Text/Email Alerts

[Fuzzbucket]

9 hours ago, RealWilliamShakespeare said:

 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?

 

You do know that when something is in a teleport, it CAN still be viewed when your scroll is hidden ? Trading can still carry on when your scroll is hidden. Though I would like things in teleport to be protected - ideally the solution seems to me to allow things in a teleport to be fogged but viewable by someone with the teleport link..

 

2 hours ago, HeatherMarie said:

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. 

 

I very much agree with this.

Edited March 21, 2018 by Fuzzbucket

[RealWilliamShakespeare]

On 21 March 2018 at 6:56 AM, HeatherMarie said:

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. 

Yeah, viewbombing should be addressed. Very much so. But this suggestion still has its benefits even if viewbombing is ruled out. Things can get sick of their own accord: plenty of times I've added Zyus to hatcheries myself and they've gotten sick - alerts would still be useful then! And with the trade offers, my god would that be great. This suggestion isn't solely towards viewbombing, but to be honest viewbombing seems pretty hard to stop at the moment, otherwise I'm sure it would have been fixed already, so the suggestion will work nicely whether viewbombing is fixed or not.

 

I also really do not see this suggestion as handholding. Handholding would be if things were automatically fogged/warded/taken out of hatcheries when they got ill. Handholding would be the eradication of eggs dying from sickness. A little email or text saying "hey you've got an offer on a trade" or "hey you're stuff is sick" really isn't handholding. The trade part is just damn useful, and needed! We need alerting when we've got trade offers! This has been a suggestion for ages! Eggs and hatchlings getting sick is already notified on the site, which could be considered "handholding" because you don't have to check the stuff individually, so I don't see why getting an email or text notifying those unaware AFK people is really so bad. It would be so useful, and something I'd like to see one day.

 

And @Fuzzbucket: yup, but you can't add your stuff to hatcheries yourself when your scroll is locked, and a lot of the times I do want my stuff in hatcheries. Just not in all of them at once, by the doing of random malicious people. Protecting stuff in trades would be nice, but again, I really think an alert system giving updates on trade offers would be appreciated by the user base. Again, one could just opt out.

[HeatherMarie]

Regarding Zyus, they are especially notorious for getting sick when hatching (seriously, I have 95 Zyus and I think about 5 or 6 have *not* gotten sick while hatching). But all that means is that the user needs to be aware of that and not shove the eggs into ERs and then leave for hours. If you are aware that certain breeds get sick easier, just time it so that you are able to be near your scroll while those eggs are in the ER, so you can fog them if you need to (or, as I sometimes do when leaving for work, throw them in an ER and Ward them). 

 

I just... Honestly don't see the benefit. I see people *saying* there would be benefits, I just don't understand that. If you are a regular player, how much would this *really* help? Maybe other people think differently, but imo if you have a trade posted in a thread it makes sense that you would be checking that trade every few hours to see if there are offers... Or at least, you wouldn't post a trade if you knew you *wouldn't* be able to check for an extended amount of time. If you need an off-site alert to remind you to check your trade, maybe you have better things to do and trading isn't a priority? I guess I can see how this would be useful in *uncommon* situations where maybe something unexpected happened and you haven't been able to check your scroll for awhile, but for day-to-day stuff it just seems... Unnecessary. (And an on-site sickness notification is 100% different from an off-site emailed or texted notification. One is a part of the game site. The other is not. One you only see if you are actually playing the game. The other you can get completely separate from the game.)

[aphroditesky]

+1 vote for an Opt-in email or other alert when a TRADE OFFER has been made on one of a player's trades.  

 

I for one, often forget that I put a trade up after drifting onto other activities, and by the time I check 8 hours later to find no offers - I wonder if I missed some in that 'off' period  and people just got tired of waiting for me to notice their offer. 

Edited April 7, 2018 by aphroditesky

[Fuzzbucket]

I  live for an ON-SCROLL alert - like the sickness one - when there is "action on one of your trades".

[StormWizard212]

I would still be quite happy to have a text/email alert for trade offers, but yes, if that's not possible then I would also like an on-scroll alert like the sickness alert. That would also be useful.

[hazeh]

On 3/22/2018 at 2:47 PM, RealWilliamShakespeare said:

Yeah, viewbombing should be addressed. Very much so. But this suggestion still has its benefits even if viewbombing is ruled out. Things can get sick of their own accord: plenty of times I've added Zyus to hatcheries myself and they've gotten sick - alerts would still be useful then! And with the trade offers, my god would that be great. This suggestion isn't solely towards viewbombing, but to be honest viewbombing seems pretty hard to stop at the moment, otherwise I'm sure it would have been fixed already, so the suggestion will work nicely whether viewbombing is fixed or not.

