# Blue post notices ... really necessary?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** post-notices
**Created:** [July 28, 2019, 3:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192 "2019-07-28T15:29:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tracey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tracey)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 3:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/1 "2019-07-28T15:29:29Z")
Anyone else find these blue banners announcing ones activity, very condescending, immature and annoying?
Maybe even embarassing for the OP concerned! đ¤ˇđźââď¸
> [@Watch out for double url encoding of SSO payload](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watch-out-for-double-url-encoding-of-sso-payload/124185):
>
> Weâve been having a ton of problems with our SSO implementation recently and after a lot of debug work found the issue. Some of our issues included: New users being unable to sign into the forums Existing users having 7 added to the end of their username when they signed in for the first time sso\_sync rejecting username changes It turns out this was all caused by double URL encoding our SSO payload. We were encoding it, putting it in the URL with the signature and encoding that again. As basâŚ
The Discourse forum does not need such childish improvisations!
Just my opinion please feel free to comment, I know I will never add this feature to any of my forum groups.
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### Author:  [@Mevo](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mevo)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/2 "2019-07-28T15:44:45Z")
Tracey, Iâm also French, and I find this pretty great. So, this may not have much to do with it.
Signaling that itâs the first post of someone and the person should be welcomed (and maybe isnât used yet to how things work on the forum) seems a good thing to me.
Signaling that someone is back after a while also seems a good thing to me.
> [@Tracey](#):
>
> very condescending, immature and annoying?
> Maybe even embarassing for the OP concerned!
Yeah, no offence but these days, I keep on noticing how some people see âproblemsâ and are negative about quite everything. Not saying you are necessarily one of these persons, but thatâs what this is inspiring me. And here, the country you are referring to may have something to do with it đ
If a very regular poster leaves for several months and nobody notices he wasnât there for a long period, isnât that more embarrassing for him ?
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### Author:  [@Tracey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tracey)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 3:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/3 "2019-07-28T15:53:59Z")
A welcome Yes ! I agree,
But a banner saying that you haventâ posted for 4 months!!! .. personally ( imo) I find that a bit weird and I would not like it.
Infact, It would put me off posting which in the case of others could mean missing out on something rather interesting or informative which would be a shame.
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### Author:  [@JimPas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JimPas)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 3:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/4 "2019-07-28T15:58:20Z")
I suppose one could think of this type of banner in this scenario: A group of people are standing around conversing. Another person walks up and one in the group says, âWow! We havenât seen you in four months! How are you and what have you been up to?â Would that be cause for that person not to talk to them? đ
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### Author:  [@Tracey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tracey)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 4:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/5 "2019-07-28T16:04:25Z")
> [@JimPas](#):
>
> Would that be cause for that person not to talk to them? đ
All the more reason to talk to them.I agree, absolutely great to catch up, but not at their expense⌠bit different to saying it in a group of 8 or 9 people down the pub than on an international forum! đą
Why announce their absence?
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### Author:  [@Mevo](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mevo)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 4:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/6 "2019-07-28T16:13:24Z")
> [@JimPas](#):
>
> Another person walks up and one in the group says, âWow! We havenât seen you in four months! How are you and what have you been up to?â
Exactly !
Now, if everybody behaves like they just saw the absent person the day before, that person may think to himself âwow, they didnât even notice I wasnât there for 4 months. So, if I participate or not, they donât see any difference. WTH am I loosing my time here ?â
@Tracey I see it exactly the other way around: âDown the pubâ or in a very small group, they will probably have noticed the personâs absence. On a big forum, letâs be honest, there are so many people, so many messages, and so many nicknames (or names) to remember, that any individual poster is forgotten pretty quickly. With this blue banner, you exactly âpreventâ what I just described above to Jim.
And thereâs the âcruelâ way: You donât want a blue banner after a long absence: Keep posting regularly đ (joke)
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### Author:  [@Tracey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tracey)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 4:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/7 "2019-07-28T16:14:48Z")
Letâs be honest Itâs a catch 22 situation! đŠ
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/8 "2019-07-28T16:36:00Z")
On the member level I guess there could be Yet Another Setting ⢠eg. âhighlight my arrival / returnâ
I have a feeling that having a large number of member settings would be more detrimental than any single particular feature.
