Following ideas
A customer who follows an idea gets emails when its status changes or when someone comments on it. Most customers start following without doing anything extra. This article explains how following starts and stops, and how your team sees who follows an idea.
Who can use it
Every plan. A customer must be signed in to your portal to follow an idea. Owners, Admins and anyone with access to the product can see who follows an idea. That includes Viewers.
How customers start following
A customer starts following an idea when they:
- post the idea,
- comment on it,
- vote for it.
A vote follows the idea for status changes and release notes. A customer can also select the follow button on the idea page. Select it again to stop following.
A customer can see every idea they follow under Posts you follow on their Notifications page. To stop updates about one idea, they select Stop updates on its row.
Once a customer stops following an idea, automatic actions do not follow it again. Only the follow button starts it again.
What does not make someone a follower
- An idea you post for a customer does not make that customer a follower.
- An idea brought in through an import or the API does not make anyone a follower. A bulk import never subscribes anyone.
- Taking back a vote does not stop following the idea.
See who follows an idea
Open the idea in the console. The section Who follows this lists each follower with Follower, How and Followed. How shows how the person started following: Posted the idea, Commented, Followed by voting, Followed directly or Asked to be kept posted in a survey.
The list shows no email addresses. Your portal never shows who follows an idea, or how many people do.
What followers receive
Followers get an email when a status changes, unless the team unticks Email followers about this change for that change. A customer who posted an idea or commented on it hears about status changes and new comments. A customer who only voted hears about status changes. See Emails your users get for what is sent and how customers unsubscribe.
When you publish a changelog entry, you can tick Email followers of linked ideas. Followers of the ideas that entry links to then get an email about it.
Example
For example, Sam, a customer of Acme Notes, votes for "Dark mode for the mobile app". Sam now hears when the status changes. If Sam then comments on the idea, Sam also hears about new comments.
