One of Movable Type’s many features is the option to send an email notification for a new post. I’ve known about the feature ever since I installed Movable Type, but never bothered to do anything with it. You see, there’s the issue of unsubscribing. When a person who was at one time subscribed wants to stop getting the emails, they can’t just stop. They have to ask me to take their email address off the list. If taken the wrong way, it can be mortally offensive to a blogger, similar to removing them from your blogroll. Lives could be ruined and lifelong friendships ended. However, even if I were to make it abundantly clear that I wouldn’t be offended if anyone wanted to be removed from the notification list for whatever reason, I don’t know how useful it would be to the reader.

If I visit a blog once a day, I don’t need to be notified when they’ve made a post because I’ll see it. On the other hand, if I visit in the morning and they post in the afternoon, it might be nice to get the email so I can read it right away and make a comment while it’s still fresh (the discussion of a post’s freshness will be reserved for another time). Then again, if a blogger doesn’t post often, a notification can be helpful because you avoid checking their page day after day, seeing the entry they made three weeks ago. Of course, a blogger could forget to send the notification causing you to miss out on an incredibly captivating post. There’s also the case when a blogger makes multiple posts in one day. Few people want to be spammed about someone else’s blog, but the notification is optional on each post, so that becomes less of a concern as long as the blogger is mindful of other peoples’ inboxes. It’s really quite a complicated issue.

Your thoughts?