Is it just me, or are other people not getting emails for subscrbed threads?

MrLeN

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I am not getting them either....HELP ME, WPW!

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I'll see what I can come up with. Most likely getting zapped by your clients or isp though...

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Mike that was the case before, but I though they fixed it.

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Any ideas on this Mike? I am still randomly getting subscription emails, but they are missing the topic when I do get them:

Hello,

You are receiving this email because you are watching the topic, "" at WebProWorld. This topic has received a reply since your last visit. You can use the following link to view the replies made, no more notifications will be sent until you visit the topic.

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic...=280005#280005

If you no longer wish to watch this topic you can either click the "Stop watching this topic link" found at the bottom of the topic above, or by clicking the following link:

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic...&unwatch=topic

--
Thanks,

The WebProWorld Team

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This is probably due to the watched topics modification being kind of broken. You may or may not have noticed that it no longer appears on posts (personally, I think it was Rafael's fault).

I am trying to fix it and should have it back in order either later today or tomorrow. Hopefully that will solve some of these issues.

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FOCUS!

MrLeN :)

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I'm trying. Been a crazy busy week. I'm juggling too many cats... (did I really just say that?)

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Ok, I am giving you three dimerits.

MrLeN

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It's still not working, and another technical problem has started. The forum doesn't accurately display when there are no new posts in a thread any more. I.e. in a threads list page, a dark blue icon means that there is a new post since the last time you looked, and a light blue icon means that there isn't. Dark blues now often show when there are no new posts.

And yet another technical problem. The Submit button, when posting a message, doesn't always work. It is often treated as the Review button. One time today, it took 5 clicks on the Submit button to actually get the post posted.

Far too much fiddling without fully understanding things, methinks.

I have seen this also. It has to do with the session variable but I have not been able to isolate the exact issue as yet.

This is an old one and no I've not been able to fix it. It seems to do it much less if you finish your post with new line. Hit enter, in other words, when you finish - particularly if you're pasting something in.

Yeah, you're probably dead on here. I am anything but a php programmer. I do however hope to free up some time to do some more blind fiddling in the near future. So maybe, if nothing else I might be able to replace some of these old bugs with new and exciting bugs..

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I had this problem once. I've been sitting here trying to remember what the cause was. Something is telling me it had to do with subdomain independent cookies. You might want to look around in that direction.

lol @ "new and exciting bugs.." :)

MrLeN

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Should have the watch topic option back now... It still isn't emailing though.

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WebProNews Videos

I clicked a "watch this topic ..." option and I did receive one email from it, although there were several replies, but the email had the variable (topic_title) in the Subject line, "" in the body where the topic Title should be, a link to the stop watching the topic, which did work, but no link to the topic itself.

Clicking the "stop watching ..." link in the email is the only way to find out which topic it is.

So subscription email hasnt been fixed yet? I am not getting them.

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Working as intended. You will only receive 1 email. If you had a hot thread you wouldn't want 50 emails about it. It says basically that in the email:

"This topic has received a reply since your last visit. You can use the following link to view the replies made, no more notifications will be sent until you visit the topic."

The email will have 2 links. The first will take you to the topic the second will take that topic off of your watch list.

The variable not filling in is the current battle. If you aren't receiving emails at all, that is something beyond my control.

The notification emails are going out. They just don't contain all of the information they need.

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Here's a sample of the actual email being sent:
Subject: Topic Reply Notification - (the topic title should go here and it isn't)

Hello,

You are receiving this email because you are watching the topic, "title should be here and it isn't" at WebProWorld. This topic has received a reply since your last visit. You can use the following link to view the replies made, no more notifications will be sent until you visit the topic.

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic...=282684#282684

If you no longer wish to watch this topic you can either click the "Stop watching this topic link" found at the bottom of the topic above, or by clicking the following link:

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic...&unwatch=topic


So those are the problems with the email system. Any problems you are having insofar as receiving no email at all are a whole other can of worms. Those worms are beyond my control. Contact your mail admin, ISP, and/or check your filters/junk folders. We're sending you mail. I can't say what happens to it after it leaves my server.

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WebProNews Videos

Dearest Mike,

I would love to get an email like that but unfortunately for both of us I still don't. I have even changed my email address and although relevant posts have been updated, still no notification. None of my ISPs filter my mail, I use Mailwasher alone. I have taken extra care to check the hundreds of emails I get every day but no sign of anything from here. It's weird because even after I changed my name I was getting notifications then sudenly they stopped.

I'm sorry to throw this back at you, just when you thought you'd solved it but I don't think you have.

