Notifications are distributable by email
In release 9.0, Email is a supported notification distribution type. Users can choose which type of notification they receive on the site or through email.
Notifications are extensible
Notifications are plugins, and are enabled or disabled in the Administration > Notifications tab. They are extensible for third-party development as well, offering the ability to query and read notifications; query and update user notification preferences; define custom notification types, and define custom delivery methods for notifications.
Users can choose how to receive notifications
Users can select the kinds of email notifications they want to receive on their Settings > Notifications tab (similar to Live Alerts). For example, if you subscribe to Support forum emails in the forum, the system checks to see where you globally want the forum notification emails to be sent.