How QCLF Prioritizes Mentions, Direct Replies, Authors, and Followers
When a normal permanent reply is posted, QCLF chooses one primary notification reason per recipient so the same Message does not generate multiple equivalent alerts for a member who has several relationships to the Topic.
The current 1.1.27 precedence is Mention → direct Reply Reference → Topic author → Topic follower.
Current Permanent-Reply Precedence
| Priority | Reason | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mention | You were resolved from an @mention in the new permanent reply. |
| 2 | Direct Reply Reference | The new Message references one of your permanent Messages. |
| 3 | Topic Author | Someone posted in a Topic you authored. |
| 4 | Topic Follower | You follow permanent replies in the Topic. |
One Recipient Gets the Highest Matching Reason
QCLF builds a recipient map by user ID. Mentions are added first. A direct Reply Reference is added only if that user was not already selected; Topic author is added only if still unselected; followers are added last only for users not already chosen.
The actor who posted the Message is excluded from these reply-created notifications.
Examples
- If the Topic author is also @mentioned, that person receives the Mention event rather than a second Topic-author event.
- If you directly reference a Message author who also follows the Topic, that person receives the direct-reply event rather than a duplicate follower event.
- A follower with no higher-priority relationship receives the normal New Message in Followed Topic event.
Follower Delivery Has Extra Per-Follow Gates
For the follower reason, QCLF carries the Topic subscription’s Email and On-site delivery switches into the recipient choice. Mention/direct-reply/Topic-author reasons are direct relationships and are not dependent on that Topic follow row, though the recipient’s global channel preferences still apply.
Archive Conversion Does Not Re-Flood Members
This precedence routine exits for replies whose source_type is not normal. Live Archive Conversion therefore does not re-send permanent reply notifications merely because archived live Messages were converted into permanent replies.
Category-follow notifications for a newly created Topic use a separate event path and are not part of this reply precedence chain.
Community Discussion
Want to compare forum workflows, share practical QCLF tips, or discuss how other Joomla site owners use this feature? Visit the QC Live Forum Community. For private support, bug reports, account-specific entitlement problems, or feature requests, use the QuantaCade support system.