This week, instead of providing insight into content or big features, I want to help Gather fans new and old members to manage their Gather experience, on the site and in your email. We get a lot of feedback on issues like too many emails or what appears to be spam. For this week, I'd like to help you navigate the ways in which you can limit how much email you get from us, and make sure that you get the emails you want the most.
Note: All of these options are easy to find by going to "My Info" > "Preferences" on the menu at the far right on the top of every page on Gather.
Connections, Subscriptions, and Groups - your community on Gather. There are three ways in which you can connect to people on Gather. All three lead to notifications that you might want to manage. The more you connect, subscribe, and group, the more messages you will get both on the site and in your regular email. The good news is that you can manage notification you get from Gather to control the flow of messages. For all of your connections, you can turn on or off a variety of notifications in bulk. For individual subscriptions and Groups, you can manage each instance individually. This means if you subscribe or join the Group The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor, you can be told when the daily post is live.
Off-Gather notifications. Gather sends notifications of activity in your Gather world to the email box you specified for your account. Let me share two points about these notifications. The first is that it's a great way to find content, see comments, and find out about
newly uploaded images. The bad news is that it can clog your email box if you are not careful. If you have an email client that supports rules, you can manage your inbound email from Gather. Since all notifications come from the same address, memberinfo@gather.com, so you can send those updates to a unique folder that can capture all of those messages.
Daily and Weekly updates. Something we introduced a few weeks ago can also help you manage the activity in your Gather network. You can opt out of all of your notifications, and opt for a daily or weekly "digest" of the activity on your network when it is more convenient for you, and won't clog your inbox. You can also see what your connections and groups have done for you lately by looking at your "Network Activity," found just below "Community Picks" on you logged-in home page.
Email on the site (aka Private Messages). This new feature on Gather has made it much easier to form friendships on Gather. It is private, it is a connection point for Gather members, and it enhances the Gather experience tremendously. But the same etiquette that applies to traditional email should apply here too. Email people you know, or individually to people you are getting to know. Spamming users or being rude in direct messages will get you kicked off the site faster than you can hit "Undo."
If you have more questions about Gather Preferences and messaging, comment here, or post an article to Building A Better Gather, at improve.gather.com. And as always, check editorsdesktop.gather.com for more insight into the Gather experience. Jennifer and I look forward to hearing from you.
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David is Editor in Chief of Gather
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