I came to DNN at 5.4 mostly because I thought introducing a social aspect was the way to go for my community site. It was at the time when DNN acquired Active Modules and I forked out $400 for AF/AS, Enterprise edition which wasn't any different to the other editions just that one had 12 mth support. At the end of the 12 mth AS was trashed in favor of the core social. Hundreds of hours spent fixing and removing the AS mess (all the members have left the sinking ship too).

Now at 7.2.n and having my site almost at a point where I'm close to being confident enough to begin the long task of getting the members back I have just 2 or 3 issues that I would like to see addressed first. The issue for this topic is the lack of notification when a user posts/comments, adds a pic on another members journal.

Without a notification system for Social we might as well dump it. Notifications are what brings users back to the site and interact.

It is a bit like "We have Social but we are still in the Dark Ages." Apologies for my rant but this is very frustrating as has been my whole DNN experience. Having said that I believe DNN is now on the right track and hope that my persistence since 5.4 will be worth it.

 Some notifications are posted to the Journal eg. New Forum Topics/Replies. They do with AF anyway but not on this site from this Forum. A new Blog post will post to the Journal etc. AF also sends a notification email as does this Forum. What I can't find if it exists is how to send a notification email to me when someone posts to my Journal. Or comments on a journal discussion.

It is not all that important that an email notification be send from all core modules just from the journal. Is for sites using the journal as social network anyway.

I tried to test this here however the feature (text box) is closed on our activity stream. ie. we can't post on a friends journal which of course appears as though email notifications from the journal is not a priority.

To test that email notifications bring people back to the site yesterday I posted an image on one of my Friend's Journal. They had not been onto the site for quite some time. Posted from my user account. Then I logged on as Admin and sent my Friend a PM "A  photo has been posted on your Journal." Within 2 hours my friend came onto the site and we now have a conversation ongoing about the photo.

We are not trying to be a FB, Twitter or LinkedIN but these sites almost flood inboxes with notifictions and without it then the Activity Stream is nothing more than "What's New". Ie. There is nothing Social about it.

It is not so much the other modules that submit activities, that is fine. It is the Journal Module itself.

I go over to a Friends Social page/s and post on his wall. Maybe add a photo, click Share.

It is posted on his Journal and in the Site Activity (who sees based on security at posting)

Someone click the Comment link and adds a comment. This is all good but the Friend who hasn't been to the site of awhile knows nothing of this and the conversation is dead. And my members don't understand it and leave the site an slowly never come back.

Journal Posts need notifications for both the original post and for comments, for those participating in the conversation.

On this site the Text Box "Tell the world something ... " option is off so I guess it is not a priority. For those that are using the Journal as a Social network is is.

Am I the only one using Social like this?