Mike
Well-Known Member
This is one of those times when I wish a point did not need to be made, but there is no getting around it.
First off, I want everyone (including you) to visit the forum's Rules & Guidelines page. Read the information on that page, and become familiar with it. If you have any questions about any of those rules, I invite you to send me a Personal Conversation. I will be more than happy to provide any clarification you might need.
Second, we have a rule that says:
If someone registers and provides a phony account (and believe me, it happens all day long, every day), then they will never receive the confirmation message. I have a script that will check new accounts for confirmation, and will post a warning notification to all unconfirmed accounts. If an account is not confirmed within seven days of registration, the account is automagically deleted from the database.
If someone successfully registers and confirms their e-mail, it would make you think life is good, here in the land of milk and honey. But what ends up happening is people want to register with accounts they specifically use for junk mail they do not want to be bothered with reading. Or they change ISPs and end up with a new account.
What they forget is the forum is still trying to send them e-mail notification of various and specific events taking place on the forums. If I send you a PC, you get an e-mail, saying you have a new PC waiting to be read. If you subscribe to a thread and someone adds a post, you get an e-mail, saying you have new messages to be viewed.
This is why the rule governing associated e-mail accounts is specific in saying you must provide and maintain a valid e-mail address.
Every time an e-mail is generated, whether it be for a new member, for a new PC, or for whatever, that e-mail is sent from an address associated with this domain. Which is all fine and dandy, unless the recipient's e-mail address is malformed, or is no longer valid. When that happens, the recipient e-mail server bounces the message back to me. Which may sound like a rather insignificant situation to some of you, but there are multiple reasons why it makes my blood boil.
1. I operate several Web sites, each of which has its own e-mail accounts. At the time of this writing, the e-mail client on this machine is currently sweeping a total of twenty-three e-mail accounts, every 10 minutes, of every hour, 24 hours a day, every day, of every week, of every year. I get more than enough e-mails as it is, and I don't need bounced e-mails adding to my workload, just because some of you are too lazy to look after your own accounts.
2. More importantly, if this domain sends an e-mail to whatever e-mail server you have associated with your account, and that e-mail account is no longer valid, that counts as a strike against this domain. If your e-mail domain sees enough negative reputation strikes against this domain, it will mark this domain as sending spam.
If this domain starts getting marked as a spam domain, that will affect the deliverability of all of our outgoing e-mails. I bust my hump, trying to ensure that our e-mail domain is set up with all the proper validations, so all of you will receive e-mail notifications in a proper and timely manner. I make very regular checks, and our A record, our SPF record and our MX record are all in place, and verified. But if someone changes ISPs and does not update their e-mail account here, then I get busted for sending e-mails to their old ISP. Uh-uh, that ain't gonna happen no more.
I've asked, repeatedly, for everyone to take the 15 seconds required to verify the e-mail address associated with their forum account is both valid and working. But I am still seeing the odd bounced message in my own Inbox. So, welcome to the E-Mail Wall of Shame.
Effective about 5 minutes ago, every time I see a bounced message in my Inbox, I will be logging into the Admin Control Panel of the forums, first to discontinue all e-mail notifications for the offending user account. Second, I will be limiting the access permissions on the offending account, which means those users will be able to log into the forum, and will be able to view messages on the forum, but that is it. The new Limited usergroup will not be allowed to post to the forums, they will not be allowed to view attachments to posts, they will not be able to access the Personal Conversation functions, nor will they be able to use the user profile functions. Their accounts will be identified with a yellow banner below their avatar, identifying them as a Limited User.
In addition, the offending user will be tagged in a post to this thread, so they will be able to see exactly why nothing seems to work for them, any longer. Of course, everyone else will see the offending user's identity, hence the Wall of Shame.
I take this stuff very seriously folks. Play by the rules and we all get to have a good time around here. Break the rules and tamper with this domain's e-mail reputation and you will suffer for it.
Our very first entry on the sparkling, brandy-new Wall of Shame -
@Hackerbilt , you need to get your e-mail account fixed, or changed, ASAP. Your e-mail provider (go flippin' figure, it's flippin' Hotmail.ca
) is bouncing messages with a 550 error - Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable.
As soon as you get this problem fixed, use the Contact Us link, at the bottom of every forum page, to send me a message from a working e-mail address. I will respond, and assuming my response gets through to you, you will need to send back your own response. Once I see things are working, I will restore your forum privileges. Until then, well, things are not going to work so much.
OK, who's going to be next? <he says as he rubs his palms together and laughs wickedly> Line 'em up, and I'll knock 'em down.
