Resolved Site Emails may be sporadic today - WORK COMPLETED

[GazHyde]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of making changes to how site emails are sent from the server. We have to switch email providers as our current one is discontinuing their service.

Whilst the changes are made emails for alerts, PMs etc may be a little sporadic with delivery. There is also a chance your emails will be queued and then delivered in one large chunk later today!

If you aren't getting email notifications, no need to let me know

Gary

 

[GazHyde]

I've had to roll back the changes as I can't get the new service to work I'll let you know when I'm going to attempt it again, but email notifications should be coming through again...

 

[GazHyde]

Figured it out finally, and we are now transacting emails through the Mailgun service. Won't mean a lot to the majority of you, but it's an essential service to automatically process the c15,000 emails the site sends every month.

The problem it solves is when people sign up to the site and then get annoyed receiving emails from us. Rather than changing their preferences they tag it as SPAM in their email system. That solves the "problem" for them, but generates a SPAM complaint against us. If we keep sending emails to that address then we eventually get blacklisted meaning 3rd party mail servers won't process any of our messages, and then no one gets email alerts.

What Mailgun does is pass back the initial SPAM complaint and the forum software then stops any emails going to that address again. It means we are effectively immune to SPAM complaints. There are other benefits such as taking load off the server, and that we can monitor our mail "reputation".

It costs around $2.50 per month with the amount of emails we send, but this is peanuts compared to the aggravation of being blacklisted for SPAM.

 

[Redline]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of making changes to how site emails are sent from the server. We have to switch email providers as our current one is discontinuing their service.

Gary

Thanks Gary - It's this kind of invisible work, frequently complex and lots of it researching and putting in place solutions that goes into providing a seamless and invisible service. On behalf of everybody, thanks for all your hard work.

Ian

 

[GazHyde]

Thanks Ian, next up I need to schedule in a major set of upgrades in the next week or so. Will have to take the site offline for a couple of hours for that as it's the core forum software, the media gallery, the resource manager and 9 add ons....

 

[Redline]

Thanks Ian, next up I need to schedule in a major set of upgrades in the next week or so. Will have to take the site offline for a couple of hours for that as it's the core forum software, the media gallery, the resource manager and 9 add ons....

Squeaky bum time
Is it a portal system?
Hope you're not at the bleeding edge of the upgrade path.
Do you have a pre-prod or test system to trial the upgrade on?

 

[GazHyde]

Squeaky bum time

Not too bad as their upgrades generally work first time without issue, but it's the theme templates which I always end up having issues with!

Is it a portal system?

Nope. But one of the add ons provides the home page features which is essentially a portal. Oh, and that's on my list to start making sure is populated with interesting stuff again. Announcement coming soon on that one

 

[Grumps]

Yep got all of that @GazHyde,sounds wonderful and erm very essential indeed! Although I haven't a bloody clue what your going on about I'm sure it's necessary to keep us all busy doing what we do so for that I thank you sir.

 

[Redline]

Not too bad as their upgrades generally work first time without issue, but it's the theme templates which I always end up having issues with!

Nope. But one of the add ons provides the home page features which is essentially a portal. Oh, and that's on my list to start making sure is populated with interesting stuff again. Announcement coming soon on that one

When I said portal I meant 3rd party CMS. If this is in house - I'm impressed indeed!

 

[GazHyde]

When I said portal I meant 3rd party CMS. If this is in house - I'm impressed indeed!

Nothing so grandiose I'm afraid, but it's all either written by the forum developers or a dedicated bunch of 3rd party developers who write stuff to extend the core features.

 

[spurs fan in a coupe]

I'm sorry I got distracted by the word Spam,

Thanks for all your efforts Gaz. Its much appreciated, how else would I end up at a service station on the m25, not meeting the person who organised it today?!?!

 

[t-tony]

Many thanks Gaz, for all you do, to keep comments coming from SFIAC as in the previous post. This is a great social forum and unlike any other I have joined or just read. I know it takes up a lot of your own time, and for that I thank you, as I'm sure, does every one on here.

Tony.

 

[Shelly]

Thank you for all your hard work Gary

 

[Mint]

@GazHyde, just to add my thanks for all you do in the background to keep the forum runing. l really do appreciate all the time and effort you put in, as I'm sure everyone does.

 

[EnthuZiaZT]

Thanks Gazza, for all your help and dedication in keeping us all entertained and on the straight and narrow!!

Mike & Sandy