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1 answer
I would argue that this feature should be opt out, rather than opt in. That is, everyone should receive email for their notifications (answers to their questions or comments on their posts) unless they untick a checkbox in their user preferences. The email should state clearly how to opt out, preferably with a link to the relevant page.
My reasoning is based on how this affects people who assume there will be no emails and how this affects people who assume there will be emails:
- Someone who expects no emails will be surprised by the first email, but will then switch off email notifications and have no further problem.
- Someone who expects emails (due to that being the default on some other platforms) may simply think that they never received a response. If they are expecting an email they may not check the site often, and see the response only when they check the site directly, which may be after a long delay or never.
This applies in particular to communities which currently have low activity. A new user may post a question, then check back in an hour, then in a day, then after 3 days, and then never again. An answer received after 4 days would therefore never be seen without an email notification.
As evidence that the lack of email is sometimes surprising: Email alerts for notifications was posted on Software Development Meta and is collecting upvotes.
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