Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple Jim
Does anyone really want email notifications? I always make sure I have that turned off on all the forums I visit. I'd have to be pretty uninterested in a forum to check it so little that I need a email notification when someone replies to a thread.
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Everyone certainly has their own preferences - but you may be incorrect in terms of what others might choose. When I was first building this community 15 years ago, enabling the email notifications provided a tangible feedback loop to get new registrants a positive, interactive introduction to the site. Sign up? Get a welcome email. Post something in the newbie section? Have a personalized automated welcome message, that then also shows up in your email box. It really helped drive a ton of activity. To this day, the vast majority of accounts have notifications turned on. Anyone who doesn't want them, can easily turn them off, so it's not terribly intrusive.
But while post/thread notifications are nice-to-haves, getting emails through for registration, password changes, etc. are a base requirement for functioning forum - email pretty much has to work.