 

I also really do not see this suggestion as handholding. Handholding would be if things were automatically fogged/warded/taken out of hatcheries when they got ill. Handholding would be the eradication of eggs dying from sickness. A little email or text saying "hey you've got an offer on a trade" or "hey you're stuff is sick" really isn't handholding. The trade part is just damn useful, and needed! We need alerting when we've got trade offers! This has been a suggestion for ages! Eggs and hatchlings getting sick is already notified on the site, which could be considered "handholding" because you don't have to check the stuff individually, so I don't see why getting an email or text notifying those unaware AFK people is really so bad. It would be so useful, and something I'd like to see one day.

 

And @Fuzzbucket: yup, but you can't add your stuff to hatcheries yourself when your scroll is locked, and a lot of the times I do want my stuff in hatcheries. Just not in all of them at once, by the doing of random malicious people. Protecting stuff in trades would be nice, but again, I really think an alert system giving updates on trade offers would be appreciated by the user base. Again, one could just opt out.

This is exactly what I think.

 

I think it's kind of silly to call this suggestion hand-holding. It's not any more hand-holding than getting a note at the top of your scroll that your eggs are sick. Why not just do away with that? If you can check your scroll regularly, then just take the time to check every individual growing thing to make sure they aren't sick. That's the kind of logic I'm seeing here. There are several users, myself included, that say this would be a useful option. I only really go on DC at work, because that's when I have access to a desktop. I do NOT like using mobile DC. Until we get an actual mobile app with push notifications about stuff like this, an email notification about things we might not necessarily be aware of is absolutely useful for the players who don't have the opportunity to sit and stare at their scroll all day. I'm not going to keep my scroll tab open all the time if I don't need to. An email alert would let me know to check my scroll before the times I already set aside for DC, and would generally make the experience smoother. Especially if I'm trying to trade something, I don't appreciate having to check DC every thirty minutes to see if someone makes an offer-- it's part of the reason I don't leave an offer link half the time and ask people to PM me instead, because then I get the email notification that someone is interested. 

 

This suggestion helps improve the experience for a lot of players, so I don't see why this shouldn't be implemented. If you don't personally benefit or the current set up works just fine for you, then don't opt-in. 

 

 

 

[Fuzzbucket]

It's the email/text I think is OTT.

 

Fine if others want it - no quarrel there; I would just rather not be spammed with alerts. A scroll notification that there is action on your trades, one that you see when you play, would be wonderful.

[hazeh]

1 hour ago, Fuzzbucket said:

It's the email/text I think is OTT.

 

Fine if others want it - no quarrel there; I would just rather not be spammed with alerts. A scroll notification that there is action on your trades, one that you see when you play, would be wonderful.

I think a "Notifications" setting would be immensely useful. You can determine what notifications you get (sickness, trade alerts, etc) and how (on-site, email, text if people really want that). If you don't want to get spammed with alerts, you don't have to. 

[Fuzzbucket]

I would STILL truly love an on-scroll thing for trade action, like the sickness one.

[StormWizard212]

5 hours ago, hazeh said:

I think a "Notifications" setting would be immensely useful. You can determine what notifications you get (sickness, trade alerts, etc) and how (on-site, email, text if people really want that). If you don't want to get spammed with alerts, you don't have to. 

 

I think that's a good idea - that you could otp into an on-scroll alert, or an email/text alert. Then everyone would have access to some sort of alert, even those who don't use email or want to receive text messages. I think this would be useful and I would definitely use it for things like trades, for the same reasons mentioned above.

[JavaTigress]

On 4/7/2018 at 3:52 AM, StormWizard212 said:

I would still be quite happy to have a text/email alert for trade offers, but yes, if that's not possible then I would also like an on-scroll alert like the sickness alert. That would also be useful.

Myself I could also see having both.... the on scroll notice AND the option to opt in for e-mail/text-message alerts.

 

 

[TJ09]

A notification system in general would be nice, but is a fair amount of work. Once the groundwork is there, it can be extended in a lot of different ways—notifying for different things, or notifying via different methods (did you know it's possible to allow web pages to send you push notifications?)—and given that, I don't think I'd want to add one-off notifications for e.g. just trades.

 

If this were to happen, it would probably start as on-site badging (e.g. in the top right where your scroll name is), and later span things like push notifications, email, or SMS. The point being, those modes would be additive to something that is otherwise useful to begin with.

[pinkgothic]

On 3/22/2018 at 11:57 PM, HeatherMarie said:

I just... Honestly don't see the benefit. I see people *saying* there would be benefits, I just don't understand that. If you are a regular player, how much would this *really* help?

While I am at work, I do keep an eye on my emails in case someone sends me a "help, xyz stopped working!" mail, whereas I definitely do not usually check Dragon Cave. Knowing that something got sick would let me dive in and fix it before it got out of hand, rather than not notice until I got home a couple of hours later, while on the vast majority of days letting me stay away from the site when I should be working. Same with trades (specifically when something that was offered is low-time). Emergency-only stuff.

 

In the current absence of a notification system, I would technically need to keep tabs on my private emails and the state of my eggs and hatchlings on Dragon Cave. In addition, my inbox auto-refreshes and makes me aware of new mails without that I need to explicitly switch to the tab (it gets a little activity marker instead), but Dragon Cave does not (yet), so I need to refresh Dragon Cave when I want an update.

