Invision: Simple Way Of Notifying Of Bb Change?

[Singer]

Some background...

 

We're a volunteer-run choir. Currently, our executive (of which I'm a part) holds discussions by e-mail using our "exec" e-mail list address. This works reasonably well, but we do get e-mail floods at times.

 

I recently set up Invision on our site, with the hope of having the bulletin board replace our e-mail discussions. It provides much better historical tracking and separates topics much better than e-mail lists do. However, when I put forth my initial attempts at trying to convert people, some commented that it would be too much work.

 

The major concern was that, after connecting to the Internet, they would have to go to the board to see if there were any new messages. People aren't willing to spend this extra time. It requires a little bit more up-front time with potentially large time savings down the road as people try to keep track of a topic. Also, this provides a much better way of transitioning to a new executive and it has the potential of letting those choir members that would like to, to participate in the discussions by the executive. In other words, it can bring more democracy to the organization and flatten some of the hierarchy. Good solid background reasons but they don't answer the "I need to save time this very second!" comment.

 

I've been looking through the bulletin board to see if there is any way of doing the following things, with no luck. I've also installed version 1.2 BETA 2, hoping it might have the additional capabilities I seek - no luck. And I've checked through some of the mods for it at ibplanet.com - no luck! (Haven't checked ibplanet's bulletin board yet - it has a rather LARGE number of posts.)

 

The question...

 

It's possible for users to track individual topics. However, as far as I can tell, they have to request the topic tracking and it is by individual topic. So, the questions:

• Is there a way for the administrator to enable topic tracking for all topics for a user, so the user doesn't have to do anything?
  
• If the administrator can't do it, can the user do it?
  
• Can it be set so that only a single message would be sent to the user for any number of changes on the board since the last time they were there?
  
• Can this message include a link that would take the user to the search results that are generated when the user clicks on View New Posts?
  
• Or...people have talked about phpbb. Does that or another bb do something like this?
  

I have this funny feeling I may be looking at adding a modification to ibplanet's mod database, if it's possible.

 

I don't ask for a lot...

 

Thanks!

[WAdotcom]

I don't see any time consuming task here.

 

All the executives have to do is register to the board and then they won't have to log in cause the cookie saves all the info. Also, why not create a custom group called "executives" and create a forum only accessible by the "executives" group? You can also create a password protected forum.

[Singer]

It's basically a human process issue. It's the step before logging into the board (which, I agree, they just need to stay logged into it): some people are adverse to spending the few seconds required to open their web browser and getting to the board in the first place to check to see if there are messages. Yup - I have an "executive" group set up already.

[TCH-Rick]

Set up the forum for them as mentioned and then have them Subscribe to this Forum option. I think that will do what you want. Takes some work up front but then should email any messages to them. They can set up whether they want just notification or full text of the message.