Following a blog post doesn't generate notifications of new comments

[Matt_Fraser]

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the mechanism, but recently I 'followed' a blog post, as I didn't (at that time) have any actual comment to make, but I was interested in seeing others' follow-up comments.  However, I never received any notifications in my Communications tab, though I could see that many more comments were in fact being generated.  Is this not what the 'Follow' button is supposed to do, allow notifications without having to comment oneself?

Unfortunately, I've now actually made my own comment, which has resulted in follow-up comments creating notifications as expected, so I can't really test whether the functionality is still not working the way I expected it to.  However, if someone can enlighten me as to my understanding of this feature, I'd be grateful.

I did see this discussion () which is similar, but not exactly the same issue.  I wonder if something like what was happening then is happening now?

Best regards,

Matt

[Jitendra_Kansal · Accepted solution]

If you want to see notifications in "communication tab" you have to select "track in communications" option for that blog/document.

I believe "follow" is something which can see in "activity"tab like who has liked that blog,  who has bookmarked it

Rgrds,

Jitendra

[Former Member]

This message was moderated.

[Matt_Fraser]

Thanks, Jitendra and Steffi.  Actually, I wasn't getting updates in the Activity feed either (except when someone I follow would comment on the blog, which is how I knew that more comments were occurring).  In fact, marking "Follow" on the blog (it was 's brilliant one from yesterday, by the way) didn't seem to make any change in behavior at all.  Only actually commenting on the blog did.

Anyway, I never previously noticed the 'Track in Communications' button, but from your comments I've gone and looked and found it now.  So, I guess the answer is "user error" after all!  Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

--Matt

[Steffi_Warnecke]

You're very welcome, Matt!

But it would be great when someone from the SCN team (maybe ) could explain, if we just misunderstood the Follow-option or if this is a bug.

Because when I look at the document it seems like you should have gotten notifications by following the blog. Or maybe this just means, you get infos, when the blog/document ITSELF is changed, not for comments on it.

[Matt_Fraser]

That's what I was wondering, if it was only for updates to the blog itself, and not for comments.

[JasonLax]

In short:

• Follow > Activity Stream
• Track in Communications > Communications Inbox

If you don't want to miss anything, it's better to track in communications that works like an e-mail inbox: your activity stream can get pretty cluttered with everything depending on how much you're following. (Note that you can filter your activity stream by Followed Activity & All Activity.)

[Steffi_Warnecke]

Hello Jason,

thank you for this clarification. I'm using the feature quite a lot. ^^

But what Matt and I were really wondering is, if the follow and/or tracking feature includes information about new comments on the followed content. So that you get a notification, if someone comments on the blog/document.

[JL23]

I don't use mail notifications, but from time to time a click "track in communication" for an interesting blog or document which is not posted in any of the spaces that I follow, and I get all comments in my communication stream.

[Steffi_Warnecke]

Yeah, I thought it was working like that for me, too. Now I've not watched this during the last days, so maybe it's working just fine.

@: Did you have the same issue these last days?

[Matt_Fraser]

Yes, that works.  I wasn't previously understanding the difference between 'Follow' and 'Track in Communications.'  However, when I 'followed' a blog post, I didn't see anything about it in my Activity Feed either, except when a person I'm following commented on it.  Admittedly, for my activity feed, that's about all I would want anyway, so perhaps it's good it didn't work as I expected!  But, it meant that effectively 'following' a blog didn't do anything at all.  Only following the people involved, or 'tracking in communications' had any effect.

[Matt_Fraser]

I can't say for sure, as the blog in question is one I ultimately ended up commenting on, and as soon as you do that, it gets tracked in communications automatically, which was what I was really trying to have happen.  That part is working.

[Steffi_Warnecke]

You can disable the tracking again in the Actions menu btw. ^^ It looks like following and tracking are different in more than just the box they land in. I think, I've never just followed content, because most of the stuff I'm following I commented on, too.

Hmmm...

[JasonLax]

You should see all activities in either feed: comments and replies added, likes on the content and those comments and replies, and so on. The followed activity stream can run pretty long and there's also some filtering options.  If you don't want to miss anything, I recommend tracking so that it stays in your communications inbox until it is read. 

Note that you automatically start tracking any content you comment or reply on, even if you're not tracking the people or space.

[Steffi_Warnecke]

Hello Matt,

if you follow content (thread, blog, user) it just means, that you get the updates in your Activity-stream. If you want to get the notifications in your Communications-stream, you need to click on "Track in Communications". That's the last option in the "Actions"-list on the right side of... everything.

Regards,

Steffi.