Gist comments and mentions don't trigger notifications

[max-mapper]

this used to work.

to reproduce:

• make a gist
• have someone leave a command or @ mention you
• you won't receive any emails

[matt-curtis]

:+1:

Honestly, Github. :(

[BenMorel]

On a positive side, it's always a surprise to see a 6 months old comment by pure chance on one of your gists. Like receiving a present on a day that's not your birthday. I would keep it like it is, GitHub.

:grin:

[matt-curtis]

@BenMorel You are quite the optimist, lol.

[bburns]

@mburgert, yeah, there must be a business reason - this issue is 2.5 years old.

I'll throw my +1 into the pool anyway...

[cecilemuller]

I do wonder why we're posting the issue here considering the readme of the repo says This is not the actual repository for the GitHub website. I'm not affiliated with GitHub in any way ?

[px4n]

:thumbsup:

[matt-curtis]

@cecilemuller You're right, I've sent Github an email directing them to this issue, we'll see what their reply is. The last time someone did so was here, almost a year and a half ago, and their reply was:

Thanks for the suggestion! I can definitely see how it would be useful to receive email notifications for Gist comments. I'll certainly pass it along to the team. I can't promise if/when we might implement that, however your feedback has definitely been recorded.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

I urge anyone who really wants to see this issue implemented, please send Github an email expressing your support for this, linking to this issue. Email: support@github.com

Template:

Subject: Feature Request - Notifications for Comments & Mentions in Gists

Hello Github,

As you know, Gists are often used to share tiny code snippets and such that don't quite warrant a full-on repo. Gists also have a commenting feature, which is great for sharing information about what works and what doesn't, asking for help, or just general discussion.

Not being able to receive notifications for mentions and comments on Gists is a huge drawback and oversight. It makes collaboration more difficult and lessens the usefulness of commenting on Gists at all.. It's way too easy for important mentions and comments to go unnoticed for long periods of time (possibly forever!).

There's currently an Issue for this problem here, with over 200 supporters at the time of writing. Please consider implementing this feature - your users would highly appreciate it.

Thanks, [Your Name]

[rey]

@matt-curtis do you have a boilerplate email that I can copy and paste to send to support?

[matt-curtis]

@rey Sure, here's a version of what I sent them:

Subject: Feature Request - Notifications for Comments & Mentions in Gists

Hello Github,

As you know, Gists are often used to share tiny code snippets and such that don't quite warrant a full-on repo. Gists also have a commenting feature, which is great for sharing information about what works and what doesn't, asking for help, or just general discussion.

Not being able to receive notifications for mentions and comments on Gists is a huge drawback and oversight. It makes collaboration more difficult and lessens the usefulness of commenting on Gists at all.. It's way too easy for important mentions and comments to go unnoticed for long periods of time (possibly forever!).

There's currently an Issue for this problem here, with over 200 supporters at the time of writing. Please consider implementing this feature - your users would highly appreciate it.

Thanks, [Your Name]

[BenMorel]

@matt-curtis Just sent your boilerplate email to support@github.com, thanks :)

[rey]

@matt-curtis :balloon:

[rey]

Here's the reply I received yesterday evening:

Hi ReyHi Rey,

Thanks for getting in touch. Yeah, I agree that would be a great thing for gists -- it's something the team has been considering. I can't make any promises, but I'll definitely let them know you'd also like to see a gist comment notification feature added.

Let us know if there's anything else we can do for you!

Cheers, Jess

[adamreisnz]

+1 for this 2.5 year old request...

[matt-curtis]

@adambuczynski Make sure to send an email, see above....

[dandv]

I've also received one of the boilerplate replies above, and I pressed on, asking "Why didn't GitHub implement notifications for gists from the start? The infrastructure is clearly there (comments on issues do notify). There's a separate service that mentions this glaring omission: https://giscus.co/ I'm just curious about the business reason why comments on gists don't notify. Can you share anything about that?"

Here's Steven! Ragnarök's reply:

There's not that much to say. Comment notifications on Gist hasn't been prioritized while we work on other aspects of GitHub.com and Gist. The infrastructure you mention is specific to GitHub.com and Gist has actually been a separate application since the end of 2012 https://github.com/blog/1276-welcome-to-a-new-gist

[matt-curtis]

@dandv Thanks for sharing the email and Giscus, super useful (unfortunately it doesn't do mentions, but anything at all is great.)

The fact that it's a separate app makes the lack of activity & upgrades a little less mysterious, but it's still puzzling that they'd make other upgrades to Gist/Github and continue to leave comment notifications out.

