Suggestion: "New fight" notification e-mail

Use this forum for title suggestions, bitching at moderators, whining about phpBB, and grand ideas that will solve all of Song Fight's problems.
Post Reply

Is a "new fight" notification e-mail a cool idea?

Poll ended at Sat Mar 31, 2007 7:48 am

I like it, I like it!
5
63%
I don't care cuz I wouldn't use it.
0
No votes
I hate it, I hate it!
1
13%
WTF!?! You really like these damned polls, dontcha?
2
25%
 
Total votes: 8
User avatar
wages
Panama
Posts: 987
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:16 pm
Instruments: Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Recording Method: Zoom h4n, Audacity
Submitting as: Wages
Location: The place that never tasted so good
Contact:

Suggestion: "New fight" notification e-mail

Post by wages »

The forums automatically send an e-mail when a new message is posted to a topic one is following. Is there any reason why we couldn't have some sort of notification when there is a new fight title posted? One easy way to do it would be to have a single "administrator posts only" forum or topic. Admins would post the new song titles in that forum solely so that people will get that notification e-mail. Alternately to avoid tying in to the forums, someone could easily set up a PHP script to send a notification whenever a new title is posted. Then fighters could signup for the notification if they want it.

Just some thoughts. I've been having a lot of ideas this week. Don't know why....
Wages - Hoglen & Wages - The Affirmative Mention - Gawking Urethras - The EAF - and more
User avatar
Billy's Little Trip
Odie
Posts: 12090
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2006 2:56 pm
Instruments: Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Drums, Skin Flute
Recording Method: analog to digital via Presonus FireBox, Cubase and a porn machine
Submitting as: Billy's Little Trip, Billy and the Psychotics
Location: Cali fucking ornia

Post by Billy's Little Trip »

I like anything that makes my life easier, but I have no idea if this is a pain for the Admin here.
User avatar
Lunkhead
You're No Good
Posts: 8104
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 12:14 pm
Instruments: many
Recording Method: cubase/mac/tascam4x4
Submitting as: Berkeley Social Scene, Merisan, Tiny Robots
Pronouns: he/him
Location: Berkeley, CA
Contact:

Post by Lunkhead »

If the FMs were interested in doing something like that, doing it with a thread on the boards seem like the least effort route. People could opt in and out without the FMs having to run or manage a mailing list. If that were available I'd sign up, but I'm OK without it.
User avatar
blue
Ice Cream Man
Posts: 1710
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 12:09 pm
Location: irc
Contact:

Post by blue »

why dont you get a mailserv account somewhere and start a new fight notify list?
User avatar
wages
Panama
Posts: 987
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:16 pm
Instruments: Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Recording Method: Zoom h4n, Audacity
Submitting as: Wages
Location: The place that never tasted so good
Contact:

Post by wages »

Lunkhead wrote:If the FMs were interested in doing something like that, doing it with a thread on the boards seem like the least effort route. People could opt in and out without the FMs having to run or manage a mailing list. If that were available I'd sign up, but I'm OK without it.
Exactly! It would be as easy as copying and pasting the exact same message from the "pre-fight" threads into the "Song posted!" thread. Someone could even volunteer to admin that topic (if that functionality is available).
Wages - Hoglen & Wages - The Affirmative Mention - Gawking Urethras - The EAF - and more
User avatar
roymond
Beat It
Posts: 5188
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 3:42 pm
Instruments: Guitars, Bass, Vocals, Logic
Recording Method: Logic X, MacBookPro, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2
Submitting as: roymond, Dangerous Croutons, Intentionally Left Bank, Moody Vermin
Pronouns: he/him
Location: brooklyn
Contact:

Post by roymond »

Well, if there was a new title for the weekend I'd get busy while I had a guitar available. Otherwise it's the hotel room instrument set only...[hint hint]
roymond.com | songfights | covers
"Any more chromaticism and you'll have to change your last name to Wagner!" - Frankie Big Face
User avatar
Billy's Little Trip
Odie
Posts: 12090
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2006 2:56 pm
Instruments: Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Drums, Skin Flute
Recording Method: analog to digital via Presonus FireBox, Cubase and a porn machine
Submitting as: Billy's Little Trip, Billy and the Psychotics
Location: Cali fucking ornia

Post by Billy's Little Trip »

roymond wrote:Well, if there was a new title for the weekend I'd get busy while I had a guitar available. Otherwise it's the hotel room instrument set only...[hint hint]
Your Weeeener?
User avatar
fluffy
Eruption
Posts: 11028
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 10:56 am
Instruments: sometimes
Recording Method: Logic Pro X
Submitting as: Sockpuppet
Pronouns: she/they
Location: Seattle-ish
Contact:

Post by fluffy »

One of the best notification strategies on the Internet these days is RSS, which is a lot easier for everyone to deal with.

