Text/Email Alerts

[LibbyLishly]

My initial thought on this was purely a way for people to be alerted to eggs or hatchlings rapidly gaining views, but it occurs to me that there could be other reasons people may want alerts, so:

 

Can we have an OPT-IN alert system that will send a text to your phone or an email to your scroll email address? Things that may necessitate an alert:

- Your egg/hatchling is sick

- You have an offer on a trade

- Your egg/hatchling has received 100 (or whatever number) views (to indicate that it has probably been placed in a click site)

 

There are probably several other reasons people might like an alert, but those are the ones that I would use it for. 

 

This is NOT a suggestion designed to allow users to play the game without playing the game - just an acknowledgement that most people who play this game have a life outside of DC, can't babysit their scroll all day every day, and sometimes situations (like viewbombing) can massively screw up what is usually a very passive game.

Edited December 20, 2017 by LibbyLishly

[HeatherMarie]

I get the idea and understand the reasoning, but I don't really support it. Not everyone has cell phones, so not everyone has the ability to get text messages, and that's the only way possible for automatic-notifications... In my opinion, if you have the time and ability to check your email, you could certainly load DC in another tab at the same time to check your dragons. So email notifications wouldn't really be the best way, imo. I mean honestly I check DC waaayy more often then I check my email.

 

I'm also not sure how helpful this would be anyways? Being notified that your egg is sick or gaining views doesn't help at all if you aren't able to actually get on and fog them, and even if you do it may already be too late, like it has been for many people with this current viewbombing. If users can learn to fog their eggs when they can't check them for a stretch of time, that will prevent most sickness. I really don't like this push for the game to do all this hand-holding, the idea of the game reaching out to your email or phone every time you have a trade offer or an egg gains a few views feels way too much like "I want the game to do everything for me". The current viewbombing and deaths sucks, but it's a unique situation because of the attack on EATW, and I don't think it warrants such a big change.

[Dragon_Arbock]

I think in the case of what's going on, there should have at least been an email alert sent out to players.

@Marie19R I don't like the idea of handholding, but what's going on right now is a lot different- people are being targeted and being viewbombed without their knowledge that such things are even taking place. So is it fine to just say 'tough luck, screw those people? Guess you shouldn't have gone to sleep?'

Users who didn't even add their stuff to hatcheries, waking up to dying or dead things, for two days now. If an alert had gone out when this started, the loss could have been minimized.

 

Maybe in the future it's going to have to be on us, the players, to do that- but there's no way we can reach as many people as an automated system can.

[HeatherMarie]

As I said I realize this is a unique situation. And I agree that people should be notified somehow of what's currently going on, but I think a banner on the actual site would do a lot more good then emails being sent out, since people don't always check their emails often and many users may not even have access to the email they signed up with. But I don't think that this current issue is reason to put something like this into place for normal times.

[Dragon_Arbock]

You can update your email on the account page. Personally I would have put up a warning on the site and emailed. More people are likely to get a notification about a new email on their phone or something if they're not actively on the site at the moment.

 

As far as getting a notification for sickness on a normal day, I'm not against it. I don't know that I'd use it, but it doesn't hurt me, persay.

[Fuzzbucket]

11 hours ago, Marie19R said:

I get the idea and understand the reasoning, but I don't really support it. Not everyone has cell phones, so not everyone has the ability to get text messages, and that's the only way possible for automatic-notifications... In my opinion, if you have the time and ability to check your email, you could certainly load DC in another tab at the same time to check your dragons. So email notifications wouldn't really be the best way, imo. I mean honestly I check DC waaayy more often then I check my email.

 

I'm also not sure how helpful this would be anyways? Being notified that your egg is sick or gaining views doesn't help at all if you aren't able to actually get on and fog them, and even if you do it may already be too late, like it has been for many people with this current viewbombing. If users can learn to fog their eggs when they can't check them for a stretch of time, that will prevent most sickness. I really don't like this push for the game to do all this hand-holding, the idea of the game reaching out to your email or phone every time you have a trade offer or an egg gains a few views feels way too much like "I want the game to do everything for me". The current viewbombing and deaths sucks, but it's a unique situation because of the attack on EATW, and I don't think it warrants such a big change.