[adamreisnz]

@matt-curtis did that, got this reply:

Thanks for the suggestion to add comment notifications for gists.

I can see how this can be useful and I've added it to our internal Feature Request List so the team can see it.

[zdila]

+1

[RadGH]

I guess I'll spam a +1 here too.

I emailed them in August 2015 and this was the response I had received:

Hey Radley,

Thanks for getting in touch! Sorry for the trouble -- I agree Gist comment notifications would be a helpful feature. We'll go ahead and add a note to this suggestion on our internal Feature Request List. No promise if we might add notifications to Gist in future, but we appreciate the feedback.

Cheers, Jess

Looks like it's still not implemented. I'm worried that Gists may be removed altogether. It's so neglected already, I'm surprised it hasn't gone read-only yet.

[fabacab]

Another +1 from me, just in case anyone's still listening….

[jdrphillips]

And me +1

[patrickPDD]

+1

[matt-curtis]

@meitar @jdrphillips @patrickPDD

Consider sending them an email expressing your support: https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/21#issuecomment-170366150

[kwilczynski]

I would love this feature too! Please, @github, make it happen! :heart:

[bjorngi]

+1

[matt-curtis]

@kwilczynski @bjorngi Consider sending them an email expressing your support, please! #21 (comment)

[bjorngi]

@matt-curtis It's done :-)

[nicholasblexrud]

+1

[matt-curtis]

@nicholasblexrud Consider sending them an email expressing your support, please! See this comment.

[nicholasblexrud]

@matt-curtis thanks, just sent email.

[billhsu]

We need this feature. :+1:

[matt-curtis]

@billhsu Consider sending them an email expressing your support, please! See this comment.

[billhsu]

@matt-curtis I've send them an email. Let's wait and see what they reply.

[SpotlightKid]

Just sent an email too. I've been bitten by this a few times already.

[gene1wood]

@matt-curtis I emailed support@github.com as suggested and here's the current response (April 2016) for reference, so still pending.

That's not possible currently, Gene -- gists don't have such notifications. Adding that is on our wishlist, but I can't promise when it might happen.

Thanks for the feedback and let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see improved.

Cheers, Ivan

[matt-curtis]

Thanks, Ivan. At the very least it's on a list somewhere (hopefully!), so they know it's a desired feature.

[zzeni]

👍

[bartaelterman]

Sigh, might as well remove the comments from the gists then. I get angry emails from people saying I don't respond to comments...

[TPS]

@bartaelterman You should send that comment into @GitHub, since that's a real-world problem, but there's a good idea in there, too: Tag your gists with a link to this issue, & provide alternate contact info, while @GitHub is sitting on this!

[SpotlightKid]

If GitHub enabled webhooks for Gists, we could write our own notification service. Or do they work already?

[matt-curtis]

They used to, but don't anymore: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/26702541/is-it-possible-to-add-webhooks-to-a-gist (see answer and link in comments)

I wonder if it would be worth it to ask that they include a webhook for gists/gist comments. They recently introduced some new ones for repos & issues.

[mattstauffer]

@SpotlightKid I actually already rolled my own and offer it for free: https://giscus.co/

It's not quite as good as GitHub's comment notifications; you only get notified for comments on your gists; if someone @ mentions you in another gist comment, you won't get notified. But it's the best I could do with the API they expose.

[BenMorel]

@mattstauffer That's awesome, but there's one thing that blocked me from clicking the Authorize button: the fact that your app can access my private gists as well. I'm not sure whether GitHub gives this granularity in the authorizations, but for me this is an issue. I thought you might be interested to get this feedback! :+1: for your service anyway!

[mattstauffer]

@BenMorel I KNOW. Sadly, there's absolutely zero granularity. The project is open source, so hopefully that can assuage some fears: https://github.com/tightenco/giscus

But in the end, I control the open source repo, so I could totally be a jerk with it. In the end it's all trust. And I agree: I hope GitHub offers it natively soon. It'll be way better than mine. :)

[BenMorel]

@mattstauffer That's what I feared. This would be another suggestion to make to GitHub then: split access to public and private gists in the authorizations! I know this is all about trust, and I'm definitely not saying that I do not trust you; but multiplying authorizations (continuous integration, deployment apps, and now gists) unfortunately multiplies a risk that, although small, does exist!

[goldhand]

I felt inspired and went ahead and made a petition.

[matt-curtis]

@goldhand Signed.

MAKEGITHUBGREATAGAIN

[bethesque]

Signed.

[SpotlightKid]

Signed.

[billhsu]

Signed.