Managing Emails from Canvas Community and Groups

[vrs07nl]

I have joined a number of groups and am following or bookmaked a number of threads in community areas

I thought i had managed my preferences but i am getting inundated with emails, replies marked as helpful etc etc

So my questions are

1) what are the best settings to minimize emails i get ?

2) what is difference between follow and bookmark?

3) if i just bookmark - how do i get at a glance updates

thanks

Nicola Langton

[chofer · Accepted solution]

Hi Nicola...

This is actually a great set of questions to be asked over in the Meta Community Group, so I am going to move this topic over there.  If you're not a part of that group, you'll need to follow it so that you can see it.  I'll try and answer your questions, though.

1) When I first joined the community, I had tons of e-mails coming to my e-mail inbox.  After a while, I changed my preference settings.  To do this, you'll want to click on your profile picture at the top right corner of your screen and then choose "Preferences".  Here are the settings that work best for me and eliminate massive amounts of e-mails to my inbox:

2) Follow and Bookmark are two different things.  I'll use an example from Facebook.  If you "like" a company's FB page or you "like" a celebrity's FB page, you are essentially following that company or person...so you'll see those things in your FB timeline.  When you follow someone here in the Community, you'll be notified about his/her activity if you are also participating in the same discussion he/she is participating in.  Also, you'll see their activity in your Connection Stream (part of your "Inbox and Activity" when you click on that link above the "Preferences" link I mentioned earlier.  Bookmarking things is just that...bookmarking.  This essentially means you want to refer or come back to the page at a later time to review.

3) Your bookmarks are stored within your profile.  So, again, click on your profile picture at the top right corner of your screen, and then click on your name.  Next, under your profile picture, click on "More" >> "Bookmarks".  This will show you all pages within the Community that you have bookmarked since joining.  You can further sort by blog posts, feature ideas, videos, discussions, etc.

I hope this helps!!!

[Stefanie]

vrs07nl, chofer@morainepark.edu​ has given you excellent guidance and suggestions! I simply want to add links to some previous discussions of this issue that is relevant to anyone who wants to actively engage with the Community as well as some related links:

My New Community Bookmark Strategy

Question about notifications in the new Canvas Community

I find that creating custom streams has helped me minimize email clutter. I have been playing with the settings and streams here in Jive for a while now, and I think I've gotten it to where I'm only getting emails for items that demand my immediate attention; the other items stay in my Community Inbox, where I can scroll through them at my leisure. I think I've finally gotten Community notifications under control--but I still tinker with the settings all the time!

[kona]

To add my 2 cents, I've completely turned off all email notifications from the Community because it was getting overwhelming (even using custom streams). Instead I funnel things in the Community to my Community Inbox. Yes I have to check it regularly, but at least my work email isn't exploding with notifications!

[scottdennis]

Hi Nicola,

Like chofer@morainepark.edu​ I like to keep email turned on but every email option turned off except for receiving a daily summary:

I also like to do most of my interaction in Jive from the Jive inbox.  Like kona@richland.edu​ I keep my inbox pulled up in a browser tab and check it from time to time throughout the day.  I also like to use my custom streams as sort of a second tier monitoring tool:

[vrs07nl]

Dear Chris

thanks for this clear guide to managing community messages .

My preference setting were close to yours but i have now set them up to only show twice weekly summaries (almost like scottd@instructure.com)

I now understand where to see those items i am following and those i have book marked (shame access to each not within same page)

stefaniesanders​ - thanks for your suggestion re  custom streams _ will try that too as well as kona@richland.edu​ approach if the emails do not stop coming

if i have any more questions I will let you know

Out of curiosity - why is this guidance not generally available?

[chofer]

Glad I could help.  There is this Guide that is all about Preferences in this Community: How do I set my user preferences in the Community?

[kona]

vrs07nl​, glad we were able to help! As for your last question, I think the Community team tried to make sure the link to this information (and other getting started in the community information) was placed in a location that people could easily find it.

If you go to the Community home page there is a yellow "Get Started" button. If you click on this a "Getting Started" page comes up with lots of useful resources, including the link about setting up user preferences.

After clicking on the Get Started button you are directed to this page:

The link to "How to I set up user preferences in the Community" can be found under the "Jump In" box.

Have you seen this page before? Do you have any suggestions on a better place to add/have this link/information?

[vrs07nl]

i may have glanced at it but I am an in at the deep end user rather than a getting started person and did not think to go and look there .. there are so many places to go it is rather overwhelming so i thought it easy to pose the question and get all the help i needed in once place!

[vrs07nl]

kona@richland.edu  I had used the get started stuff related to profile ... not the stuff you point to in your screengrab and atGetting Started

the two are not the same so i did not look at your route...

for now thanks everyone.. I am now email free but still able to follow what is going on