RSS feeds are also (in certain contexts) called podcasts.

What you do with this information is up to you.
User avatar
Billy's Little Trip
Odie
Posts: 12090
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2006 2:56 pm
Instruments: Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Drums, Skin Flute
Recording Method: analog to digital via Presonus FireBox, Cubase and a porn machine
Submitting as: Billy's Little Trip, Billy and the Psychotics
Location: Cali fucking ornia

Post by Billy's Little Trip »

Question: What the Doctor puts on your pod if you break it...
fluffy wrote:podcasts.
User avatar
blue
Ice Cream Man
Posts: 1710
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 12:09 pm
Location: irc
Contact:

Post by blue »

fluffy wrote:One of the best notification strategies on the Internet these days is RSS, which is a lot easier for everyone to deal with.

RSS feeds are also (in certain contexts) called podcasts.

What you do with this information is up to you.
this is a fine point.
User avatar
Lunkhead
You're No Good
Posts: 8104
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 12:14 pm
Instruments: many
Recording Method: cubase/mac/tascam4x4
Submitting as: Berkeley Social Scene, Merisan, Tiny Robots
Pronouns: he/him
Location: Berkeley, CA
Contact:

Post by Lunkhead »

Surely PHPBB provides RSS feeds of threads? If it doesn't, that sucks.
User avatar
fluffy
Eruption
Posts: 11028
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 10:56 am
Instruments: sometimes
Recording Method: Logic Pro X
Submitting as: Sockpuppet
Pronouns: she/they
Location: Seattle-ish
Contact:

Post by fluffy »

There are mods for it(*) but my point was that we already have a podcast which is updated when a new fight goes up, which is usually at about the same time as the title. So if you just use any old RSS reader and point it at the songfight podcast, instant notifications.

Ironically I didn't have notification enabled on this thread so I didn't think to check up on it.

* I don't really like comment RSS feeds. It's a just management hassle, and current readers aren't smart enough to only request things which are likely to have changed and so after a while you end up with a whole bunch of RSS readers constantly pinging every thread on a forum. Not very scalable.
User avatar
wages
Panama
Posts: 987
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:16 pm
Instruments: Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Recording Method: Zoom h4n, Audacity
Submitting as: Wages
Location: The place that never tasted so good
Contact:

Post by wages »

I started using the podcasts with iTunes. Works great. Thanks!
Wages - Hoglen & Wages - The Affirmative Mention - Gawking Urethras - The EAF - and more
User avatar
MintyHandy
Mean Street
Posts: 564
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2005 5:00 pm
Instruments: None
Recording Method: None

Post by MintyHandy »

Or you could be really clever (and annoy your wonderful songfight hosts) by running a cronjob that pulls a copy of the front page every hour or so, and when it detects a change in the songfight title area, you get an email.

I don't do this for songfight, but I've done it (with a 30-second polling interval) when concert ticket availability was being announced on a website) with success.
User avatar
jb
Hot for Teacher
Posts: 4159
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 10:12 am
Instruments: Guitar, Cello, Keys, Uke, Vox, Perc
Recording Method: Logic X
Submitting as: The John Benjamin Band
Pronouns: he/him
Location: WASHINGTON, DC
Contact:

Post by jb »

or you could be smart about it and have your cron job just ask the server for the "last modified date" of the front page.
blippity blop ya don’t stop heyyyyyyyyy
User avatar
signboy
Mean Street
Posts: 712
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:33 pm
Instruments: things that make noise
Recording Method: lots of stuff plugged into lots of other stuff
Location: hillbillyland
Contact:

Post by signboy »

a) the podcasts work great, download ridiculously fast, and can be set to
play the songfight when the songs are downloaded. (like an alarm!)
2. It's kind of funny watching everybody hang around on SF! when they
think the next fight is about to be posted.
User avatar
fluffy
Eruption
Posts: 11028
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 10:56 am
Instruments: sometimes
Recording Method: Logic Pro X
Submitting as: Sockpuppet
Pronouns: she/they
Location: Seattle-ish
Contact:

Post by fluffy »

jb wrote:or you could be smart about it and have your cron job just ask the server for the "last modified date" of the front page.
That won't work since php always uses 'right now' as the modify date unless you specifically override it in the script.

Also the front page has random content ordering so you can't just look at the diff of the file.

It's really best to just poll the RSS feed.
Post Reply