Alright, this is a Public Service Announcement which should have been properly announced by G@G (wth is the 'G@G News' there for, anyway??), but was not.
The Developers have added a new feature to the site that now, by default, ALL QUESTIONS ARE AUTOMATICALLY SENT OUT TO EVERY SINGLE PERSON YOU FOLLOW.
G@G:
This is:
And:
G@G, Do you have any idea how much of a flood of automated, unwanted notifications you have just created for us? Do you?
And it's not just a site bug this time. This will keep happening, permanently, unless you remove this 'feature' by default. It needs to be changed immediately. If it doesn't, users will have to parse through upwards of hundreds (or thousands, if they are not on the site regularly) of pointless, auto-generated notifications, and the manual invite system will be rendered moot and obsolete.
How It 'Works':
No doubt some users are going to be happy/fine with this, as they are about getting as many eyes as possible onto every single question and mytake they post. That is short-sighted. Why? A: Not everything appeals to everyone. Are you about volume and numbers, or quality and authentic relationships? Do you want to gain false popularity through automation, or do you want to know who actually values your opinion, and that an invite actually means something?
The more followers you have, the more invites you receive.
If you have thousands of followers guess how many invites you receive? Hundreds/day. It is a deluge in my Inbox. I cannot possibly answer every single question, and I don't know if any of them actually came from a user manually inviting me (which I normally do prioritize and take as a conscious request to get my opinion, advice, or help.) However, now I can't even find my legitimate notifications easily amongst the flood of now bogus notifications. I have spent way too much time answering invites, barely doing anything else, before I realized (thanks to @Jjpayne) that most of the invites are not even real.
Uh... Did any Programmers consider that this Setting
Contradicts with this setting??
So let me get this straight - I don't want to receive invites for all questions for people I follow, yet the people who follow me can send me invites for all questions and mytakes they post. WTF?
How the Tech Automation Sucks & What Are the Repercussions of Such a Change:
* It doesn't build authentic relationships. It prioritizes anyone who wants to flood others’ inboxes with their content
* There is no differentiation between an actual user-generated invite and a lame A.I. invite, rending the old (perfectly fine) system moot
* It creates bloat, churn, and visual clutter, which takes excess processing time and causes tech fatigue. Too many choices cause brains to shut down and consumers to walk away without making any purchase or decision or want to stay on the site
* In the mobile app you cannot delete a notification without first opening it, so every single notification has to be opened, thereby wasting loads of time just to clear notifications
How To Fix It:
Developers/Admins:
1. Remove the 'feature altogether. No??
2. Take it immediately off default so invites are not automatic.
3. Announce all major software updates. Use the 'G@G News' feed. (Isn't that what it's there for??) And send us PMs about major functional site changes.
Users:
Go to Settings/Invite Settings/ and turn the 'Automatically send an invite to all the people I am Following when I ask a question or share a myTake' OFF by unchecking the box.
If GAG doesn't change their programming, and if users do not uncheck this new setting, then what are our options?
1. Leave the site, close the account.
2. Use the site far less often. (And then be faced with potentially thousands more notifications upon returning. So this actually solves nothing.)
3. Lock down the account, such as only allowing follows by users we approve. (Which I am philosophically against doing - I believe in a free and open internet and not shutting down communication)
4. Block users who refuse to change this Invite Setting and continue to spam users with every single question and mytake they post.
This is a major decision, major change, bad tech, and once again, it has not been well thought-out.
You, @GirlsAskGuys probably think you're creating more user engagement. But you're not. What you're doing is redirecting traffic away from what users actually want to answer, to what the Askers want to be answered. Do you see the difference??? How is that logical, fair or right?
And now, some music to inspire you:
Dies Irae (Requiem) - Karl Jenkins & Adiemus.
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