E-Mail Notification

[Curti]

I posted a new topic in  the 'what is it forum'  I was not notified when the topic was responded to. 

I checked in 'my profile' notifications options,  E-mail is checked.  This issue has surfaced since the upgrade. 

e-mail from AACA does come thru the ISP , so it is not going into spam.

[trickydicky43richard]

I noticed same problem, used to get email alerts to any replys/discussion, now nothing,this feature is sadly missed

[Curti]

What is also strange is this post shows zero views. I thought that was strange so I opened it and you replied !  And NO, I was not notified.

[R.White]

resolved 

Edited May 25, 2015 by R.White (see edit history)

[MCHinson]

Curti,

 

This post does not show zero views. Where you saw zero views was the redirect title in the AACA General Forum. Your post was moved to the Software Questions/Instructions Forum which is the proper forum and also where the webmaster would have a better chance of seeing your post and answering your question.

 

I can't answer your initial question but if you are attempting to get a notification on this thread's redirect title in the General Forum, you are not ever going to get a notification because nobody can reply to it there.  

[sean1997]

I haven't been receiving email notifications either, even though I've configured it to send notifications by email.  I've posted my problem in another thread (http://forums.aaca.org/topic/256805-not-receiving-email-notifications/) and I know Peter is working on it.  One thing I noticed is that several members who said they haven't been receiving email notifications are using hotmail, like me.  Maybe if everyone who is having issues receiving emails posted the domain name they are using in their email address (the part after the @ sign), it might help Peter figure out what is going on.  Mine is:

 

hotmail.com

 

[Curti]

Silly me, I didn't know this forum existed.

 

 I do not use Hotmail. It is an ISP in the western Wisconsin area name Pressenter.

[JamesBulldogMiller55Buick]

resolved 

Yeah

That's what Peter told me, too. 

But, it's not resolved. 

Still no email notification

[Curti]

I am now recieving email notification. 

[JamesBulldogMiller55Buick]

I got nine email notifications , just now..

Problem solved !!!

[MrEarl]

 

I haven't been receiving email notifications either, even though I've configured it to send notifications by email.  I've posted my problem in another thread (http://forums.aaca.org/topic/256805-not-receiving-email-notifications/) and I know Peter is working on it.  One thing I noticed is that several members who said they haven't been receiving email notifications are using hotmail, like me.  Maybe if everyone who is having issues receiving emails posted the domain name they are using in their email address (the part after the @ sign), it might help Peter figure out what is going on.  Mine is:

 

hotmail.com

 

I am not getting email notifications yet.  email address is  victfarm@bellsouth.net  but comes through yahoo.com

[MrEarl]

Changed my email from yahoo to gmail and I am getting notices

 

Thanks a lot everybody

[Peter Gariepy]

To clarify - if you are looking to get email notifications of responses to something you post you have go to into advanced editing, then check the box "Follow this topic?"

[MrEarl]

Peter, I had tried everything I knew to do over several days including checking, unchecking various boxes in My Settings and Notification Options, logging off, rebooting etc. Very frustrating. Someone who is very familiar with IP finally offered to look into my settings and and reported back that everything was good. I changed emails and am now receiving all Notices. In case anyone else has an email account with  @bellsouth.net address (actually comes through Yahoo.com),  they may have to do the same thing. If there is ever a fix to this, please let me know as I would like to switch back. 

[gwells]

To expand on MrEarl's post above, he was not receiving notification of replies to PMs he had sent and/or received and the problem seems to be that Bellsouth was tagging those notifications as spam and not passing them through. Well over 80% of the email activity on the internet these days is spam and the vast majority of spam filters are algorithm-based, meaning they're far from 100 percent accurate.

 

Peter's "best answer" in post #13 to this thread is accurate as far as it goes.

 

What notifications you receive is configurable to suit your preferences. To access the notification matrix, click in the downard-pointing arrow after your name in the upper RH corner of any page and then click on "My Settings" then on "Notification Options" on the left side. You'll get this screen:

 

 

This is my own notifications matrix and should reflect the default settings, as I don't recall changing any of them.

 

The Notification List referenced in the matrix can be accessed via "My Settings" (directly below the "Notification Options" click on the left side) or by the icon in the top menu bar highlighted below in red.

 

 

Most people will be primarily interested in receiving notifications from Private Message (PM) activity and perhaps from threads/topics they have followed.

Edited June 4, 2015 by gwells (see edit history)

[gwells]

BTW, I am happy to assist any member with issues and questions regarding IP.Board privately. Just contact me at greg@slotblog.net.

[gwells]

In case anyone else has an email account with  @bellsouth.net address (actually comes through Yahoo.com),  they may have to do the same thing. If there is ever a fix to this, please let me know as I would like to switch back.

