Disclaimer: I have no idea how feasible this is, only that it may highly benefit the community. I also dont know if the category is correct for the feature. I apologize. What is listed here is merely a string of ideas, a list of options. By no means do I make assumptions about what can and cannot be done. I feel this has been presented once before in some form or another, but I'm not entirely sure so thought I'd put my ideas on the table after checking for it. If this is in development or already planned, please disregard.   TL;DR Add customization to notifications by:   -Sorting entire list by user, world, or template, maybe a search function for notifications.   -A way of "favoriting" certain users or worlds and make those notifications appear at the top of the feed.   -Hiding and silencing notifications from selective worlds or users, or even just a manuscript notification setting to opt out of chapter updates.   -More options such as sorting by date, listing word counts, maybe even labeling a notification as a submission for a challenge or event.   -A place to easily manage these customization settings such as a menu or list of silenced worlds, prioritized worlds and other changes made.   -Automated/Activated functions that remove duplicates and broken links.        

What functionality is missing? What is unsatisfying with the current situation?

  On one hand, I love reading the worlds I follow and many of those anvilites respond to my work in kind. On the other hand, by the end of SC, I had a thousand notifications I had to personally shift through. [Not kidding)   I needed to erase duplicates, track down broken links, and personally clear out the notifications one by one. I had to directly allocate my time, and I always try to dedicate that time to those who read, like, and comment on my own work. It's only fair that they take priority, but that means sifting through and hoping I see their names among the list. Then you have chapter updates, which are completely useless if I'm behind on reading a manuscript. (Sorry about that, guys)     The problems listed don't account for actually reading or placing comments. I read every article I come across. Sometimes it's a deep dive, while other times it's a brief skim. It just depends on my time, my mental state(ADHD), and how much the article resonates with me and what I enjoy reading.   I also comment when I feel I have something to add, correct, praise, or just to congratulate the anvilite on a job well done. This takes alot of time, and I'm not even as dedicated as some of the awesome members in this community can be.   In short, the overall notification system can get very messy and disorganized, even with the ability to separate them by type of article.   It's not a problem with the site, or how it's designed. It's merely a problem that occurs due to having limited time to balance between writing, reading, and handling real life situations, and the number of worlds/users one follows. It happens, but it happens a lot. If it happens to a large number of anvilites, which would be indicated by the number of votes this feature gets, it stands to reason that something should be done to remedy the situation for the better of the community. Then again, if it's just me and the feature fails, I'll accept it as a personal problem. That's only fair XD      

How does this feature request address the current situation?

  If I didnt have to deal with the more tedious side of notifications, it would be far less stressful, easier to manage, and take SO much less time. There's just too SO MUCH TO READ. This is not a bad thing. It's freaking amazing. I congratulate everyone for doing so well! It's not even out of stress, or anxiety that I make this submission. I dont mind reading others' work. I'd say it's borderline required. How can I expect or even request others read my work if I'm not willing to do the same?   By implementing this feature, the time spent on sifting through notifications to find that one article, or that one user can be more efficiently spent actually doing the task you've set out to do.   The list will grow at a slower rate as well. The process of handling notifications may be far less daunting of a task for those who struggle to do so, and make it easier to give back to those who engage with your work by being able to find and prioritize their notifications. I've always seen this as not a community of content creators and fans, but a community of peers. It can be stressful when you have comments, follows, and likes you want to give back, no, feel compelled to give back, but are unable to do so efficiently, or at all in some cases. It's part of why notifications can be so stressful for people.     Sure, you could ask the user, or go to their world and find an appropriate article, but apart from time constraints, this presents it's own problems. In a challenge, especially ones like world ember, or even events like summer camp, this can leave a sour taste when not on an article already fresh in the mind of the recieving anvilite, or one that the anvilite is not actively promoting. You can search, but that takes even more time and effort on top of what you're putting in.   If someone comments on my challenge entry, I'd like to do the same for theirs. You could ask for an article to repay their kindness with, but I personally know how difficult it can be to actually answer such a request. I don't like asking others to read my work, especially if they ask to do so in exchange. I don't know why. I usually just say "dont worry about it." I read to read, not to make others feel bound by an unwritten contract to give the same in return.   I don't mind that. It makes me feel less like I'm trolling for reads. Then again I still feel compelled to give back when on the other side of the coin, so I ask and put others in the same position. This is why I don't ask for the article, but check my notifications instead, a process made easier and more efficient through this proposed feature. It's more meaningful and impactful when not asked to do so.    

The Proposed Feature

Now that you know the problems and benefits of solving them, let me actually explain the feature. I propose a different method of following worlds and profiles that expands the current system to include selective notification settings, along with some automatic features to lessen the load and strain on the user.   The idea is this: when following a world or a user, one may select what kind of notifications to be notified of, the default being all notifications. Some people don't care for, or engage with journal entries, for example. Why should they have to sift through those notifications? This feature would include the ability to select a general notification setting for manuscripts, allowing one to avoid notifications for individual chapters if behind on the story without taking away the notification for those who are up to date and eagerly awaiting that notification.  

Customized Notification Feeds

This can be fixed in a few ways, as kn no way should it be on the anvilites to stop publishing articles. One solution is through a button on the notification page alongside every notification that allows one to selectively hide notifications from a specific user, a specific world, and manuscripts. With the inclusion of NSFW worlds, it may be a good idea to silence worlds that aren't your flavor despite not being particularly bothered by and therefore allowing NSFW material to appear.   You could add a dialogue box appear upon following something that allows you to set those parameters. This give you some organization to the messiness of world updates, as organization is the main issue.   This lets you control the flow of new content, and should circumstances change, easily fix it by reversing these changes. These changes should be saved on a separate page where one can easily see all customized notification settings they've made.   Using the same method, there would be customization settings allowing you to "favorite" (meaning prioritize) certain worlds, users, etc, and have them appear at the top of the inbox, instead of being lost in a sea of messages.   It can also include hiding notifications from worlds not silenced, but ones you intend to read at a later time. This means one can group their notifications in ways beyond just the nature of the notification, but also by user, type of article, etc. I'd love to be able to navigate my notifications by user instead of just by recently published and type. That alone would help tremendously.    

Automated features

Along with notification customization, I'm proposing some automatic functions that would either always be active, or actions performed with a single button click on a button at the top. These functions include removing duplicate notifications that lead to the same link, or have the same title, maybe a way to cancel notifications you send to followers, keeping the most recent link as a notification. If possible, it would be extremely helpful to include automatic removal of broken links.   Out of 932 notifications I can almost guarantee at least 100 of them are duplicates. That's one hundred times I have to click erase, and that's after finding them and verifying I've already read it. It feels so weird to complain about since clicking isn't much of a task, but that time adds up, and it only inflates an already large amount of content, making the process even more overwhelming.   Other automated features could include labeling and prioritizing current challenge entries to the top of the feed. Maybe a special button for sending notifications that labels the notif as an event article. That's just an idea and likely wouldn't do much in solving the problems presented here, but there it is.     Sorry for the length. Hope all is well with everyone and thank you for reading!