Right, I get a pile of notifications, but I can sort them in my email client and move them into a separate folder. I don't really need them, but they serve as a barometer of use, and since I am dealing with only a few hundred users and am just starting out I am happy when I see them and I think this is because I like fan mail. Mostly, however, they are a nuisance, and I would like the option of turning these notifications off. The thing is, as I would customize my implementation, I am having to go looking for the switches to do so, and this is fine insofar as each time I do so I learn something about the system more generally. But over the long term I would much prefer two levels of sysadmin interface, one with all the switches as they now are, making sense (I would assume) to the people who built the thing, and another for routine administration -- like Nima has made his own, personalized interface, which he refers to has his cockpit. This would be for stuff for routine administration, such as, a user-friendly interface for things like:
Increase and decrease maximum file size uploads (a patch into aolserver, which presently had to put into my aolserver4 frontend as:
ns_section ns/module/nssock
ns_param maxinput [expr 1024 * 1024 * 10]
Now I mention it: the way to go might be to get Nima's cockpit and make it available to the community.
Ditto that nifty error message setup whereby instead of the flatfile warning you get a form with your warning inserted in one column, then a box asking you to explain what you were doing, then a message suggesting possible fixes.
For example, in dotlrn 2.0.3 my users have to switch their browser to unicode if they want to log on using names with wonderful German umlauts. I am thinking I may have to clutter up the log in page with a message telling them about this. But a customized interface would suggest this as a problem. Of course, this problem might be solved on a deeper level.
So, if you want to give us functionality to switch this notification off, that's just great. While you are at it, you might build a switching mechanism for other such things!
Thanks!
Bruce
