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Since a recent change in notifications, I see more than I should:

screenshot

I see no reason to see 134 posts are awaiting review, when there is literally nothing I can do about them. I think it is a bug, because notification is meant as something that will make me act. When I know I usually can't, obviously I will start to ignore it.

If it's not a bug, please remove bug tag and explain how it is supposed to be useful, or how can I switch to only seeing notifications about things I can act on.

Note that apaprently there are no flags for me, neither. I see only stats, migrated, close, delete, there, as if there was no flags waiting:

Screenshot for prev paragraph

If you expect us to click on it every few minutes

just to see personalized numbers next to queues, why don't you simply query for personalized numbers every few minutes and cache them for us? It should cost you similar, in database usage, and will save us a lot of clicking and frustration.

If all this number means is "there might be reviews, or not" or "for sure there are none"

it would be simpler just to hide "review" link in the second case. We don't need two links with the same function next to each other, thank you, one is enough, and meaningless numbers are only irritating.

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13
  • Same on Cognitive Sciences right now. I see some oddness on DBA too, as mentioned in the comment on the question @Jehof linked. Anna Lear responded, "Not bugged. The topbar count is every review in the system, not just the ones available to you (ie ones you haven't skipped or already otherwise acted on)." Shog9 says, "this is everything in review, even stuff that you, personally, can't review. Super-expensive to personalize this - so the alternative is simply not having an indicator. Think of it as... A reminder to encourage your peers to review."
    – Nick Stauner
    Commented Apr 30, 2014 at 7:01
  • @Molot. Yeah for me too on Stackoverflow. Now i´m more confused. Currently I think the number displays to much information
    – Jehof
    Commented Apr 30, 2014 at 7:04
  • 3
    @NickStauner If it "works as designed", then I think it is a design bug that will make people ignore this count.
    – Mołot
    Commented Apr 30, 2014 at 7:04
  • 9
    Yeah, I don't see how this change completes that feature request, as it seems to ignore the last two sentences of that question: "This should be something that you can get to 0 every day. Making it something that is an unmanageable number makes it something people will ignore, and that's not what this is suggesting." I sure hope this doesn't become a ever-present notification I have to learn to just ignore...
    – Nick Stauner
    Commented Apr 30, 2014 at 7:08
  • 1
    The implementation is not 'personalised' and is also cached. This isn't a design bug; it is a limitation of what a site at Stack Overflow scale can achieve with such a number.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Apr 30, 2014 at 7:14
  • 2
    @MartijnPieters It can show me personified number on each queue separately all right, but suddenly adding six or ten integers is over it's limitation? Sorry, can't believe it.
    – Mołot
    Commented Apr 30, 2014 at 7:15
  • 2
    For the top bar shown on each and every page? Yes.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Apr 30, 2014 at 7:19
  • Specifically, see Anna Lear's response: It doesn't take individual user actions into account at all at the moment and It is also cached, so may or may not be very accurate depending on the amount of ongoing activity in /review at any given time.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Apr 30, 2014 at 7:21
  • 4
    @MartijnPieters that's what cache is for, isn't it? If they expect me to click notifications to get my numbers every few minutes, why can't they automatically refresh cache to get me these numbers without a click, the same few minutes? And if they expect me to only click when I feel like reviewing, no matter any numbers, then I already have a link for that, I don't need another.
    – Mołot
    Commented Apr 30, 2014 at 7:21
  • 1
    @ShadowWizard I'd say it is the other way around - if it is a network-wide, it should be resolved here, not there.
    – Mołot
    Commented Apr 30, 2014 at 7:42
  • @Mołot actually it should be in both places. When trying to flag network related things in MSO asking to migrate to MSE, my flags were rejected. (For the record, I didn't see this report here before submitting my own, assuming it's SO only issue)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Apr 30, 2014 at 7:44
  • This is a network-wide bug, as I'd come here to report the same thing regarding what I see on ServerFault.
    – HopelessN00b
    Commented Apr 30, 2014 at 8:56
  • 4
    I'm re-opening this because, although it is a direct consequence of this feature request, the concerns are specific and distinct from those expressed or addressed there. This behavior is absolutely not an accident; rather, it is an intentional trade-off for which in return we get the ability to call attention to what on many sites is an often-ignored but incredibly powerful tool.
    – Shog9
    Commented Apr 30, 2014 at 21:20

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Fixed as of October 2017: pending task counts are no longer shown outside of /review to anyone.

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