First off, I want everyone (including you) to visit the forum's Rules & Guidelines page. Read the information on that page, and become familiar with it. If you have any questions about any of those rules, I invite you to send me a Personal Conversation. I will be more than happy to provide any clarification you might need.
Second, we have a rule that says:
As most of you will doubtless recall, when you registered for these forums, you were required to provide a valid e-mail address. Once you had submitted your registration request, the forum software sent you a confirmation e-mail with a link you had to visit, in order to complete your registration.
If someone registers and provides a phony account (and believe me, it happens all day long, every day), then they will never receive the confirmation message. I have a script that will check new accounts for confirmation, and will post a warning notification to all unconfirmed accounts. If an account is not confirmed within seven days of registration, the account is automagically deleted from the database.
If someone successfully registers and confirms their e-mail, it would make you think life is good, here in the land of milk and honey. But what ends up happening is people want to register with accounts they specifically use for junk mail they do not want to be bothered with reading. Or they change ISPs and end up with a new account.
What they forget is the forum is still trying to send them e-mail notification of various and specific events taking place on the forums. If I send you a PC, you get an e-mail, saying you have a new PC waiting to be read. If you subscribe to a thread and someone adds a post, you get an e-mail, saying you have new messages to be viewed.
This is why the rule governing associated e-mail accounts is specific in saying you must provide and maintain a valid e-mail address.
Every time an e-mail is generated, whether it be for a new member, for a new PC, or for whatever, that e-mail is sent from an address associated with this domain. Which is all fine and dandy, unless the recipient's e-mail address is malformed, or is no longer valid. When that happens, the recipient e-mail server bounces the message back to me. Which may sound like a rather insignificant situation to some of you, but there are multiple reasons why it makes my blood boil.
1. I operate several Web sites, each of which has its own e-mail accounts. At the time of this writing, the e-mail client on this machine is currently sweeping a total of twenty-three e-mail accounts, every 10 minutes, of every hour, 24 hours a day, every day, of every week, of every year. I get more than enough e-mails as it is, and I don't need bounced e-mails adding to my workload, just because some of you are too lazy to look after your own accounts.
2. More importantly, if this domain sends an e-mail to whatever e-mail server you have associated with your account, and that e-mail account is no longer valid, that counts as a strike against this domain. If your e-mail domain sees enough negative reputation strikes against this domain, it will mark this domain as sending spam.
If this domain starts getting marked as a spam domain, that will affect the deliverability of all of our outgoing e-mails. I bust my hump, trying to ensure that our e-mail domain is set up with all the proper validations, so all of you will receive e-mail notifications in a proper and timely manner. I make very regular checks, and our A record, our SPF record and our MX record are all in place, and verified. But if someone changes ISPs and does not update their e-mail account here, then I get busted for sending e-mails to their old ISP. Uh-uh, that ain't gonna happen no more.I've asked, repeatedly, for everyone to take the 15 seconds required to verify the e-mail address associated with their forum account is both valid and working. But I am still seeing the odd bounced message in my own Inbox. So, welcome to the E-Mail Wall of Shame.
Effective about 5 minutes ago, every time I see a bounced message in my Inbox, I will be logging into the Admin Control Panel of the forums, first to discontinue all e-mail notifications for the offending user account. Second, I will be limiting the access permissions on the offending account, which means those users will be able to log into the forum, and will be able to view messages on the forum, but that is it. The new Limited usergroup will not be allowed to post to the forums, they will not be allowed to view attachments to posts, they will not be able to access the Personal Conversation functions, nor will they be able to use the user profile functions. Their accounts will be identified with a yellow banner below their avatar, identifying them as a Limited User.
In addition, the offending user will be tagged in a post to this thread, so they will be able to see exactly why nothing seems to work for them, any longer. Of course, everyone else will see the offending user's identity, hence the Wall of Shame.
I take this stuff very seriously folks. Play by the rules and we all get to have a good time around here. Break the rules and tamper with this domain's e-mail reputation and you will suffer for it.
Our very first entry on the sparkling, brandy-new Wall of Shame -
@Hackerbilt , you need to get your e-mail account fixed, or changed, ASAP. Your e-mail provider (go flippin' figure, it's flippin' Hotmail.ca
) is bouncing messages with a 550 error - Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable.As soon as you get this problem fixed, use the Contact Us link, at the bottom of every forum page, to send me a message from a working e-mail address. I will respond, and assuming my response gets through to you, you will need to send back your own response. Once I see things are working, I will restore your forum privileges. Until then, well, things are not going to work so much.
OK, who's going to be next? <he says as he rubs his palms together and laughs wickedly> Line 'em up, and I'll knock 'em down.
