The discussion focuses on the need to decouple email notifications for @mentions from other activity types to reduce alert fatigue. Tris20 initiated the thread by requesting a feature where users receive emails only when mentioned, while still seeing other notifications (like replies or new posts in watched topics) within the platform. Currently, users must choose between receiving all emails or none.
mpalmer supported this idea, suggesting a more granular approach where each action type (quoted, replied to, mentioned, watched activity) has its own independent email setting. They noted that while managing multiple settings might be tedious, a “change all” mechanism could simplify the user experience. Additionally, james10 chimed in regarding the current default of emailing for every new post, describing it as overwhelming. They asked if enabling “mailing list mode” could effectively block all email notifications, highlighting the desire for better control over email frequency.
We’re aiming to reduce alert fatigue. During a session one of our users requested the following: “Can you make it so I only get emails when I’m mentioned, but still get the other notifications when I visit the platform?”
Unfortunately the current setting requires users to forgoe email notifications completely OR reduce what they watch on the platform.
I could see it being useful to split most (if not all) of the various actions listed there into their own separate options, something like this:
Email when I am:
Quoted [always|…]
Replied to [always|…]
My username is mentioned [always|…]
When there is new activity in my watched categories, tags, or topics [always|…]
(I grouped those last three because I would expect people who are watching things probably want the same notification settings for all three types of watched collections, but I may be wrong about that)
As a user, I think I might be slightly annoyed if I had to change each one of those separately, but since nobody has stormed the LinkedIn HQ over their egregious notification option mess, perhaps it’s not a huge deal for people to have to change four settings. It would be possible to have a “change all” mechanism, too, but I can’t think of a way off the top of my head to make that UX not be potentially confusing.
