the edit and comment templates to add a SUBSCRIBE tickbox.

I've added this to the TWikiOrgWebsiteFacilitatorTaskTeam - we'll do it as soon as the team is ratified by the interim comittee - so far we don't have a mandate to do anything.

Note to SVEN - make sure there's a user preference for the default.

-- SvenDowideit - 20 Oct 2008

I agree a tickbox during edit and comment (defaulting to on, overridable in user prefs) would go a long way to affecting follow-up.

As long as a given user has the ability to silence all or some of their subscriptions I think it is reasonable to add people who have expressed an interest in the past.

We could add to Subscribe Plugin a "subscribe all contributors" feature that adds to webnotify all contributors to a page. This could work from signatures, edit history or both (if someone mentions me, shouldn't I be subscribed?). It should be restricted to privileged users.

-- MartinCleaver - 21 Oct 2008

We could, but i recon on twiki.org that would be counterproductive. most people don't like being subscribed by someone else - I guess in my case for eg, i'd be more interested in more informative highlighting in WebChanges - of topics i've not participated in.

-- SvenDowideit - 21 Oct 2008