I'm trying to utilize the Activity Stream to see if it's a useful tool for me.  I know it's still in beta, but I'm confused about a few things:

• Why do only a few comments get feedback (green and red backgrounds), but most don't?  Is there a typical timeframe we can expect feedback, at least during a typical work week?  Will responses be quicker in the "final release"?

• Why do community posts show up in the Activity Stream?  They seem out of place.  I've also noticed that some community posts are posted twice in the Activity Stream.

• Will traditional characters be an option in the final release?

Some suggestions and glitches:

• I think the Elementary level should still show pinyin in the pull-down menu.

• Could there be a way to subscribe to multiple levels, or all levels?  I think it could be beneficial to see higher level comments, even if you don't want to join in.  The ability to see lower levels can also be beneficial.
  

• Could there be a pull-down menu (similar to the one in Conversations) where you could choose to only see "My Questions" or "Replies To My Questions"?

• If you're on Page 3 of the Activity Stream and you click your browser's back arrow (to go back to Page 2), it actually automatically redirects you to the page you were on before you went to the Activity Stream (i.e. to the Me page, My Lessons tab).  Actually, I think this is a Cpod website-wide glitch...it happens anywhere on the site that has marked pages (Community, Lessons, Groups, etc.).

I'm starting to see some potential value in this tool, I'm just trying to understand it a little better.  And I will happily eat my words from a previous post if it turns out to be useful ;)

I don't know if anyone else finds this a slight nuisance, but the Activity Stream difficulty setting seems to be linked to my profile level, and changing one seems to affect the other. This would be great were it not for the fact that my writing is far worse than my listening. So changing to Elly in the Activity Stream changes all the recommended lesson sets to Elly rather than Intermediate when I log in.

Personally, I think it would be nice if they were independent. Does anyone think otherwise?

We have received a great many requests for ChinesePod community activity email notifications. We are happy to announce that daily email notifications can now be received.

The email notification system will be explained in the following order:

1. The Four Types of Email Notifications.
2. How to Subscribe to Email Notifications.
3. How to Un-Subscribe from Email Notifications.

1. The Four Types of Email Notifications.

1.1   Your Subscribed Lessons:

This provides you with a linked list of the most recent comments in the lessons that you have selected notifications from.

1.2   Your Activity Stream Activity

This provides you with a list of the activity that took place in your level.  There are links to the official questions that people answered. If you participate in multiple levels, you will only receive a list of activity from the level you were participating in at the time that the system sends out the notifications.

1.3   Your Subscribed Community Posts:

This provides you with a linked list of the most recent comments in the Posts that you have selected to receive notifications from.

1.4   Your Subscribed Group Posts:

This provides you with a linked list of the most recent comments in the Posts that you have selected to receive notifications from.

2. How to Subscribe to Email Notifications.

2.1 Subscribing to Lessons, Community Posts, Group Posts

The button for this is located below the comments section on any lesson, community post or group post. Click the "Notify me of follow-up comments by email" button to subscribe to the comments for that particular lesson, community post, or group post.

2.2   Subscribing to Activity Stream

There are a couple of ways to subscribe to the Activity Stream, however to keep this clear and simple, we'll provide you with the most straight forward method first.

Go to the Activity Stream page by clicking on the "Activity Beta" tab on your ChinesePod.com "ME" page.

Select "Update Subscribe Status".

A White box will pop up in the middle of the page, click on the box next to "Notify me of activity updates via email". Done.

*Note: If you are active in multiple levels, you will only receive updates for the level that you are active in at the time the system processes and sends out the updates.

3. How to Unsubscribe from Email Notifications.

3.1 Unsubscribing via the Email Notification

There is a link at the bottom of the page of the email notification. Clicking on this link will open up the "Activity Notification Subscription Manager". See 3.2.2 for further instructions.

3.2 Unsubscribing via ChinesePod.com

3.2.1 Step One.

First click on the "Profile" tab on your ChinesePod.com "ME" Page. Down the bottom of the page below "Email Settings" you'll see a link to "Manage your community activity email updates". Click on this link.

3.2.2 Step 2

This will open up the "Activity Notification Subscription Manager". Here you can chose to unsubscribe from Lesson Posts, Activity Stream Activity, Community Posts, and Group Posts.

Simply click on the boxes to uncheck them and unsubscribe from the community activities that you no longer wish to receive notifications for.

Please do not reply to ANY Community Activity Email Notifications. Thank you.

Hi CPod--this isn't a complaint (though it may sound like one)! Just wanted to ask when you think you'll be able to give the AS your attention again.

Intermediate level has always been kind of low-activity anyway, but the last time a teacher / staff member posted a comment there was September 11; the last time anybody's post was marked green/pink was September 10. Other levels also seem to have similar absence of teacher participation. Also, seems like there haven't been any new lesson-related prompt questions in a while.

I'm assuming all your teachers and staff are currently extremely busy with other, higher-priority things.

Since the AS was introduced to give us a place to practice writing Chinese and be able to do so by making brief comments that don't have to pertain to any specific lesson, and I believe I've personally had fun and benefited quite a bit from it, if you've reviewed and had any change in policy (maybe there's been a shift and the conversation boards are now considered just as good a place for us to practice our writing--?) I'd be interested in hearing about that.

It would be nice, if you are keeping the AS alive and mean for it to thrive, to have some more feedback again. The teacher participation / response was very good for a brief period; if you can maintain a more consistent level of feedback I would keep encouraging more people to drop by and participate (I did use to all the time before).

Thanks for listening! Cheers