Bulk Actions For Users To Change Notifications

[Rubi]

We have a user who changed in one of the categories from Tracking to Normal for all topics.

But, now they would like to know how to change all previously read topics to Normal.

At this point, I believe this can only be done manually?

Is there a way, however, for a moderator or admin to change the settings for each topic in the category for this specific user?

Would it make sense to introduce a feature allowing regular users to bulk change their own notifications for topics?

Thanks,
Rubi

[JammyDodger]

TL4 have access to the Bulk Actions to update notifications, but unfortunately TL3 and below currently do not.

There is the Bulk Action button on the unread and new views for everyone, where you can select specific new/unread topics and use the Dismiss button to mark them as read. That also has an optional ‘stop tracking’ checkbox to reset them to Normal at the same time. Would that work in this case?

[Rubi]

I will suggest it to the user.

Do you think this is a feature that should be requested? Does it have any value?

Thanks,
Rubi

[JammyDodger]

I actually mentioned a similar thing just the other day as part of this Contribute > UX topic

@JammyDodger

You could then allow more TL to have access to that top section as well. Particularly useful for managing your inbox, for example.

There is also this open Contribute > Feature request I spotted in the Related Topics as well:

Allow normal users to bulk update notification level

It appears that if someone is an Administrator (and likely a Moderator?) they can click on the little icon to the left of the word “Topic” on a category page to enter into a sort of bulk update mode where you can select multiple topics and make some change to a lot of them at once. Most of these changes are moderator abilities like deleting topics, moving, etc, however some of them are things that normal users can do (and in particular, setting the notification level). It would be great to allo…

(Not a lot of traction though, but it shows we’re not alone )

I think one of the counterarguments is to not overcomplicate things for new/occasional users, but a bulk select is quite normal in an email app for instance so it’s unlikely it’d be something they’d never seen before (and already exists on the new/unread views, albeit for a slightly different use).

Even if it was deemed to be too much for ‘everyone’ it could still be kept out of the sandbox for TL0/TL1 and opened up to TL2/TL3.

Though I should also mention the category level notifications as well, just to be sure that’s not relevant to your current situation?

[Rubi]

@JammyDodger
I did see that topic from 2016 and wondered why it seemed not to go anywhere.

As far as your UX topic, I also think that some of those actions could and probably should be split out to avoid mistakes and possibly make some bulk actions easier to handle no matter which TL level.

I assume such a request, meaning bulk actions to update notifications, should be posted in Contribute > Feature ?

[JammyDodger]

@Rubi

I assume such a request, meaning bulk actions to update notifications, should be posted in #feature::category ?

Adding your use case to the existing one would work too. (There may even be others)