Saturday, 20 October 2012

Is there a way to get email alerts on Reddit activity

I really like reddit and its threaded discusion model, but what I'm really missing is an email alert every time there is a post or comment on a couple subreddits that I follow.

I know that there are a bunch of ways the reddit data can be consumed (for example http://www.reddit.com/r/owasp/.json ), but I find that at the moment I miss a number of threads and replies that I care about, due to the lack of an email alert (even if once a day)

For example, the GitHub issues is working really well for TeamMentor (https://github.com/TeamMentor/Master/issues) because:

  • I get an email on new issues or comments
  • If I reply to the email, the message is posted to the correct issue and
  • Users that add issues comments, receive the email updates on the issues submitted (if they 'watch' the thread)
  • I can manage my emails faster than I can manage my reddit subscriptions
If only I could achieve the same with Redit, Reddit's value and usability (to me) would increase dramatically.

Btw, the reddit 'message' center is already a good help (although it only seems to show the comments on threads I start or comments I made), so maybe there is a way to expand its coverage and enable auto-emailing.