There have been a few people who have registered to participate in the Hatrack River Writers Workshop forum recently who have yahoo.co.uk email addresses and who have not been able to receive emails from me.
When I have tried to contact them regarding their registrations, my emails have bounced back at me (with a failure message about giving up after trying three times to get through). (There may be other email address providers with this problem as well, that I don't know about, because they didn't send me such failure messages.)
So, this is an attempt to let people know a few things about registering to participate in the Hatrack River Writers Workshop forum that I can't seem to let people know through emails.
1--I would really like to know that a registration is not some kind of spam registration. (We used to get an awful lot of spambot registrations, but the captcha has helped to stop most of those. However, captchas don't stop the people who want to register merely for search engine optimization (seo) and who don't really care anything about writing).
2--If people don't tell me anything about themselves (occupation and/or interests, for example) when they register, I email them and ask about their interest in the Hatrack River Writers Workshop forum.
3--If people tell me enough about themselves when they register, I email them and tell them that their registrations have been activated and a little about how to "login."
4--If my emails are bounced back at me, I just leave things in limbo in hopes that the people will care enough to inquire, and I hope that my emails will get through to them finally.
5--If my emails never get through, and if people know someone who is already participating, I hope they will try to contact me through their friends (as has had to happen in a few cases recently). I am thrilled when a friend checks with me for someone who can't receive my emails for whatever reason.
6--If people register and tell me about themselves when they register, or by a separate email, and I can't get through to them to acknowledge that, I hope they try to "login" every so often, because if I know they are not spam or seo registrations I have probably already activated their registrations so they can reply to others' topics and create their own topics.
7--I am really sorry for the hassle and the frustration--I don't know why yahoo.co.uk won't accept my emails (and possibly other email service providers, for that matter). I really am doing the best I can to make the Hatrack River Writers Workshop forum a good place for all writers.
I hope this helps. If all else fails, I do have other email addresses, such as workshop AT burgoyne DOT com.
Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :
Quite a dilemma you have there, KDW. Anyone have a solution for her? I find it odd that emails sent to .uk addresses give you such problem. I can also imagine that not receiving a response for a request to join could leave potential members jaded about hatrack.
Come on. I know there are a few internet genius' out there. How can she fix this problem?
Posted by axeminister (Member # 8991) on :
Try sending from a different account? Or is it form generated?
Perhaps send the mail to yourself, then copy paste into a google account, then forward to the person.
Or a yahoo account... haha, hopefully it wouldn't reject that.
Axe
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
I am one of those with a .co.uk address who tried to register recently. I recieved an email from a user called snapper, welcoming me (I haven't replied yet - on the wrong machine at the moment) and have sent an intro to KDW. Just waiting for it to be added to the intro forum.
Though going by the fact I can now post my account has been activated
[This message has been edited by pdblake (edited August 20, 2010).]
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
pdblake, I don't add your introduction to the intro forum. I let you do that.
By the way (imagine me banging my head against a wall), I haven't received your introduction, so I couldn't add it anyway.
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
I'll put it up myself when I remember what I said Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :
You get that problem fixed, KDW?
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
That email I sent you, KDW, was bounced back as unreachable. Seems you might have the problem in both directions.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
I'm still working on it. It might be the new server, and it might be the way things were set up before the new server (and they just needed to be adapted to the new server). If the latter, that email address I gave you AT burgoyne DOT com is not going to help.
I have another one: Dalton-Woodbury AT sff DOT net. Please try it, pdblake?
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
Just sent you a test email KDW Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
And I just changed the settings on my hatrack.com email address, and sent you a test email, pdblake.
Here's hoping it works now.
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
Just got it and sent a reply Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
I received the email you send to my sff.net email address, so at least that one works. Thanks for working with me on this, pdblake.
Posted by tchernabyelo (Member # 2651) on :
As a data point: I have a yahoo.co.uk address and while I don't have problems with Hatrack as far as I am aware, I do have problems with IGMS - I receive the auto-generated emails for submission but when I respond to them to actually send the story, those emails do not get through.
To my knowledge I have not had problems with any other site or location.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Drat! Your reply is taking its own sweet time, pdblake.
Please let me know if it bounces back.
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
Will do. The last one took almost a day to bounce back though.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
tchernabyelo, it isn't a problem with the forum, it's an email problem.
If you haven't tried to email me from your yahoo.co.uk email address, or I haven't tried to email you, we would not have noticed any difficulty.
(Thank goodness for that at least!)
Posted by tchernabyelo (Member # 2651) on :
I believe I have recieved emails from you in the past, though, Kathleen... I don't know if Hatrack and IGMS use the same servers/ISP/whatever. I was just providing another data point on possible email issues between yahoo.co.uk and OSC-related people/locations.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Hmm. Until the recent server change (all of Hatrack uses the same server), my hatrack.com emails were going through my ISP (and other hatrack.com emails were going through the respective ISPs of those using them), and it appears that burgoyne.com was the one that had a problem with me sending emails to yahoo.co.uk email addresses. Especially since I have now changed from my ISP to sending my hatrack.com emails through the new server, and (lo and behold!) an email got through.
pdblake, another change has been made to the hatrack.com server, so if your email wasn't getting through before, it may get through now. (fingers crossed--expect, of course, when typing)
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
It's not bounced back yet if that's a good sign?
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
That's a hopeful sign, anyway.
Thanks for the update, pdblake.
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
It just bounced back.
Unable to establish an SMTP connection was the error, though the yahoo mailer-daemon puts it very apologetically. Never seen such polite error messages
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
<SIGH!>
Isn't SMTP for outgoing emails? So does that mean that your email couldn't find my email box or server?
Could you send the error message to my other email address (the one that you got through to), pdblake, and maybe the techgnomes here can figure out what the problem is?
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
Sorry, I deleted it right after posting, but that was the error, yahoo's mail server couldn't make an SMTP connection to send the email to you.
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
Just in case you don't get the reply, I received and replied to your last email Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
It bounced again. I've forwarded the error to you.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Thanks, pdblake.
I moderate another forum for OSC on a different website, and the software is a little different from that used for this forum. On that forum, there is a "smilie" that shows a little round yellow head banging itself against a brick wall.
I wish we had that "smilie" here.
We can hope, however, that with the error message, the techgnomes can figure out what the problem is.
So thanks again, and again, and again, for working with me on this.
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
No worries Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
Just replied to you again KDW, hope you get this one Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
So do I, pdblake.
If I don't, I am going to feel very discouraged.
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
TBH, I'd have thought that you'd have received it by now.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
No. I've received several obnoxious spam emails, however. Why can they get through when your email can't?
I don't have a junk emailbox or a spam emailbox, so I can't go there and check for it.
If it hasn't bounced back at you, at least that's improved, though it's not much of an improvement if you don't know whether your email got through to me or not.
Excuse me while I go somewhere and cry.
Posted by skadder (Member # 6757) on :
I've stopped trying as emails sent to you because it's like eating something spicy. It keeps repeating on me...
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
I'm really sorry about that, skadder. If you really need to reach me, there's always this topic, and you should be able to get through on the sff.net email address as well.
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
Still not bounced back, which it usually has by now. That's worse to me as you don't even get an error message.
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
I spoke too soon. It just bounced back, same error as before.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Drat!
I'll let the techgnomes know.
Thanks, pdblake.
Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :
If you like, you can send any email error through me.
