Another option for tracking entries

[twtd]

Title:
Another option for tracking entries

Area:
tracking

Summary:
I would like a way to track a post that, instead of contacting me every time a new comment is posted, contacts me after a set time period.

Description:
Sometimes, I want to track an entry because I'm interested in the discussion that's going on. So, I click the appropriate buttons and I get the comments emailed to me and that normally isn't a problem. But then something happens, the post gets linked somewhere (like metafandom or someplace similar that significantly increases the audience) and I go from getting a couple of emails to a deluge and my inbox gets completely overwhelmed. Rather than going through and reading all of those emails, I simply delete them and untrack the entry, and if I don't have time to go back to the entry right then, I forget about it.

I could put the entry in my memories, but then I still have the problem of remembering that it's there. Using the memory system has never really been intuitive for me.

So instead, I would like an intermediate step between tracking an entry and putting it in memories. I would like an option on the tracking menu that would send me a single email after a set period of time, say after 12 or 24 hours. Adding a way to set this interval would be useful, but I don't think it's necessary.

It seems like something like this wouldn't be particularly difficult to add to the tracking system that's already in place, though I know nothing about coding, so I could be completely wrong about that. I also imagine that it would cut down on the server load to some extent, as instead of having to send a user 50 or 100 emails, it would only have to send one. Conversely, if people don't turn the tracker off it could be sending out one email a day for the rest of forever, so I don't know how that would balance out.

If there are other drawbacks, I can't think of them, but I'm sure other people will in the comments.

Poll #3031 Another option for tracking entries

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 52

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
16 (30.8%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
14 (26.9%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
1 (1.9%)

(I have no opinion)
20 (38.5%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (1.9%)

Comments

[ratcreature]

Conversely, if people don't turn the tracker off it could be sending out one email a day for the rest of forever, so I don't know how that would balance out.
So you want to get an email even if there have been no new comments in that time period? I can see why you'd want a sort of digest option for comment tracking, but why send this if there are no comments?

[azurelunatic]

I'm all for a digest option, but, like ratcreature, I'd prefer to have it just list off all the comments if there were any, and get no contact if there was nothing.

[ninetydegrees]

+1

I would love to have this.

[eruthros]

+1

[kyrielle]

+1. Digest would be nice with links to all the new comments, or if that's a challenge, perhaps just "Entry [link] has [x] new comments." Though that sentence plus the thread links to each would be shiny.

[susanreads]

+1

[athena_cat]

+1

[the_shoshanna]

+1

[draigwen]

+1

[nafs]

+1

[lauredhel]

+1

[stepps]

Adding to what ratcreature and azurelunatic have said, possibly this feature could be set to send 1 email every specified period only if there are new comments, but not if there aren't? Or, perhaps an email, even without comments, with the question "do you still wish to track this post/comment" and the option to then continue tracking or not.

I can certainly see how it'd be useful for those posts or comment threads that go wild and you'd like to remember to check once in a while.