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### Author:  [@Tracey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tracey)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 4:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/9 "2019-07-28T16:44:01Z")
> [@Mevo](#):
>
> And thereâs the âcruelâ way: You donât want a blue banner after a long absence: Keep posting regularly
That is Blackmail!!
đ
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### Author:  [@JimPas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JimPas)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 4:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/10 "2019-07-28T16:45:31Z")
> [@Mittineague](#):
>
> having a large number of member settings would be more detrimental than any single particular feature.
On two forums that I am in (a mod in one, admin in the other), Iâve noticed some members seem to not even bother with changing their usernames from the default âeverything in front of the @ signâ in their email addresses. When I mentioned it to them, a few have changed it on their own, but most ask me to do it for them. đ Having even more member settings would indeed be mostly unnecessary and bloat the software - kind of like what happened to Windows. đ
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### Author:  [@Tracey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tracey)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/11 "2019-07-28T16:46:50Z")
> [@Mevo](#):
>
> Tracey, Iâm also French
> [@Mevo](#):
>
> the country you are referring to may have something to do with i
Iâm English but living in France and French speaking with French family, but get where you are coming from. Thanks for your reply.
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### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 5:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/12 "2019-07-28T17:08:29Z")
I absolutely love them. They are really useful, especially the new user banner.
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### Author:  [@Tracey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tracey)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 5:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/13 "2019-07-28T17:12:00Z")
OK⌠ok guys I really need to rephrase - I do love a blue bannerâŚBUT it depends whatâs on it.
Hello or Welcome to our community ..Yes ,yes ,yesâŚ
But when I saw the 4 months since last posting? **Not my cup of tea** , and I can say that 'cos Iâm English đ¤Ł
Ps anyone can say that irrespective of nationality đ
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/14 "2019-07-28T17:13:29Z")
I thought that those banners were not visible to the person posting.
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### Author:  [@Tracey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tracey)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 5:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/15 "2019-07-28T17:14:22Z")
> [@pfaffman](#):
>
> not visible to the person posting
That is even worse! đ˛
So condescending is correct? đ¤¨
Or is a new or very ancient poster supposed to believe that all of a sudden everyone ⤠likes them?
Welcome by all means but letâs do it to their face!
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 5:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/16 "2019-07-28T17:22:16Z")
I find them very helpful. I can tell when someone is a new user or if a user that I donât recognize is a long time discourse user who just doesnât spend their whole life here. It gives context to the questions they ask.
But maybe read [Post notices for first-time and returning users](https://meta.discourse.org/t/post-notices-for-first-time-and-returning-users/112078) rather than rehashing it all again.
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### Author:  [@Tracey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tracey)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 5:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/17 "2019-07-28T17:27:58Z")
Ok.. never thought of it that way, but if the OP does not see it, isnât it a bit like talking about them behind their backâŚ
I really like the positives âŚWelcome, congratulations, anniversaries etc ⌠but saying 9 months since he or she posted or the worlds biggest loser ⌠not so good? đ¤ˇđźââď¸
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### Author:  [@Mevo](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mevo)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/18 "2019-07-28T17:32:05Z")
> [@Tracey](#):
>
> Or is a new or very ancient poster supposed to believe that all of a sudden everyone ⤠likes them?
Sure, there is also the opposite of what I described above: These banners prevent âgenuineâ reactions from people who would notice by themselves someone is new or was absent. But Jay posted a great link showing how to disable the feature if you donât want/like it. You only have to make a choice: Do you prefer to HAVE this feature, or NOT have it ?
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### Author:  [@Tracey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tracey)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 5:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/19 "2019-07-28T17:35:34Z")
> [@Mevo](#):
>
> Do you prefer to HAVE this feature, or NOT have it ?
The feature is GOOD ..it is what is typed within that has to be carefully monitored.
(especially if the OP is not privy to this information)
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### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2019, 5:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/blue-post-notices-really-necessary/124192/20 "2019-07-28T17:38:46Z")
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