 

This. I have virtually no cellphone signal at home, so it wouldn't help me at all. I am not alone !

 

11 hours ago, Marie19R said:

As I said I realize this is a unique situation. And I agree that people should be notified somehow of what's currently going on, but I think a banner on the actual site would do a lot more good then emails being sent out, since people don't always check their emails often and many users may not even have access to the email they signed up with. But I don't think that this current issue is reason to put something like this into place for normal times.

 

A banner would be better. Though actually my INTERNET signal has gone dodgy now, so that might not help that much either

 

Which makes the primary point; if you aren't checking your scroll and don't check your phone as often as permanently wired people do,, you likely won't see either one.

 

And I speak as one who lost 4 eggs to viewbombing recently - I still wouldn't support this.

[grxcew]

I support this! I like the idea, even a text/notification/email is helpful. Yes I might not be able to fog the egg or hatchling right away but at least I know what's going on; I would prefer that over getting home and then getting the nasty surprise that the egg's died while I was away and had no idea. Besides, a helpful system like this means dragcave's "gettin with the times" LOL

[Fuzzbucket]

- for those with a reliable phone signal. Which I do not have (an example: A recent text I sent to my SO who was grocery shopping for me did not reach him for TWO DAYS.)

[LibbyLishly]

Perhaps a third option would be for the system to deploy a raven directly to the people for whom a text or email would be useless.

 

No, but I understand this wouldn't be helpful for everyone. I, however, would find it useful. I have my smartphone on me at all times, but that doesn't mean I'm on DC at all times. My provider badly screws up SMS messages somehow, so I wouldn't sign up for that, but I do get immediate email notifications on my phone, so I would like that. If there aren't enough people who WOULD find it useful, no point in putting in the time or effort, but for those who have the technology to make it feasible, it could be a Very Good Thing, at least until another preventative solution is found for protecting eggs and hatchlings from malicious viewbombing.

[HeatherMarie]

My provider screws up SMS messages too, though I have a crappy flip-phone so that may be why. This wouldn't benefit me at all, but that's not why I don't care for this suggestion. It's a combination of not finding it useful in general, and it feeling too much like hand-holding. To me personally, if I can't get on DC at the moment for whatever reason, I would *hate* to be alerted that I had sick dragons. Knowing that I have sick dragons and not being able to do anything about it is, to me, much much worse and more stressful then logging on to find already-dead dragons. And in regards to the other uses the OP states, that really feels too much like "tell me when anything happens so I don't have to actually check the site often", which... I don't like. I mean, a notification every single time you get a trade offer is just way too much, especially when you've posted something that's really wanted and you get upwards of 10 offers. And a notification every single time your eggs start getting views... That's just like *constant* notifications. Not only would that be very very annoying, but it seems to be a way for people to "keep up" with the game without actually *being* on the game, which sort of defeats the entire purpose of the game?

[Fuzzbucket]

MY phone is pre-flip-phones. But the issue is the lack of signal.

 

What I want more than ANY of this is an on scroll notification of activity on trades.

[LibbyLishly]

@Marie19R Eh, fair on the hand-holding concern. As for the others, I was thinking each type of notification you could opt-in to if you wanted, so it would be completely on you if you were getting ten million notifications, but I wouldn't want it to be something that made people too lazy to actually check on their own scroll when they should.

[Fuzzbucket]

If you can get messages on your phone - can you do anything about them also on your phone ? I sure as hell can't - even if I got a message !

[The Dragoness]

Text messages can take a while to go through on my phone too, despite a decent signal. I would love email notifications though, since I have the Gmail app on my phone and get notifications that way.

