New updates to Planner comment notifications and settings

mkraemer , TropicRock & others,

As someone actively using 10+ Planners, needless to say I feel your pain. I have fought & failed to get MSoft to do something about it for more than 2 years (I guess I don't have a loud enough voice), so here's what I know:

What most people don't know is how the Commenting function was implemented in Planner -- it is not a full-fledged communication function, but rather a quick & dirty thing that uses the Group Email function to fake Comments like we're used to them in Forums (like this one!) -- this is where the spam actually comes from: 

The comments at the bottom of each Card are an actual group email thread with the name of the Card -- just go to https://outlook.office365.com/mail/group/<your_company>.onmicrosoft.com/<your_team>/email to check (or via [...] >Plan Settings > Notifications > "Group settings in Outlook"). You will see all Card comments there.

Each time Planner loads, it loads the discussion chains from those email threads. That's why:

1. A person assigned to a Card isn't automatically getting email Notifications - there is no email thread created before that point, and if it is, it's only the Comment poster + the group Email address (whose notifications more & more people are ignoring now by default).
2. (this should entertain you) You can actually erase history, by going to the Group Email thread & deleting one of your or your colleagues' older Emails (i.e. Comments) -- this will make said Comment magically disappear from Planner next time it loads  👍🏼

I tried to suggest to MSoft 2+ years ago that they change the process of assigning a person to a Card to also trigger a Comment/Email from the group email CC-ing the assigned person, so they are, in effect, automatically subscribed for new Comments. Didn't get anywhere.