Post moved notifications, who gets them and why/when?

I see there is an email notification that you can enable that sends an email out to let users know that a thread in the forum has been moved. 

However, I'm not sure that it works in the way we thought it did? 

How we thought it worked:

Someone posts a question in a forum. That question has to be moved over to another forum as it's not related to the subject of the forum it was originally posted in. Author of the post (and anyone who participated in the thread i.e 'has this question too' or replied before it was spotted and moved) gets the 'thread moved' email. 

How it seems to work:

A question posted elsewhere is moved into a forum that I'm subscribed to. I get a 'Thread moved' email notification. 

Can someone confirm what the expected behaviour is please as I'm not sure it makes sense? 



spelling edit
[edited by: Lisa Miles at 10:15 AM (GMT 0) on Mon, Aug 1 2022]
  • Howdy  - You are correct with your statement about how it seems to work. That is also documented here. Since the post is believed to better relate to the 'moved to' forum, those subscribed to that forum are notified of the post since it may be of interest them. The author and those who participated in the thread at the original location  are also notified of the move. 

  • Hi  

    Thanks for the explanation. I'm not 100% convinced that the author and participating users are being notified though!  and are are going to run some tests though to see what's going on in our community.

    I'm not sure I understand why someone needs to know that a post has been 'moved' into a forum they're subscribed to though? Why is the action of moving the thread not treated in the same as a 'new post' for anyone subscribed to the forum it's moved in to? Knowing it's specifically been moved from elsewhere has little value apart from to the author of the thread and those that have already participated (and when I say participated I mean anyone that has replied or 'have this question too' or are following the thread via notifications for example) 

    Sorry! Lots of questions! Blush

  • Howdy  - Before sending my earlier reply I did a test where both the author and and a member who had replied were notified of the move. I didn't think notifying the subscribers of the move was as important as letting them know there was something new in their forum. I can appreciate that the new post email would provide more information, but it isn't a new post and some members might have already seen the new post notification if subscribed to both forums. That said, it is still something to think about. 

  • I have been struggling with this as well.  In my thinking, a post that has been moved to another forum should trigger the Forum Thread notification, since this is in essence a new thread from the perspective of that immediate Forum and its subscribers.

    My assumption about the Forum Thread Moved notification was similar to  's - that it would go to anyone directly impacted by the move -- author, responders, etc.

  • We've had to disable the 'forum thread notification' extension because it was confusing and irritating our users.

    The users are auto subscribed to forums, because they join the group.

    They are then confused when they're notified that a forum post they didn't create gets moved, they simply don't care/don't want the notification - they already knew that the forum post existed, because they knew when it was created, they saw it in the activity feed and the content list, they didn't engage with it and so don't care what happens to it.

    They may care if it's ingress to a forum application they're subscribed to as a 'new thread', but they don't care if it's egress from a forum they are subscribed to because they would've engaged with it if it was relevant to them in that forum - and it's being moved, so it obviously isn't.

    However the author of that thread does need to know it was moved, because usually forum threads are moved because it was posted in the wrong place, and it's an easy and inoffensive and non conflicting way to let them know which place it should be in.

    Such a weird decision that it simply tells everyone everything of what's happening regardless. You either get all or nothing.

  • The whole logic around it is just bizarre. 

    I can't see how knowing a post being 'moved' into a forum I'm subscribed to has any relevance. I would say again that knowing a post has been moved is of value to the author and anyone specifically following that conversation (i.e has this question too) or has participated in replying to the post. 

  • Another confusing aspect I discovered was that when "Forum Thread Moved" is enabled, it is not reflected in the list of Notification Options in User Settings as something that could be disabled separately (surprising, since the list of notification settings is fairly granular otherwise).  It appears to be an all-or-nothing proposition.  

    We have staff & other users who might only follow 1 specific Forum and would want a notification if an existing thread was moved to there, but I'm not sure how to deliver them a notification without spamming everyone else in the process.