Managing Notifications

Notification overload is real. Personally, I keep up with both BudgetPixel and X. It's a balancing act and there is no perfect solution. In this blog, I'm going to share some of the things I do manage my notifications. What I do, may not work for you, but the point is these settings are customizable. In addition, getting feedback from users in one place may help initiate changes and improvements. THE EARLY DAYS I've been here since the day the BudgetPixel feed was born. Back then, our community was small. I got notified of everything. As the community began to grow, tags became a thing, a way to call attention to a post you wanted a few specific people to see. That eventually grew into the beast of a QT list. Users started copying the list on every post. It grew into the only way to get seen was to use the QT list. All other posts were getting suppressed to where the feed became useless. The introduction of clans and the limiting of tags to 5 per post was supposed to help. However, many people are still tagging posts (breaking tags up into multiple comments on their posts), including clan posts. The result is double notifications via tag and the clan if you are part. MANAGING YOUR NOTIFICATIONS As I stated before, there is no perfect system. Here are some tips and ideas. Pick and choose, customize what works for you! First, under user settings you will find your notifications tab. This is where you can pick and choose which notifications you see. If you scroll down, there are even more options. I have a few things toggled off and they may seem surprising to some, but they have proved the most effective to me in managing my notifications. ~ Likes on your comments: I decided I don't need to see likes on my comments. This is simply not an important feature to me. I've had it turned off so long, I don't know how many notifications it saves. However, I do know I like every nice comment or emoji left on my posts. If others do the same, I guessing this save me a bunch of notifications. ~ Likes on your posts: Again, this has been turned off for a while. If it has not changed, you are notified every 5th like on your post (someone please correct me if this has changed). Therefore, I'm not seeing every like anyway and I can easily view who liked a post simply by clicking the number next to the heart on my posts if I want to see. Two days ago, I posted a lot since I was off work. This toggle being off saved me 83 notifications. ~ Comments on your post: This one may be surprising. However, I simply go to my page as I have time. I view recent posts, read and respond to comments all at once instead of notification by notification. Much more effective! That same busy day two days ago, saved me around 140 notifications. Downside, I may miss new comments on older posts. ~ I have also turned off claps on blogs and post moderation complete. Both are easy enough to see when I want to, no need to receive a notification. FOSTERING COMMUNITY Some notifications are very important to me, so I keep them turned on. ~ Mentions: Even though this can be troublesome, I keep it turned on. It is helpful if a friend calls my attention to something I missed or wants me to see a comment to continue a conversation. However, I am actively asking to be removed from tag lists. It's not just friends tagging anymore, others are copying your lists and tagging everyone. I prefer to find my content via clan notifications, the gallery and the feed. ~ Replies to your comments: This one is super important to me. It allows me to get notified of a conversation on my posts or other people's posts. I enjoying talking and having conversations with people. The main reason I even post on the social feed is building community and making friends. ~ Tips: I keep this notification turned on as well. Someone wanting to tip me credits is more than just a like or comment. I want to make sure I don't overlook these somehow. MANAGING CLAN NOTIFICATIONS Another way to manage notifications is muting them for a specific theme within a clan. Every clan you post in you will automatically join. Every theme you post in, you will get notifications for. But what if you don't want to leave a clan but you are getting flooded with notifications for a particular theme? Simply navigate to the clan page and select the theme. At the top right of the theme page (see image below), click the bell to mute notifications for that theme only. MORE WAYS TO MANAGE Personally, I delete my notifications once I have seen them. It helps me keep track. Some I delete before I see them. For example, if someone has posted 6 single images on the same theme, I will delete them before I see them. I will most likely view the first and move on. Another helpful tool is clicking the bell then 'see all notifications' at the bottom. This will take to the above menu where you can sort your notifications and mark items read. Personally, I don't utilize this much, but I know others find it very helpful. I do plan to see to suggest a 'delete all' option on this menu. If I get behind, it would be helpful to clear out old notifications instead of doing it one by one. HOW YOU CAN HELP ~ If someone asks not to be tagged in posts, please respect this. ~ If you have multiple related images, please consider grouping them in one post (up to 6 for images only, or 1 video and 3 images are allowed per post). ~ If youcare posting in a clan, don't also tag people. There is often overlap that results in double notifications for each post. FINAL THOUGHTS ~ The most important take away should be notifications are customizable. Pick and choose what is most important to you and build your system around that. ~ Share any comments, suggestions or ways you manage notifications in the comments below. Let's start a thoughtful discussion on how to improve our community. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog! If you enjoyed this, please clap (up to 20 claps allowed per user).