Love,
Tim

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The current state of play is that an email is sent out when a post is made in a thread that you are watching. The email contains no text information about which thread it is, although it's supposed to contain it in the Subject line and the body text.

Clicking the link in the email and reading the new post works fine. But if you post to the thread the "watch" is automatically turned off, so you won't get any more emails from the thread unless you expicitly turn it back on again.

The latter problem is an old one here - it was a fault before Mike and Co. took over.

So basically I have to click "Watch this topic" for all the old threads I was previously subscribded to or posted to?

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Shouldn't I be already marked as watching all these threads I have posted to? When I click on my "watched topics" they all appear there, but when I visit the thread itself and scroll to the bottom it appears that I am "not watching" it, hence why I am not getting emails any more.

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That is my issue. Shouldnt I be automatically "watching" threads I post to or start? It doesnt seem to be working that way.

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You are clicking "notify when a reply is posted" when you post correct?

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WebProNews Videos

Notify is already pre-selected, because my profile is set that way.

Now I clicked watch this topic and and have posted and I was never emailed when you posted Mike.

I had to come back here to see if someone posted.

I used to love being part of the community, but going through and trying to keep track of thread replies by hand stinks.

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I am having this problem myself. I get nothing now.

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I just want to update others having issues with this.

If I create a new topic thread or reply to one, I am still not getting subscription emails at all. I do have the box checked when replying and it is set as default in my profile. This not only goes for all new replies and threads, but for EVERY old one that I have started or responded to. Oh well. I have voiced that this is happening for a while.

The solution for this is to click "Watch this topic for replies" link at the bottom of every thread you are interested in and if you make a post click that link right after the post is made. I hate doing it, but it is the only I get the subscription emails.

Also the subscription emails are still blank with no reference to the topic or thread, except for the link back to it.

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You should only have to watch a thread once. If you're watching a thread the notification box at the end of the 'post' screen should be pre checked.

I'll check your email address webhost1 and see what I can see.

The thread title and your username not passing into the email is still not workinig. I will fix it first chance I get. (it's a tough cookie for some reason... - I have been trying.)

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Webhost1, you're problem is with your Hotmail. Can't get thru to Hotmail and there is nothing I can do about that I'm afraid.

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That is my point Mike. My box is pre-checked, but unless I select "Watch this..." link I wont get the emails.

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Any fixes for this yet?

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Now, I am facing the same problem. I have "Notify me when a reply is posted" checked.

I didn't receive any email in my gmail account when there was a post. Can you help?

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Parveen Panwar
http://www.uvouch.com

To watch a topic you must select the 'Watch this topic' link at the bottom of each thread. If you reply to the thread again, you will have to re-watch the topic as well.

This was implemented in response to complaints of too many email notifications. The rationale is now once you watch a topic and reply the system assumes you are finished watching it. As such you must watch it again if you want to continue to receive notifications.

Some people don't like it, but I have to err on the side of fewer emails than more emails. The logic of the complaints being that if you watch a topic and you reply to it, the system should assume you have seen what you wanted to watch (you can re-watch if you wish). The distinction was compared to the difference between a 'subscribe to a thread' and 'watch a thread'.

Make sense?

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I loved getting all those emails! It is ok I am getting used to clicking "watch this topic" after each time I post now.

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Didn't really bother me either. But some folks are pretty sensitive about their inboxes so I gotta kind of respect that too...

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Personally I think the current way is a PITA. Forum software has worked the old way for years and years, and if some people cant figure out how to set "dont watch" that should be their problem. Not the rest of ours.

I also see the post counts dropping like mad since the email stuff stopped getting sent as it should.

That alone IMO, would be grounds for putting it back the way it was.

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William Cross
Expert Search Engine Optimization

This was my main concern as well.

I would think their are more people that want notifications than those that dont. If people didnt want them they could have changed that setting in their profile.

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I used to vist WPW daily but now since I NEVER get any email notifications of responses in a thread my time is taken up by forums that DO notify me that responses have been made and in the case of one very good forum the entire response is quoted which saves me still more time.


IMO if there are those who do not want to follow the established protocol of forums by receiving emails whenever a thread you have either started or participated in receives a response, they can simple uncheck the box in their profile.


I suspect that the great majority would prefer notifications of responses.

The total number of emails sent out can be reduced sending only the first response to a subscribed thread and then not sending any more until you visit that thread again.

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Mel Nelson
Expert SEO | Cheap used cars

No. The rationale is wrong. If a person is watching a topic and replies in the topic, then the only logical assumption that can be made is that he/she is still interested in the topic - watching. When a person posts in a topic, and his/her profile is set to receive notifications, then the system is wrong to turn off the notifications. It all seems very simple to me.

