IMPORTANT: New Forum Alerts System

[EEVblog]

I have installed a new forum alerts package that supposedly allows pop-up browser alerts for various thing on the forum.
You can modify these on your own profile here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/profile/?area=alerts

I have not tested it yet, so please advise how well it works and if there are any issues.

I have only just discovered this SMFpacks website that has all sorts of plugins for the forum, so let me know if you want any to be installed.
https://www.smfpacks.com/index.php#products_index

[EEVblog]

Some of the things I can modify.
Currently set for a 10s refresh with no sound.

[EEVblog]

I have just enabled all profile the default settings and it's busy modify all profiles now but could take some time.

[bitseeker]

Dave, in your OP, remove ;u=3 from the link to the Alerts Settings page to make it work with the current user, instead of your account.

[EEVblog]

You can see and change alerts up the top of the page:

[tautech]

You can see and change alerts up the top of the page:

Works a treat. 

[EEVblog]

Just got my first alert of someone replying to and quoting one of my posts 

[EEVblog]

When you press the Notify button on the topic or board you now get the option to Email and/or Alert

[TERRA Operative]

Is there any possibility of getting a 2FA addon for the forum?

[wilfred]

Just got my first alert of someone replying to and quoting one of my posts 

I'll bet you've turned it off by this time tomorrow.  edit: I mean for yourself.

But I do think it is a valuable improvement to the forum.

[tautech]

You can see and change alerts up the top of the page:

Dave, it seems to be polling the forum for alerts every 10s or so, so there'll probably be a jump in server usage that might be worth keeping an eye on.

[EEVblog]

Is there any possibility of getting a 2FA addon for the forum?

They do have a plugin for that, I'll give it go.
https://www.smfpacks.com/2fa/

[EEVblog]

Dave, it seems to be polling the forum for alerts every 10s or so, so there'll probably be a jump in server usage that might be worth keeping an eye on.

Yep, hopefully 10s randomised amoungst say a few hundred online users is enough. The server has plenty of resources.
Let me know if you notice any forum slow down

[TERRA Operative]

They do have a plugin for that, I'll give it go.
https://www.smfpacks.com/2fa/

Yeah, that one looks good. It works with Google Authenticator etc, so super easy to set up for the user.

[beanflying]

Note SMFPACKS.COM is NOT SMF the Forum software. Personally I wouldn't install modpacks from them on any SMF forum.

smf forum mod site is here instead http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php

[tautech]

You can see and change alerts up the top of the page:

Works a treat. 

Not entirely. 

For posts in threads before you enabled this Dave, mostly there are zero notifications...anyways as time goes by you'll see it misses a fair few.
Currently 'replies to your posts' is working as it always has and better.

[tautech]

EEVblog alerts turned OFF now as it's functionality is very disappointing compared to alerts in a XenForo based forum. 

Find something better Dave.

[EEVblog]

Note SMFPACKS.COM is NOT SMF the Forum software. Personally I wouldn't install modpacks from them on any SMF forum.
smf forum mod site is here instead http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php

So you are happy to install mods from just any unknown random user rather than a commercial company?

[beanflying]

Note SMFPACKS.COM is NOT SMF the Forum software. Personally I wouldn't install modpacks from them on any SMF forum.
smf forum mod site is here instead http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php

So you are happy to install mods from just any unknown random user rather than a commercial company?

Open Source platform (SMF)

Open Source Mod complete with code identifying it sends data to a third party.    https://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=parse;mod=4202;attach=260962;smf_version=2.0.15
Thread discussing it's use and that is seen by a lot of the SMF heads who help keep these mods in good shape as the core moves forward. https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=564832.20

Most likely the same mod from here https://www.smfhacks.com/index.php/topic,9722.msg42615/topicseen.html#new

As I have said I trust vbgamer's mods but I am not in favor of paid (not in this case) closed source mods on an open source platform.

As to the constant polling when I have it disabled using mine and your bandwidths for something I don't want you will need to look at what it does or doesn't do to your server load.

One of the things that makes this medium/large forum work so well is the lack of mods. which will in turn make your life easier when 2.1 comes online.

[gnif]

It seems that this mod took the site down this morning. While the servers are far more powerful then before, this plugin is putting undue load on the database due to very poorly written database queries and the poor database design of SMF.

[gnavigator1007]

It seems that this mod took the site down this morning. While the servers are far more powerful then before, this plugin is putting undue load on the database due to very poorly written database queries and the poor database design of SMF.

Was wondering if the 2 might be related

[gnif]

I have disabled the Alerts system until Dave can make a decision on how he would like to proceed.

[tautech]

It seems that this mod took the site down this morning. While the servers are far more powerful then before, this plugin is putting undue load on the database due to very poorly written database queries and the poor database design of SMF.

Seriously consider dumping it as it doesn't work as you'd expect.
Even turned off it's still polling the server every ~10s.

When I had poor internet, ~1.7 mbs in off peak times, this addon would've helped hog what little BW I had and quietly chewed away at my data cap so I feel for anyone that's still on poor internet as this addon adds little value to the forum.

Thanks for your great work as always gnif.

[gnif]

Dave, it seems to be polling the forum for alerts every 10s or so, so there'll probably be a jump in server usage that might be worth keeping an eye on.

Yep, hopefully 10s randomised amoungst say a few hundred online users is enough. The server has plenty of resources.
Let me know if you notice any forum slow down

It's also on every page load, it's at a minimum a 2 fold increase in server load when you take into account the complexity of the database queries being run to perform this.

Seriously consider dumping it as it doesn't work as you'd expect.
Even turned off it's still polling the server every ~10s.

I am inclined to agree, however it's not my call

Thanks for your great work as always gnif.

Thanks as always

[tautech]

It's also on every page load, it's at a minimum a 2 fold increase in server load when you take into account the complexity of the database queries being run to perform this.

Yes of course, I'd noticed the refresh at page load but not put the two together to come to that conclusion.