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Questions.

Discussion in 'Key features of the LostCousins site' started by kiwilong, Jul 9, 2020.

  1. Pauline

    Pauline LostCousins Megastar

    On the rare occasions when an email notification from the forum hasn't arrived in my mail box, my main concern is not that I might miss a forum post as the alerts are nevertheless still there online. The real concern is that if an email I know has been sent doesn't arrive, how many emails that I don't know about might also have gone astray?

    Fortunately non-delivery is not an issue with my email provider - on the odd occasion when email notifications haven't reached me the problem, as here, was not at my end.
     
  2. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    In this case the problem occurred because the email was sent while the main LostCousins server was being backed up - there's no way round this.
     
  3. Peter, is it possible to have a banner which advises when the server is down? It really would help us antipodeans.
    Ancestry provides a banner to tell us when they are doing maintenance and so do other websites but I can't immediately recall which ones.
     
  4. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    I'll ask.
     
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 1
  5. Bryman

    Bryman LostCousins Megastar

    I don't believe that email notifications include informing you of your own posting either.

    Do you really need to be notified about your own postings? I would expect everyone to remember that they have posted but the notification process is to alert members that new postings have been made which they may wish to follow up. Or have I misunderstood what you have written. Sorry if that is so.
     
  6. Pauline

    Pauline LostCousins Megastar

    I think this must have been someone else. What I experienced was some kind of intermittent authentication error which meant a few forum emails didn't get as far as my incoming mail server.

    Anyway, this was about 8 months ago and I'm not aware of it happening since.
     
  7. You have, I am talking about notification of when somebody else comments/replies to a discussion I raise.
    It was me, that's why I am asking for a banner.
     
  8. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    I wasn't referring to the problem you experienced but the one that has just been reported.
     
  9. Pauline

    Pauline LostCousins Megastar

    OK. I got confused because you were replying to my post.
     
  10. Bryman

    Bryman LostCousins Megastar

    Did this non-arrival of email notification of forum updates ever get resolved?

    I have just received an email from "LostCousins newsletter" with subject of "Cases peaking or not? - July 2021". At first I thought this was another newsletter but then realised that it was a notification of forum update by Peter. However, this is the first such email that I have received for several months!
     
  11. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    If incoming emails don't arrive despite white-listing the sender, the answer is to use a different email provider. Email providers who neither deliver emails not return them to the sender are a real problem.
     
  12. Email providers who apparently strip attachments in their fist delivery then resend the entire email, or, don't even deliver emails with attachments are a big problem too.
    Yahoo does that here in NZ, at least it does with three people I know who use Yahoo.
     
  13. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    Are you aware of this change in your email service? It might be a factor.
     
  14. Bryman

    Bryman LostCousins Megastar

    Thanks to Peter and AhinNZ for reminding me about what had been a problem a couple of years ago. Suddenly getting a notification after none was very noticeable. Unfortunately, the opposite is less so. My email provider is Spark (renamed from NZ Telecom) who used to have Yahoo provide this service but then took it back in-house a couple of years ago.

    That is dated just over a year ago but I am sure that the change happened before then, like 12-18 months before and is the move away from Yahoo that I mentioned above.

    I have had several update notifications since my recent post so I will try to keep alert and raise the issue with Spark if notifications stop again.
     
  15. I am also with Spark (xtra.co.nz). Peter had an issue a while back when emails weren't getting through, he communicated with Spark and got that sorted.

    I am receiving all emails for 'New reply to a discussion you're following'. Is it possible Bryman that you aren't 'following' the discussions?
     
  16. Bryman

    Bryman LostCousins Megastar

    That would certainly account for some missing notifications.

    I don't specifically 'follow' any discussion but I believe that the forum software automatically puts me in that class if I post to a particular discussion. I have added a few posts to various discussions over the last few months so would expect to receive notifications, at least after such posts. They are coming through now so I wondered why there had been such a long gap. As I have mentioned earlier, I normally pickup new entries on all discussions via the 'New Posts' button.
     
  17. You only receive notifications if somebody answers or uses an emoticon to respond to your post.
     
  18. peter

    peter Administrator Staff Member

    The article doesn't mention Yahoo (so maybe there was more than one change?), but it does indicate that they need users' permission to move their accounts over. Perhaps that is a factor in what you have experienced?
     
  19. It does mention Yahoo, near the foot of the page:
    Spark says, "Customers will need to opt-in to the migration process as soon as possible to ensure their contacts, calendar entries and emails are migrated from Yahoo - they will retain their Xtra email address.
     
  20. Bryman

    Bryman LostCousins Megastar

    That is the same change as I remember and they only needed permission in order to get the users to agree to new terms. Data was only copied across for users with IMAP accounts. I had a POP3 account so there was no data stored which had to be copied. I store all my data on my own computer and do not try to access it with other devices.
     

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