Hello fellow Community members!
To try to make the transition to the new Community as easy as possible, I'd like to dedicate this blog installment to the new email notification and subscription system. You've likely noticed some small differences from what you're used to; there might even be a few changes that you don't quite understand. But - I hope you've also noticed all the new features the Community brings to the table, making your overall experience much more expansive and efficient. Let's take a look at what's changed, and what new features are available to you.
Email notifications:
The most obvious change to email notifications - the alerts you receive each time a new post is made to a forum you've subscribed to - is the way these notices are addressed. The old e-forum notifications showed the name of the forum in "To" field, as well as in the "Subject" field, enclosed in [brackets], with the post title following, like this:
NAA Community notifications are addressed slightly differently, with your name in the "To" field. The name of the forum now appears only in the "Subject" field, enclosed in [brackets], with the post title following, like this:
The important thing to know is that the content of these emails remains the same. Although the email you receive might appear to be addressed only to you, it has been sent to all forum subscribers.
There are a few other things you should know about the Community notifications.
- Replying to notifications by email will post your response to the forum for all participants to view. If you wish to respond to an individual, click the link at the bottom of the email (above the disclaimer) to view the message online. From here, click the "Contact" button to send the user a private message. This function is also accessible through each user's profile by clicking "Send user a private message" in the "Options" module in the lower left.
- When replying to a notification by email, make sure you delete the original message before clicking "Send." This will ensure that you do not post duplicate entries in your forum, and will make it easier for other users to peruse topics and threads.
Digests:
As with email notifications, the most obvious change to digests - emailed compilations of all posts made to a particular forum throughout the day - is the way these notices are addressed. The old e-forum digests looked like this, with the name of the forum in both the "To" and "Subject" fields:
NAA Community digests are addressed slightly differently, with your name in the "To" field, and the forum name only in the "Subject" field:
The important thing to know is that the content of these emails remains the same. Although the email you receive might appear to be addressed only to you, it has been sent to all forum subscribers.
As with email notifications, to respond to a particular post in the digest, click the link below the emailed post to view the message online.
From here, clicking the "Contact" button will allow you to send a private message to the post author. Remember that simply clicking "reply" to the email will post your response to the forum for all participants to view.
Posting to forums using email:
Some users might wish to occasionally post to forums using email. This works in much the same that you are used to, but there are a few important changes to note.
File attachments and file sharing:
The NAA Community has introduced a new way to engage in file sharing, which eliminates the need for email and makes online document sharing and collaboration convenient and efficient. The Community's Shared Files can easily be associated with forum posts, allowing you to share documents with your audience without the need to send email outside the forum.
A secondary option for attaching files to posts exists by selecting the "Options" tab while composing your post and uploading a file from your computer. However, this method allows only one file per post, and does not translate to email notifications and digests, so users who do not view your message online will not be aware that a file has been attached. To avoid this problem, we highly recommend taking advantage of the Community's Shared Files feature. Attaching Shared Files to your post will allow you to:
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attach multiple files to the same post;
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provide users with direct links to each file, which direct them to each file's details page with options to download the file, mark it as a favorite, contact the file's owner, and more;
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notify users who view your post via email notification or digest that a file has been attached.
Using this method, file attachments appear as links within the body of your text. Similarly, users receiving email notifications and digests will be able to view these links and reach your file(s) through the Community's Shared Files area.
To learn more about using Shared Files in your forum posts, click here to read last week's blog post on the topic.
PLEASE NOTE: To attach files to your posts, using either method, you must sign-in to NAA Community. Files attached to emailed posts will not appear in the Community or in email notifications and digests.
Please come back to the NAA Community Blog next week for more tips and tricks on using your new Community. And, if you have a topic you'd like to see featured in the coming weeks, please submit it to feedback@naa.org.
As always, if you need additional help you can visit the NAA Community Help Page, or call 517-366-1200.