Edited January 2, 2018 by The Dragoness

[LibbyLishly]

1 minute ago, fuzzbucket said:

If you can get messages on your phone - can you do anything about them also on your phone ? I sure as hell can't - even if I got a message !

Assuming your phone could cope with messages, if you had a dumb phone, you would just be alerted to hustle to a computer to save your eggs. I would actually be in a position to use my phone to do something about the notification.

 

Again, this would all be opt-in. For you, fuzz, there would be less than zero reason to sign up for alerts (unless I can get my raven system working ). I do hear Marie's concern about the game doing too much hand-holding, so if that was to be the result, I wouldn't want it to go through, but for my situation, it would be nice to just get a buzz to warn me, basically, "Hey, check your scroll - did you authorize that egg getting 100+ views?" or whatever, especially during the holidays.

[Yubelchen]

I see the point, but i´m against it.

 

Since the christmas viewbombing happend, i went and just hid my scroll when i go to sleep. You cant target somebody who has visually no scroll.

It will cost me time since my eggs will not get views during thet time, but better than having them dead when i wake up.

There are already many ideas to prevent viewbombing in certain situations were you have to show your egg (trading; i love the idea of an egg not getting views when in trade) so such an notification, especially for users that have limited to no phone signal is not needed i think.

If you cant check your scroll from time to time with your phone, then such notification will not help you at all when you COULD look for yourself.

I mean, refreshing your Scroll cost not much on mobile anyway.

[Fuzzbucket]

9 hours ago, Yubelchen said:

I see the point, but i´m against it.

 

Since the christmas viewbombing happend, i went and just hid my scroll when i go to sleep. You cant target somebody who has visually no scroll.

It will cost me time since my eggs will not get views during thet time, but better than having them dead when i wake up.

There are already many ideas to prevent viewbombing in certain situations were you have to show your egg (trading; i love the idea of an egg not getting views when in trade) so such an notification, especially for users that have limited to no phone signal is not needed i think.

If you cant check your scroll from time to time with your phone, then such notification will not help you at all when you COULD look for yourself.

I mean, refreshing your Scroll cost not much on mobile anyway.

 

Actually - while I don't support this suggestion, if your scroll is hidden someone who has the codes of your stuff can still add it if it isn't fogged. Just bear that in mind and don't get complacent. I fog when I go to bed, myself

[Irabane]

I know this is a pretty old post, but this is something I'd really like to have as well. It's definitely true that this wouldn't impact everyone equally (whether it's because you don't check your email very often, don't have good cellphone signal or whatever), but it appears that I'm not the only one who desperately wants the option to receive email notifications from Dragon Cave. I also feel like it surely wouldn't be too difficult to implement, as Dragon Cave already sends out emails to monthly raffle winners; this would simply be an expansion of the infrastructure that's already used to do that.

[StormWizard212]

I would personally use a system like this for trade offers, so I can see the merit in the idea. Like someone said earlier in the thread, having a smart phone with you at all times does not mean that you're on DC at all times. I often put trades up and watch tv, go to work, do a number of other things when I'm not actively on the site. Knowing it's worth checking back is something I'd find useful. 

 

I get that a lot of people are against something like this, though I don't really see it being a huge equity issue. Anyone who can access DC at any given time can presumably access an email address as well. If email is something you don't use that often, then I don't think it would really be an issue, anyway. While it might make things a bit more convenient for those who are able to actively use the feature, it doesn't take anything away or disadvantage those who can't access it, as far as I can tell. I haven't seen suggestions for notifications like 'the hourly drop is about to start' or 'there are low time eggs in the AP' or anything like that which would disadvantage those without access. Since it's not about competition but about scroll management, I don't personally see an issue.

 

To sum up, if this feature was available then I'd certainly use it because it sounds convenient. I don't particularly mind it not being a feature, though, and I get that some people might be upset about a feature being implemented that they personally wouldn't/couldn't get the most out of. 

[Aalbiel]

Text? Nah. 