It's also very simple for people to stop watching any topic they choose to stop watching. The notification email contains a link for that very purpose. So the rationale that caters for the few people who don't want the emails, but are too lazy to either turn notifications off in their profiles, or to click the link in the email to turn a particular topic off, is way off. The rationale is irrational.

But I suspect that logic won't help here. I suspect that the people who could fix it simply don't know how to fix it. The problem existed before the current regime, and I think they don't know how to fix it.

I got tired of trying a long time ago.

I would love to get emails again but it seems like to much work.

I would bet if the emails started working again the post # on the forums would double.

Just my two cents. (-:

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This is not accurate on any count (and a little insulting).

If the 'problem' is defined as how the email notifications are delivered currently, then it started precisely in November (2005).

Can I switch it back the way it was? Certainly.

Will I switch it back to the way it was? Not likely.

Would switching it back to the way it was deliver an email to everyone that has had trouble receiving email? No. The vast majority of these issues are ISP/mail admin filters that I can't do anything about.

Is there some middle ground solution? I am looking into other options.

The notification situation isn't a closed case. That said, it won't be changing tomorrow.

I have tried 2 different schemes on the wpw testbed and neither of them were satisfactory.

Just because you don't necessarily agree with me does not mean I don't know what I'm doing.

The system (however it ends up) will always have to err on the side of caution insofar as notifications are concerned.

Otherwise, notifications end up reported as spam, spam reports end up having my mailing IP for the forum blocked by upstream providers and major ISPs.

The result being that 10 people with (hypothetical example) hotmail addresses got a notification they either didn't mean to receive or forgot they asked for and complain. Hotmail then blocks the IP and then the other 300 people with hotmail don't get anything anymore either.

That's the problem in a nutshell. If it were as simple as saying 'they should be able to figure it out' we wouldn't have an issue. However, when they can't figure it out, I end up blocked, banned and blacklisted on major upstream providers, ISPs and large mail admins and NOBODY gets ANY mail anymore.

Things are sometimes a bit more complicated than they may appear on the surface my friends.

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Mike thanks for the response.

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I think there was a discussion on the phpbb forum a few years ago that somone posted a response they got from yahoo as to why it was blocking emails from certain phpbb forums and not others. If I recall correctly it was to do with the headers being sent via the mail class, yahoo wanted more info in the headers before letting it through (ie, the from header and the reply to header had to correspond with the domain of the smtp server, hence some forums as the only site on dedicated servers got through and forums on shared hosting had no chance, there were a few others too) basic mail function was a no no.

I tried digging out that thread on phpbb but no luck.

Maybe you can get a response from msn, yahoo etc as to what are the requirements to let mail through from the forum and format the mail headers accordingly.

Might not get a response as I doubt they make the info publicly available in case spammers start altering their scripts.

Won't do any harm to hack up the mail class to add a full set of legitimate email headers to avoid being identified as spam by various isp filters.

I do appreciate that effort. Actually, iEntry (the company that owns this forum) does work with most major ISPs to deal with deliverability. Trust me when I tell you it's a big part of what we think about around here.

The thing is, being that email is one of our core businesses we are extremely concerned with deliverability. The system we send the newsletters with is completely separate from the system that sends email for the forums. Nonetheless it is still all iEntry email. Long story short, I wouldn't want ISP's blackholing, diverting or not delivering newsletters because of forum notification complaints.

One of the big reasons we do have good relationships with ISPs and mail admins is that we don't generate a lot of complaints. Having complaints generated by something like the email notifications on the forum is really just more headache than it's worth. As such it's currently set up in it's current conservative configuration.

I would remind everyone that you can still receive notifications - I get them. You just have to re-watch the threads. If you are attempting to rewatch but just never get anything from us at all, then odds are there's an issue between your inbox and my outbox. If that's the case, you might try an alternative email address. If the notifications show up there, then that tells the tale.

Now, all that said... there may be a way to interface the forum with our larger mailing system or maybe use our content management system to create some new options for thread level subscriptions in the forum. Both options will involve some dev time but they are both being considered.

It isn't something I've just written off. But it isn't something I can quick fix. iEntry is an email company. It's what we do. I'll get you emails. I promise.

It's actually quite funny from my perspective. I don't often have to deal with people complaining that I don't send them enough email. It's almost surreal.

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Mike I suggest you removed this check box option under each reply box:

Notify me when a reply is posted

Since it is only confusing everyone, because most think that is what is needed to get replies.

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Mike what about subscription to forums, so you get an email whenever a new topic is posted in a certain forum?

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