Lamar, IMO this is a Bellsouth issue, not an AACA forum software issue.

[sean1997]

This is clearly a forum software issue.  I received every email notification without issue prior to the software upgrade.  Since the software upgrade, I haven't received a single email notification.  This is the only forum I belong to that use IP.Board.  For every other forum I belong to I still receive email notifications without issue.  Based on the number of people complaining  about the problem from various ISPs, I don't see how this could be an ISP issue.

[MrEarl]

To expand on MrEarl's post above, he was not receiving notification of replies to PMs he had sent and/or received and the problem seems to be that Bellsouth was tagging those notifications as spam and not passing them through.

 

If they were being tagged as spam, wouldn't they have been in my spam mail box. No spam in my spam mail box. Got some in the kitchen pantry, but none in my spam mail box.

[gwells]

Lamar,

Only if the spam was passed onto your computer by your ISP. My experience is that that is often not what happens with email scanners at the ISP level.

[gwells]

This is clearly a forum software issue... Based on the number of people complaining  about the problem from various ISPs, I don't see how this could be an ISP issue.

I don't believe it is all that clear, and let me explain why I say this.

Along with my slotblog.net domain, I have an email server and about a year ago my web hosting company added a spam scanner to that email server.

Perhaps you're familiar with Living Social, a Groupon-like daily deals and coupons feed. In attempting to take advantage of one of the offers, I found I couldn't log in to my Living Social account. Attempted the password reset... nothing. Called the support line for LS and we spent almost an hour attempting to reset my password, but I could never receive the verification email I had to reply to to finish the process. In fact, direct emails from LS support wouldn't reach me. Support finally gave up.

I contacted my web host to request that the spam scanner on my email server be disabled and immediately I was able to receive the verification email from LS's password reset procedure.

Sean, if you're like most of us and have more than one email address, I suggest changing the address in your AACA profile to one of the others (gmail if you have a gmail account) and see what happens.

[gwells]

Sean,

I am going to send you a PM. Would you please reply to that PM?

[gwells]

Sean did reply to my PM and I received an email notification that he had done so; see below.

As Sean indicates, he did not receive an email notification that I had PM'd him, but the evidence is the system is generating such emails.

Would someone please initiate a PM to me? Easiest way to do that is to hold your cursor over my name on the left and click "Send Message" in the box that will pop up.

[gwells]

Thanks to MCHinson, who as requested started a PM conversation with me. And as I expected, I did receive a notification email telling me I had a new PM waiting.

Again, the evidence is that the notification emails are being sent.

I will now reply to the new PM and we'll see if MCHinson gets an email notification letting him know I have replied.

Edited June 5, 2015 by gwells (see edit history)

[gwells]

MCHinson has replied to me that his did get email notifcation of my reply to him. He also indicates his AACA Forum email is a gmail adress.

Hotmail certainly seems to be a problem and my suggestion is that if you have a Hotmail email address in your AACA Forum profile you should try changing it to something else.

[sean1997]

Yes, I'm sure if I changed the email address in my profile it would start working, but that's not the point.  Blaming the end user and telling them to do something different shows a lack of interest in finding the problem, a lack of the ability to fix the problem, and is poor customer service.  If I blamed the customer in my line of work I would no longer have any customers or a job.  Imagine what you would do if you took your car to the mechanic and told him that it makes noise when you step on the brakes and his response was, well buy a new car that doesn't make noise when you step on the brakes.

 

I've had my hotmail account since before Google existed and I don't think I'll be changing it just because one of the many forums I belong to got upgraded with some buggy software.  I'm sure after the next bug patch or upgrade it will start working again.

[gwells]

Sean,

The assumption you're making is that the new IP.Board software is the source of the problem and I don't believe that is accurate.

If (and I admit it isn't absolutely certain) the AACA forum notification emails are getting blocked by a spam filter at Hotmail, just how do you expect Peter or an IP.Board patch to correct that?

Since you almost certainly have an email address tied to your ISP, why not use that for the AACA forum?

IMO it's bit of a stretch to label the suggested remedy as "blaming the end user." Why don't you contact Hotmail and blame them for blocking the AACA forum notification emails?

Edited June 5, 2015 by gwells (see edit history)

[JamesBulldogMiller55Buick]

I couldn't log on with my original account. "bhambulldog"

I tried "forgot my password" .

I didn't recieve any notice or instructions to reset my password.

So, with my back-up email account , I created a new User Name .

When. I told Peter about my problem,

Peter asked, "Did you check your spam box?"

me; "yes. Nothing in my spam box"

Peter; "I'm glad that's resolved"

I Laughed out loud at that.

It's too funny for me to be upset.