 

E-mails? I could get behind that, but failing that even an in-cave alert for offers would be very nice.

[Fuzzbucket]

35 minutes ago, Aalbiel said:

Text? Nah. 

 

E-mails? I could get behind that, but failing that even an in-cave alert for offers would be very nice.

 

This - please. The rest - no thanks.

[HeatherMarie]

5 hours ago, StormWizard212 said:

While it might make things a bit more convenient for those who are able to actively use the feature, it doesn't take anything away or disadvantage those who can't access it, as far as I can tell. I haven't seen suggestions for notifications like 'the hourly drop is about to start' or 'there are low time eggs in the AP' or anything like that which would disadvantage those without access. Since it's not about competition but about scroll management, I don't personally see an issue.

 

 

I think certain things about this suggestion *would* put users who couldn't use it at a disadvantage in certain ways. For instance, if you and I both have eggs that get sick today, and you are able to get a text notification when it happens but I'm not able to, you would have the heads-up that I don't have, and would have a better chance at saving your eggs. It's not as big of a disadvantage as your examples, but it's still catering to one set of users and leaving others out, and I'm really not fond of that.

 

However, my stance against this suggestion is more about the hand-holding aspect I've already mentioned in previous posts. I get that sometimes you get on DC and see something and think 'oh man I wish I would've known about that earlier', but.... That's just sort of how games go? You miss things if you aren't on the game at specific times sometimes. That's just how it is. For the game to send you a notification every time something happens that you might want to know about, to me that sort of defeats the whole purpose of checking into the game regularly on your own. 

[Fuzzbucket]

What she said - which is why I am not interested. An on scroll note note about trade activity yes, as otherwise you have to go to your account every time and I think it's more like a sickness alert - just a note on your scroll that there is activity on open trades - as that also benefits the other party. But if you aren't going to check on your scroll, you have only yourself to blame if you miss stuff.

Edited March 16, 2018 by Fuzzbucket

[RealWilliamShakespeare]

So, just because some people won't receive texts, nobody should get to? What?

 

I definitely support this, it would be helpful in so many situations. I appreciate that this would never be a permanent decision, and that you could opt in and out of it, such as checking a box in account settings to say "send me alerts via email, SMS..." etc. Viewbombing is something we cannot control. I've been getting view bombed like crazy recently and it's damn annoying: it's only when I check the Discord do I see that a viewbomber might be going round and I have a mind to check. Does that give me an advantage for being on the Discord and thus being alerted that my stuff might have been targeted?

 

I personally have no phone signal where I live. I also don't have email notifications on my phone. However, I check my email pretty frequently, and if I were to see a DC email saying that my stuff was being rapidly viewed, that'd be much better that nothing. DC isn't on my mind 24/7, and I've woken up to things being dead - it's not nice! Viewbombing is not a part of the game, and not something I'm willing to just shrug off as "that's the game!" because it shouldn't happen, and it should be something we can protect ourselves against as much as possible. I'm becoming much more involved in trades recently, and can't be fogging my stuff and hiding my scroll as much as I'd like to, so why not at least have the notification so that I'm aware stuff is getting viewbombed?

 

Either way, I'm sure this would benefit a large amount of the people on the site, so I don't see there any reason to not implement it - it would certainly bring DC up-to-date with most other websites these days.

[HeatherMarie]

Imo, if viewbombing is the reason this is wanted, I'd rather see *viewbombing* itself addressed in some way, rather then a round-about way to maybe-possibly be able to stop it in time. I definitely very much think that something needs to be done about viewbombing, but there are plenty of other things that can be done that would make more sense and be more successful then this suggestion. I do not think that babying users by alerting them every single time something happens on their scroll is the answer to the viewbombing issue. Users need to be responsible for their own scrolls, and learn to check in regularly, not just when they get an alert reminding them to. Viewbombing is really a separate issue, in that it's not an in-game mechanic at all and more like a loophole that should be dealt with directly.