 

That said, my use of such a system would probably be moot if: (1) viewbombing were eradicated (i.e. I stop being at risk of dragons dying because I wasn't able to tend to them for 20 hours (= sleep, commute and work)), and (2) sickness and trade changes updated as an on-site notification (3) in a way that counts as 'activity' in the tab. In that hypothetical, an email likely wouldn't help me any more.

[HeatherMarie]

That does make a bit of sense, @pinkgothic... If you already keep a constant watch on your emails when you can't/shouldn't be on DC, then this suggestion makes sense. I think a part of my reluctance about this suggestion is selfish... I don't have the ability to check my email at work, and my old flip-phone cell often doesn't read text messages correctly (usually if it's SMS, I believe it's called?), so this would be of no use to me, so I guess maybe that makes it harder for me to understand the benefits. For people who have better phones and constant email access, though, it would be a benefit... But would that 'benefit' be an unfair advantage? I mean, I can't really do anything about my current phone situation or anything, so I'd be missing out on those notifications, so I'd be at a steep disadvantage if something got sick, compared to someone who is actually able to receive the text message alerts... 

 

I guess to me it seems like this suggestion caters to a subset of users, instead of trying to be more inclusive... Like, on-site alerts would help a lot more people, and changing the sickness mechanic would fix a lot of the reason people may want this in the first place. 

[pinkgothic]

1 minute ago, HeatherMarie said:

I guess to me it seems like this suggestion caters to a subset of users, instead of trying to be more inclusive... Like, on-site alerts would help a lot more people, and changing the sickness mechanic would fix a lot of the reason people may want this in the first place. 

Whereas to me it just seems like something that makes the situation more inclusive. At the moment anyone that doesn't have a ton of free time is at a 'steep disadvantage' as you say. From my perspective, if we can at all shrink that pool, I'm glad. I've been fairly lucky so far, but I know others haven't. I'm considerably more concerned for these other people than for myself - for myself, I know I can probably just shrug and move on, but I know losing a growing dragon can be cause for much anguished heartache, and I think this suggestion can help prevent that pain.

 

I don't at all want this to exclusion of on-site alerts, though. I just want it.  As implied earlier, I suspect I could probably get away with keeping Dragon Cave open in a background tab, so if the site updated with messages about sickness and/or trade offers, I could react only to those, and an email wouldn't be strictly necessary any more (though still nice - if I could keep that tab completely closed unless I really, really need to intervene in something, it'd definitely be better).

 

(Sickness mechanic rework, also yes please - but I feel like I've flogged that dead horse long enough already in other threads.)

[StormWizard212]

5 hours ago, pinkgothic said:

(3) in a way that counts as 'activity' in the tab.

 

Hopefully the on-site badging that TJ mentioned can do this. I would find that useful - and I do find that useful on the forum, when I'm navigating other tabs and see an activity marker for the forum, indicating that I have a notification. A feature like this on the cave for notifications (for sickness, a trade offer, etc.) would definitely be a useful step in the right direction. I would still eventually love push notifications and email/text alerts, but the on-site notifications would be a great start, in my opinion. 

[HeatherMarie]

9 hours ago, StormWizard212 said:

 

Hopefully the on-site badging that TJ mentioned can do this. I would find that useful - and I do find that useful on the forum, when I'm navigating other tabs and see an activity marker for the forum, indicating that I have a notification. A feature like this on the cave for notifications (for sickness, a trade offer, etc.) would definitely be a useful step in the right direction. I would still eventually love push notifications and email/text alerts, but the on-site notifications would be a great start, in my opinion. 

 

Yes, I'd love notifications in-cave similar to what we have now in the forum... It really is very helpful and convenient to be able to navigate around the forum however I want, and if someone PMs me or replies to me in a thread there is a notification that shows no matter where I am on the forum. I think that would be very nice to have in-cave.

[SkyMet]

If text/email notifications were implemented, I wouldn't use them.  Even if I get a notification, there's a 50/50 chance that I'll be in a place where I can't do anything about it, and will forget about the alert anyway until the next regular time I log in.  The last time my stuff got sick was a couple years ago when I forgot to check a trade before the hatchling grew up, and (I think) someone who was sore that I didn't accept their offer viewbombed my scroll for a few weeks.  

 

On that note...It would be absolutely awesome if there were a notification that appeared at the top of my scroll when I got an offer on a trade.  It could look exactly like the sickness notification.  

 

As it is, once a trade is set up, it sort of vanishes into the void.  The only way to check on offers is to remember I even have an open trade, then click on Account, then find the "Active Transfers" (which is on the second column and sandwiched between "subscription removal" and "review user descriptions").  That, or remember I have open trade, and click on the actions button of my growing things until I find the one(s) that have teleports.  I can't always remember which things have had a teleport set up for already.

 

I'd really like some way to have active trades more at the forefront, instead of hidden away in the back end.