Advertise availablity of email alerts / notifications better

[RichardTaylor]

A WhatDoTheyKnow user has tweeted

I'm not actually sure @WhatDoTheyKnow have a notification feature. Wld be good, @theyworkforyou's is great

Perhaps more needs to be done to make clear that the alert / notification / follow feature exists.

The follow button isn't very prominent on a public body page.

While there have been WhatDoTheyKnow blog posts:

https://www.mysociety.org/2014/09/19/how-to-keep-up-with-hot-topics-in-your-local-area/
https://www.mysociety.org/2014/09/29/subscribe-to-foi-requests-on-any-topic/

perhaps there could be an Alaveteli page akin to

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/alert/

or as on TheyWorkForYou the call to "sign up for email alerts" could be included on more Alaveteli pages.

See also: mysociety/whatdotheyknow-theme#120

[RichardTaylor]

Further from the same user when pointed to the "follow" buttons:

Thanks. Familiar with that feature. But some way of notifying about new requests wld be great too!

Following a user or body does result in emails (if not turned off) about new requests to that authority or by that user so perhaps there is a promotion / expectation issue.

[RichardTaylor]

User was eventually happy

Ah! Thank you. Following a search result is basically what I was getting at

Exchange does raise questions about the clarity of what's being offered though.

[wrightmartin]

Does anyone know if this from before the WTDK redesign?

[wrightmartin]

perhaps there could be an Alaveteli page akin to http://www.theyworkforyou.com/alert/

This is a good idea - we could walk users through setting up keyword alerts quite nicely

[garethrees]

Does anyone know if this from before the WTDK redesign?

The timestamp of the tweet is 2:01 PM - 15 Aug 2015, so that's definitely after we pushed it. User testing I did in April 2014 showed similar (#1445 (comment) – TASK 2).

[HelenWDTK]

This issue has been automatically closed due to a lack of discussion or resolution for over 12 months.
Should we decide to revisit this issue in the future, it can be reopened.