I'll be happy to keep the new 'User Name'

I'm getting the email notices on the back-up email.

Leave well enough alone , is what I'm thinking

Edited June 6, 2015 by JamesBulldogMiller55Buick (see edit history)

[JamesBulldogMiller55Buick]

MCHinson has replied to me that his did get email notifcation of my reply to him. He also indicates his AACA Forum email is a gmail adress.

Hotmail certainly seems to be a problem and my suggestion is that if you have a Hotmail email address in your AACA Forum profile you should try changing it to something else.

hotmail was indeed my primary account associated with my original user name "bhambulldog".

gmail is my back-up account. My current username is associated with gmail.

[gwells]

James,

To be clear, are you now receiving the AACA forum's email notifcations at your gamil address?

I'll PM you in a sec as a test for the notifications.

Edited June 6, 2015 by gwells (see edit history)

[JamesBulldogMiller55Buick]

James,

To be clear, are you now receiving the AACA forum's email notifcations at your gamil address?

I'll PM you in a sec as a test for the notifications.

Yes. 

the gmail account does receive the notifications of PM and activity in followed threads 

[sean1997]

I've checked all of the following (IP addresses and domain names) and nothing is blacklisted:

 

aaca.org 199.83.128.36

mx1.higherinfogroup.net 107.1.225.11

mx2.higherinfogroup.net 107.1.225.12

mx3.higherinfogroup.net 107.1.225.13

mx4.higherinfogroup.net 107.1.225.14

 

 

A search shows that this isn't a new issue, the recommended solution was to add:

 

 

 "-fyourmail@domain.com" (No space between "-f" and the email) as "PHP Mail Extra Options" in the email set-up

 

 

 

Looking at the email server logs could provide more information according to this article(http://www.rackaid.com/blog/hotmail-blacklist-removal/), but I don't have access to the email server logs and there probably wouldn't be any errors anyway since the forum doesn't seem to be blacklisted:

 

"If MSN has blacklisted your IP,  you will receive a delivery rejection notice from MSN or Hotmail. If you check your server’s logs or your email bounce you may see something like this:

 

host mx4.hotmail.com[65.55.37.72] said: 550 SC-001 Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons. Reasons for rejection may be related to content with spam-like characteristics or IP/domain reputation problems. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your E-mail/Internet Service Provider for help. Email/network admins, please visit MSN Postmaster for email delivery information and support (in reply to MAIL FROM command)

 

If you are seeing this or a similar email error, then your server’s IP has likely been blocked by MSN/Hotmail. There could be other response codes, but typically all MSN blacklist notifications will include a 500 series error. MSN’s postmaster service as a list of MSN’s blacklist codes."

 

 

 

The above article list some step for getting off the Hotmail blacklist, but I'm not sure that would be useful since it doesn't appear that the forum is blacklisted.  There is a link to the Microsoft sender information form (https://support.live.com/eform.aspx?productKey=edfsmsbl3&ct=eformts&wa=wsignin1.0&scrx=1) that has you provide some information about your site and conduct some tests, but I don't know all of the information and can't conduct any of the test since I'm not an AACA.org administrator.   There are also some other things you can do (https://mail.live.com/mail/troubleshooting.aspx), but again I can't do any of them since I'm not an AACA.org administrator and they probably wouldn't help anyway since the forum doesn't seem to be blacklisted.

 

[JamesBulldogMiller55Buick]

James,

To be clear, are you now receiving the AACA forum's email notifcations at your gamil address?

I'll PM you in a sec as a test for the notifications.

GWells,

How about we try this;

Would you Send a PM to my other user name bhambulldog? And see if I get a email motification on the associated hotmail account?

That might be tbe acid test…

[gwells]

James,

I was traveling over the weekend and didn't see your request until today.

The PM to bhambulldog has been sent. Let us know what happens please.

Edited June 8, 2015 by gwells (see edit history)

[gwells]

Sean,

As I have mentioned, my suspicion is that an algorithmic email spam scanner at Hotmail is rating the AACA forum notifications as spam and filtering them out. I don't have much evidence to support that thinking, in all honesty.

But the subject line for the forum notifications is this: "MemberX started a new personal conversation with you."

I've privately suggested to Peter he might want to try changing the notification template's subject line to something else as a test, maybe replace "personal conversation" with "PM conversation" and see what happens.

This is a real stab in the dark and if it works (assuming Peter has the time and inclination to test it), I'm gonna buy a few lottery tickets! LOL...

[JamesBulldogMiller55Buick]

James,

I was traveling over the weekend and didn't see your request until today.

The PM to bhambulldog has been sent. Let us know what happens please.

no message at the "in box" or "junk box" on the associated hotmail account