Bug in thread update notifications

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Hi Sheriffs and Bartenders !

There is a functionality - once person posts in some thread - (s)he get subscribed for new posts notifications. That's fine, I love it and I use it.
And the body of notification says : "You will not get more notifications until you read the topic." - this is actually broken. I receive notification for every new post, no matter - visited I thread or not.
It happened to me today specifically for this thread:

https://coderanch.com/t/679900/certification/Kathy-Sierra-Bert-Bates

I get a bunch of emails that thread was updated (instead of one), they are like that:

You received this email because the topic "* Welcome Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates" in the Associate Certification (OCAJP 7/8) forum has received a reply from member Marco Farrugia since your last visit.
You may use the following URL to read the messages. You will not get more notifications until you read the topic.

https://coderanch.com/forums/posts/list/679900#3189141

You received this email because the topic "* Welcome Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates" in the Associate Certification (OCAJP 7/8) forum has received a reply from member Vikram Reddy Merugu since your last visit.
You may use the following URL to read the messages. You will not get more notifications until you read the topic.

https://coderanch.com/forums/posts/list/679900#3189142

You received this email because the topic "* Welcome Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates" in the Associate Certification (OCAJP 7/8) forum has received a reply from member Fernando Albornoz since your last visit.
You may use the following URL to read the messages. You will not get more notifications until you read the topic.

https://coderanch.com/forums/posts/list/679900#3189152

(see the different anchor in URLs.

And I did not revisit the thread, and keep receiving these emails.

Maybe this thread is special, I did not check with other threads.

I know about "unwatch" option, but I don't want to unwatch it 8-)

Thanks,
MZ

[Tim Cooke]

Thanks for taking the time to notice this little quirk. Without checking in the forum software code I suspect the answer is to do with moderation action being carried out on some of those posts.

I predict that this is happening:

The first post since your last visit arrives. You get an email.
That post gets moderated and removed from public view.
The next post arrives. This is now the next new publicly visible post since your last visit. You get an email.
That post also gets moderated and removed from public view.
The next post arrives. This again is now the next new publicly visible post since your last visit. You get an email.

While this behaviour results in some extra notification emails for our users I think it's probably the right course of action. Otherwise the user will be notified by email of the moderated and subsequently post, which could be spam, and then never again for the next legit post and you miss out on some interesting discussion.

[Mikalai Zaikin]

I just get 4 notifications emails about that thread. (and I did not revisit the thread)