"Opt In" vs. "Opt Out" for Auto subscribe option

Under "Options" it appears the default for new users is that the "auto subscribe to new calendars" boxes are checked rather than allowing individual members to make this choice. This is creating problems for members in our ward who are receiving email alerts for events from newly-created calendars they say they never selected initally.

Short of individually walking them through to unselect this option, is there a way to set the default to unselect? Is there something in this whole process that I am missing? Thanks

Current Default Suggested Default

No, I think that choice was made based on the idea that it was better to find out about events that don't apply to you then to miss events that did. Getting an unwanted message means they are alerted to the problem and can fix it. The other way they might never know.

The one suggestion is that if it's just a calendar for say, the RS Presidency for their presidency meetings, then you might want to make it private and manually add in the people with the need to know.

What prompted my post is that some members are becoming annoyed by emails announcing new calendars and the ensuing flood of event alerts that are immediatly posted. Rather than being understanding and going into the settings/options tab to make adjustments, they are blocking the emails as spam, thus negating the intent of the Calendar feature in LDS.org.

I wonder if the ability to select groups in addition to "names" & "callings" when using the private option would help? Members of the Teachers quorum would be an example of a group. I think people mark calendars available to the entire ward rather than a small group of people they intend because they don't want to be tied to updating the calendar membership as people transition into and out of the group throughout the year.

Of course, the flip side to the example above is that parents would then be locked out of the calendar unless they made a specific request to be included.

bodilyrd wrote:What prompted my post is that some members are becoming annoyed by emails announcing new calendars and the ensuing flood of event alerts that are immediatly posted.

I'm wondering why is there a "flood" of event alerts? I personally wouldn't recommend sending a email about a event that is more then 2 weeks away. I'd be annoyed about getting a email about a event that's months away even if the event did apply to me. I'd suggest limiting the emails to things that are imminent or to any changes where there isn't time to announce it on Sunday.

When you create an event, at the bottom of the page, you have the choice to check the box to send any kind of email for the event. Once you check the email box a drop down is activated that lets you decided when to send the email - either Now when the event is created or Later. Choose Later and now you can specify when to Send the event: you type in a number and then you can choose to send the email however many Days, Minutes, or Hours before the event takes place.

If the event creator will make sure to choose Later and then specify a time period that should give people enough time to unsubscribe from a calendar and prevent the flood of emails that come through when the event is created.