Set default contact preferences
closed
Meredith Owens
Give admins the ability to set the default contact preferences for members to include the additional forum notifications.
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Meredith Owens
Merged in a post:
Set contact preferences defaults
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Gary Simon
Would be nice if the administrator had the ability under Dashboard/Settings to preset the defaults for 'Contact' options under Member Settings (eg, being able to set 'Instant email for new forum posts' to ON rather than having that default to OFF during initial registration).
Meredith Owens
Kevin Adler
i think this a great idea
Meredith Owens
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Hoa Webmaster Woodbrook Estates
Reading Wes' comments and conclusion, it sounds like HOAE is basing its decision on your group think of what is optimal for the majority of members. How do you know what is optimal? Do you assume you know better what members want than your actual end users? Did you base your conclusion after consultation with webmasters and understanding what they would prefer? I doubt it.
The more members we have on our website the bigger issue this communication weakness becomes for both members and webmasters. Members complain about not getting topic emails and webmasters have to try and get those members, who are essentially babes in the woods technologically, to edit their settings without consuming even more webmaster time giving them hands on guidance. Our members want to simply register and get a good communications platform without having to know how to navigate your settings that were once fine.
If you look at our discussion topic page you will see that the majority of them involve time sensitive topics meaning reviewing the weekly what's happening report is essentially useless for discussion purposes.
Wes Cossick
@hoa-webmaster-woodbrook-estates: We've come to this decision by looking at the usage patterns of the millions of people who use our platform. We believe this data is far more extensive than any one administrator would have access to.
I'm sorry to hear that some of your members require assistance to change their contact preferences. We're always looking for ways to make our software even more user friendly, so if you have specific recommendations for how to make it easier for your members to customize their contact preferences, I'd encourage you to submit a new feature request.
Additionally, you can always ask these members to contact our customer success team by email or phone, and they'd be happy to walk them through how to customize their contact preferences.
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Hoa Webmaster Woodbrook Estates
Wes Cossick: i hope you dont associate lack of discussion participation with usefullness of the service. Our 600 users tend to look at Topic emails as information provided more so than actual discussion. When someone finds a key and sends a topic email they dont expect to get responses beyond the person who lost the key. When a topic email is sent advising to watch for the rocket launch at 8 pm, the sender is not anticipating responses. Many topics have 0 or 1 or 2 responses but that doesnt mean the topic emails are ineffective or not wanted.
Meredith Owens
Merged in a post:
Registration default for forum topic emails
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Hoa Webmaster Woodbrook Estates
When we first adopted HOAE +5 years and three versions ago, our core requirement was improved communications.
Our service provider at the time was i-Neighbours and while the initial emails generated by members were similar to HOAE, members email inboxes were constantly flooded with inane responses where we had no interest in knowing or participating.
A key selling point for us was the default for new registrants who would get emails generated for new discussion topics only. Members would have to change their settings to get all response emails. unless they were participating in the topic that statistically few members do.
After numerous puzzling complaints from members questioning why they (including my co-webmaster!) were not getting all "Blasts" (they don't differentiate between Blast and Topic generated emails despite attempts to educate) I discovered the problem was with Topic related emails.
I learned the registration default position for Topics changed some years ago. I tested the communications settings for many new registrants over the last few years and not one of them were getting topic emails! That may also explain why more people don't participate in topics.
New registrants don't know what they don't know so how can we expect them to know to edit their settings to get topic emails after registering? Does the webmaster have to send each new registrant an email instructing the whys and hows? Not efficient for webmasters or members.
Members have the options to login and review the topics at their leisure, and see notices in the weekly What's Happening update. However, Discussion Topics are frequently time sensitive rendering those two other options ineffective. Time sensitivity was what lead to frustrated members who missed out because they were unaware.
I would like the default for
topic emails to revert to being sent. Perhaps that default can be set for individual communities.
Those members who don't want Topic emails can opt out. In my 5+ years as webmaster, I have only had one person ask how to opt out.
Chris McConnell
We have the same issue. We set up a lost and found. Sent an email letting everyone know. Waiting a week is too late. We’ve had residents offer free sporting event tickets, but they use Facebook (which drives me nuts) instead of our website. We are trying to drive traffic to our website, not Facebook. They will not go in and change the default. Please set the default for new forum topic to immediate.
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Lindy Peters
We joined HOA Express primarily to improve communications in our HOA. We have tried and tried to help residents to understand that they have change the default to not receive communications and forum topics to allow notification of topics. Only 20 out of 100 residents have changed this option. The option has ended any meaningful communications among residents. About 1/2 of our residents resort to a gossip filled face book discussion page that is not moderated by the board. Our residents used to post for recommendations, help needed, and general questions. Beside email bulletins there has been no communications with our residents or among our residents. Please allow administrators to update notifications for forum topics or please change the default.
Meredith Owens
Merged in a post:
Have all forum notification options selected by default
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Lindy Peters
When we decided to use HOA Express we thought that residents would be able to communicate with each other on a real time basis. We have tried to get residents to change their preferences to receive real time notifications of forum topics. We have had horrible experiences with a facebook discussion group. Our residents used to ask each other for recommendations, help, and general questions. The negative notification for forum topics has been a real detriment in establishing community involvement. I don't think when residents established their accounts they even knew what forum topics were. We will continue to try to get residents to change forum topics notifications, very disappointed that this obstacle was even established. It would be easier to have a resident decide that they did not want forum notifications after they had at least received one of them.
Wes Cossick
closed
Our team has concluded that we won't be implementing this feature. We've chosen the default contact preferences based on what's optimal for the majority of members. While some people are interested in instant notifications about new forum posts, and can certainly opt-in to this functionality, setting this for all members could (and probably would) annoy many people. When annoyed by a subset of emails, people often unsubscribe from all email types, which can actually lead to members missing the truly important announcements.
Our automatic What's Happening emails, which are often delivered weekly, include a summary of newly posted content to forum pages. This is the best way for members to be informed of new forum content without being overwhelmed by too many emails.
Kevin Adler
Wes Cossick: Sounds like HOAE will not allow client admins to modify this setting based off of our understanding of our community user base. I manage 2 sites and can tell you first hand majority of members for each property have no idea what a forum post is, and how to enable it. I've posted a new article for members to understand the difference and make the change. Beyond that, I recommend this choice be allowed to be modified based on the site administrator.
Richard Gunther
Wes Cossick: I agree with Kevin Adler, @hoa-webmaster-woodbrook-estates, and others here who believe that HOA Express should not think they know our communities' needs better than we do. What's the harm is letting the admins determine what the default should be? I'd even suggest there should be an option to "force" the option on for all users. We have a serious problem with people using the Emergency alert capability to send messages to the entire community because people signing up for access don't have a clue what all those options are—they generally just leave them set as they are. And as a result, people don't get notified about new topics even though many want to be.
I am getting so frustrated by the HOAE team's repeated, unilateral "CLOSED" decisions on features the paying customers—we admins—clearly want.
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