Add push notifications to rethinkdb.com

[dalanmiller]

Users who visit documentation pages should be asked whether or not they'd like to receive updates from RethinkDB. Using service workers we could send browser push notifications when an update to RethinkDB occurs, driving traffic to our site and retaining engagement from people on the fence about RethinkDB.

I'll post the video demo from Google when it's up.

[mglukhovsky]

I'm torn on this, because I think it's a neat feature, but I personally hate the one or two websites that do this. What is the common feeling on them from the user's perspective?

[mlucy]

What would the interface be like?

I personally hate being prompted for stuff when I'm trying to look at a page. I've also never had that happen to me when trying to look at docs before, so I think it would strike me as unusual and invasive.

If it wasn't a prompt that users had to deal with, but just a non-intrusive part of the page at the top or bottom that let them ask to receive updates, I don't think I would find that bothersome.

[chipotle]

+1 to @mlucy's comment. When I get a dialogue box from a web page reading "Foo.com would like to send you notifications," I always, always, always click "no," because I haven't seen a single one tell me what they'd like to send notifications for and how many notifications I'll be receiving if I give them permission.

[coffeemug]

I agree with @mlucy and @chipotle -- I hate these things. I always always always click no because the browser push notification functionality completely breaks my expectation of what the browser is supposed to do.

I think this might be ok for consumer products, but I think it's a really bad idea for a developer audience.

[dalanmiller]

I personally hate being prompted for stuff when I'm trying to look at a page. I've also never had that happen to me when trying to look at docs before, so I think it would strike me as unusual and invasive.

Totally totally agree - 👍

When I get a dialogue box from a web page reading "Foo.com would like to send you notifications," I always, always, always click "no," because I haven't seen a single one tell me what they'd like to send notifications for and how many notifications I'll be receiving if I give them permission.

This is the completely wrong way to do this, and this should not be done without explicitly saying what you're being notified about and about how many notifications you can expect. 👍

I was watching the Chrome Dev Summit and they showed a couple of examples where this was done was more right and I think I kind of feel it. If we had another slide in side bar badge under say, the slide-in that asks people to star our Github, that prompted, "Would you like to be notified when we post a new blog post?", and upon clicking Yes, "Great! You'll hear from us maybe a handful of times of month, thanks you for supporting RethinkDB." (or something of the sort).

While I agree that to date, every implementation of this has sucked but I wouldn't write it off just yet. One good example is that as much as I hate Facebook, I still use it. And on my phone I refuse to use the actual app, so I use the mobile app which uses this feature to send a notification digest which I feel is rather unintrusive or annoying for at least Facebook standards.

I think this might be ok for consumer products, but I think it's a really bad idea for a developer audience.

I disagree on this point, there are some people who are really big fans of RethinkDB. And it's they who will be interested in something like this. I think a lot of people root for us like people root for the underdog and they want to stay updated on us.

[coffeemug]

If we had another slide in side bar badge under say, the slide-in that asks people to star our Github, that prompted, "Would you like to be notified when we post a new blog post?"

That would be cool, but if they click "yes" they'd get another UI element from the browser asking to enable it, wouldn't they? That might be ok, but seems kinda crappy.

One good example is that as much as I hate Facebook, I still use it.

Facebook is a special-case, though. I'm willing to cut them a lot of slack because the newsfeed is their primary product of value to me. I don't do the same with a million other sites that want my attention -- I've already got Facebook for that.

I was watching the Chrome Dev Summit and they showed a couple of examples where this was done was more right and I think I kind of feel it.

I'd love to see it -- do you have a link? Would be very interesting to find out how they do it in a way that's helpful and not intrusive!

[dalanmiller]

The talk I was referencing got uploaded last week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh0IASBexdM

[gabor-boros]

@kittybot What do you think? Can we just close this issue?