Hello
I’d like to suggest that responses forwarded/alerted via email should clearly state that login is required in order to respond.
The interface makes it look as if one is already logged in. After several minutes of trying to respond I was about to give up when I saw the tiny Login button hidden at top right.
If I may - I think that might be why new users never return to acknowledge the assistance. They simply give up and then life crowds in
There can also be a tendency to ‘subject creep’ on many sites which means you can’t get back to where you just were. I just had this in trying to get to the ‘New user guidance’ so I could post this. But I can’t find it now.
Hello Honeybee - thank you for your suggestions. I will forward them to David, the site administrator. It is disappointing that very often people don’t respond to their threads. Some time ago I asked if the default for replies could be set so that all new posters were notified of a response to their initial question. David did this but it did not seem to make much difference. I think that this is the way with many forums - people might read the response but not reply, for whatever reason.
Hi
Thanks for the answer - even if the Login were within the ‘frame’ of the response this would help. People just don’t want to have to hunt around.
Judging from the sorts who are asking for advice I’m sure they can’t all be rude. And would like to thanks the advice-giver. As you say - follow up is really handy too so people don’t keep asking the same things.
It’s perhaps worth researching how other sites are doing it. We can learn a lot that way and there is no copyright on ideas!
I think often there is a link embedded in the email eg ‘Read email’ which clicked goes straight through to Login page, there login details are retained. So we just hit ‘Sign in’. Two clicks. This is what Tesco does.
I’m grateful for your observations Honeybee and have sent an email to David. He will take a look at it and reply but is quite busy so it might not be an immediate response. Please would you keep a watch on the thread? Thank you.
Really appreciate the feedback Honeybee. I’m afraid I’ve spent far too little time on the automated email responses over the years. The current notification email template is as follows:
A reply has been posted to a topic you are watching by {POSTERNAME}.
View the reply at: {TOPICLINK}
Unsubscribe to this topic by using this link: {UNSUBSCRIBELINK}
