Wednesday, April 15, 2009; 8:01 PM

Hello KnitU.

We've recieved a lot of questions regarding how e-mail subscriptions work with the new KnitU on KniTalk. And although we've published two articles about Subscribing to Forums for E-mail Notification and Subscribing to Threads for E-mail Notification in the Tips & Rules for KniTalk forum, we thought we consolidate those articles here and explain exactly what can and cannot be done for KnitU members who are used to receiving KnitU posts via e-mail.

Let's assume that you've already registered and/or logged into KniTalk (as a registered user). If you haven't please take a look at the How To Register on KniTalk post in the Tips & Rules for KniTalk forum.

KnitU is contained in three sub forums under the main KnitU forum (shown in the screen shot below).
The first forum is called KnitU Information (which you are already in if you're reading this article). This forum is a closed forum... which means that you can read what is in the forum, but you can't post or reply to anything in this forum.

The second forum is called KnitU - Let's Talk Knitting. This is the active forum containing different threads with multiple posts (usually) in each thread. This is the forum that you would go to to read, reply, or post new threads or posts.

The third forum is called KnitU Archives. This forum is also a closed forum... which means that you can read what is in the forum, but you can't post or reply to anything in this forum. Our intention for this forum is to populate it with all of the old KnitU digests as soon as we can (more on that in the future).

So the forum that KnitU members are going to interact with the most is the second forum -- KnitU - Let's Talk Knitting forum (shown in the screen shot below).
To post a reply to a thread or a post within a thread, just click on the thread and then use the various reply buttons to call up one of the Reply dialog boxes where you can type your message and post it for moderation.

To post a new thread, click on the NEW THREAD button on the top level of the KnitU - Let's Talk Knitting sub forum (shown in the screen shot above) to call up a Post New Thread dialog box where you can type your message and post it for moderation.

If you choose to interact with the site in by just going to the site, you can click on the New Post menu bar link to see what you haven't read yet (shown in the screen shot below). The site will keep track of what you have and haven't looked at yet.
Now... onto the idea of subscribing for e-mail notification. The way that KnitU/KniTalk is setup currently... there are a few choices. One of the options you have is to subscribe to forums so that you can receive e-mail notification on a daily basis for any changes or updates in that forum. This is just like receiving the KnitU digest. To do so, follow these steps....
1. Go to the KnitU - Let's Talk Knitting sub forum and use the pull-down Forum Tools button (on the right hand side of the grey thread bar) and choose the Subscribe to This Forum option (see the screen shot below).
2. This will take you to your Subscribe to Forum control panel options where you can set your e-mail options. Choose the Daily updates by email option in the pull-down menu (shown in the screen shot below).
3. Once you've set your preference for notification in this dialog box, click the Add Subscription button (shown in the screen shot below) to finish subscribing to the KnitU - Let's Talk Knitting sub forum.
You will now be e-mailed daily updates of any changes/additions to the KnitU - Let's Talk Knitting sub forum--just like the old KnitU digest.

Unfortunately, the instant e-mail notification doesn't work the way the old KnitU worked. One of the options you have is to subscribe to threads so that you can receive e-mail notification daily or instantly for any changes or updates to a given thread. To do so, follow these steps....
A. Go to the KnitU - Let's Talk Knitting sub forum, select a thread (by clicking on it) and use the pull-down Thread Tools button (on the right hand side of the grey thread bar) and choose the Subscribe to this Thread option (see the screen shot below).
B. This will take you to your Subscribe to Thread control panel options where you can set your e-mail options. We recommend choosing the Daily updates by email option in the pull-down menu (shown in the screen shot below).
You can also choose to subscribe for instant e-mail notification if you want to more closely emulate how the old KnitU listserve used to work.

C. Once you've set your preference for notification in this dialog box, click the Add Subscription button to finish subscribing to a specific thread the KnitU - Let's Talk Knitting sub forum.
You will now be e-mailed updates of any changes/additions to the thread(s) you have subscribed to in the KnitU - Let's Talk Knitting sub forum.
The down-side to this subscription option is that you won't be notified instantly (or daily) using this method to any new threads that are created.

We are currently working on adding an option for instant e-mail notification for any new posts in any new threads that will allow you to receive instant e-mail updates for all posts for an entire forum; but we don't have that functionality yet. Please bear with us while we attempt to add this feature.

In the short term, we suggest that you subscribe to the entire forum for daily updates (using steps 1-3 above) and then check back regularly on KniTalk for new posts using the New Post menu bar option.

We hope this post does a better job explaining the new subscription functionality of KnitU/KniTalk.

Thank you.