The Sewing Place

Reception => Tech Know How => Topic started by: sewingj on February 10, 2020, 13:19:12 PM

Title: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: sewingj on February 10, 2020, 13:19:12 PM
Until recently I would get an email if I was "mentioned" in a post but that seems to have stopped.  I am still getting a little notification at the top of the main forum page.

As far as I am aware I haven`t changed any of my settings.  Can anyone assist please?

PS  I have checked and they are not going into my Spam folder
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Acorn on February 10, 2020, 13:28:44 PM
I'm afraid that once the emails leave the forum we have no control over them.

The odds are that your ISP (or somewhere else along your email's route) is blocking it because it detects that it is an automated email.  This is one of those things that ISPs do in order to reduce spam, but unfortunately there is quite a lot of collateral damage.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: sewingj on February 10, 2020, 13:32:28 PM
thanks Acorn.  It`s not a big deal- it just seemed a bit odd that it had happened so recently.  I wondered if it was to do with the Forum being down last week
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Bodgeitandscarper on February 10, 2020, 13:32:35 PM
I don't think I've had any emails for the last few days, either notifications of mentions or topic replies recently.

@Acorn Just checked, I've had no emails since 5th Feb, which was the (failed) migration day.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Celia on February 10, 2020, 13:39:25 PM
I still get them but it says there is no sender?? Not sure if this will help find out why
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: b15erk on February 10, 2020, 13:39:38 PM
Same here, @sewingj and @Bodgeitandscarper .  No emails since the 5th.

Jessie
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Acorn on February 10, 2020, 14:04:44 PM
Absolutely no connection with the failed migration - nothing was changed, all the work done was done offline and detached from the forum.  The forum only needed to be closed so that nobody could add posts after the files and database had been copied.

It does suggest that some server somewhere decided on the 5th that these automated emails should be stopped.  With luck they've only done it temporarily.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Acorn on February 10, 2020, 14:15:09 PM
I still get them but it says there is no sender?? Not sure if this will help find out why

Is that in the message body or subject line?  If it's not it's probably a setting in your email client or account.

@sewingj @Bodgeitandscarper @b15erk You are all using the same email provider, so it's not surprising any change would have affected you all at the same time.  If you have another email address, with a different provider, it's worth seeing if changing it makes them come through again.  (Of course the new provider might also be blocking automated emails.)
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Ploshkin on February 10, 2020, 14:28:42 PM
Mine always go to my junk folder, have continued to do so since the 5th.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: UttaRetch on February 10, 2020, 14:30:45 PM
My @mentioned email notification has stopped too.  The last one I had was 4 February.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Helen M on February 10, 2020, 14:38:09 PM
Mine are hit and miss and have always been that way, I blame my ISP (BT). All of a sudden they appear for a day or so then nothing. I sometimes forget to look at the top of the forum as well!

Similar reply emails from another forum which I'd had for years suddenly stopped and were not in 'spam' so I had to change that contact to my other email and they came to the 2nd one okay. 
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Bodgeitandscarper on February 10, 2020, 15:30:06 PM
So why would I now not get the emails when I was doing before the 5th?  Nothing has changed at my end, it must be to do with the attempted change of the forum.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Acorn on February 10, 2020, 15:44:18 PM
I'm afraid that once the emails leave the forum we have no control over them.

The odds are that your ISP (or somewhere else along your email's route) is blocking it because it detects that it is an automated email.  This is one of those things that ISPs do in order to reduce spam, but unfortunately there is quite a lot of collateral damage.

I repeat, there is no way that closing the forum could have had any effect on your receiving emails.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Helen M on February 10, 2020, 16:22:54 PM
So why would I now not get the emails when I was doing before the 5th?  Nothing has changed at my end, it must be to do with the attempted change of the forum.

Not necessarily as over the past year, at least, mine have been intermittent to say the least, most often I don't get any. I'd say it's your ISP, for whatever reason. Mine is most choosy!
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Bodgeitandscarper on February 10, 2020, 18:37:14 PM
Such a coincidence though isn't it? 

I'm not a huge believer in coincidences.

I'll do without emails then.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Acorn on February 10, 2020, 18:48:00 PM
It has to be a coincidence when there is no possible connection between the two events.  Lots of things happened on the 5th.  Almost none of them had anything to do with the forum being closed.  I'm afraid I do actually know what I'm talking about.

To clarify yet again.  The emails are being sent out, just as they were before the 5th.  We have no control over what happens to them once they've left here.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Iminei on February 10, 2020, 18:58:33 PM
Maybe go onto your profile and reset the email option???
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Greybird on February 10, 2020, 19:35:32 PM
Just to add to the mix, I haven't received any either, although there have been some. I use Chrome and nothing has changed.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Acorn on February 10, 2020, 21:01:45 PM
You are also using the same email provider as most of the others with problems, @Greybird

You could try changing the email address in your profile if you have another one with a different provider, but the odds are that things will be sorted out by whatever is causing the problem before too long, and they will start getting through again.

Like @Helen M  I am with BT and find this happens mysteriously and gets sorted out after a few days, here and with other forums.  There really is nothing we can do other than wait.

The emails leave the forum (I have checked the error logs, and there is nothing there relating to this).  It is down to the ISPs and service providers once they have left us.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Greybird on February 10, 2020, 21:05:45 PM
There! I just got one!
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Acorn on February 10, 2020, 21:07:23 PM
Hah - do you think they were reading this? 

I was about to add that looking at the SMF support forum (and other support forums) it seems that gmail is generally the worst - but far from the only - offender for this, and other forums have recently had issues with gmail emails. 
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: b15erk on February 10, 2020, 21:47:57 PM
I've got mail!  :)

Jessie
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Ploshkin on February 10, 2020, 22:37:19 PM
The beekeeping association I belong too has a circulation list of members.  We constantly have problems with group e mails bouncing back from BT e mail addresses.  It hasn't been too bad for a while but a year or so back there were about 15 members who did not receive e mails fir several months, all with BT.  It just resolved itself but recently there has been an odd  one here and there.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Celia on February 10, 2020, 23:31:28 PM
The whole email says No Sender and if I try to look to see who it is from it just says  other and no details it did used to say The sewing place, no real problem to me but just thought it might help with the problem. The last one with the address was last Tuesday.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: wrenkins on February 11, 2020, 07:14:58 AM
In work I regularly send out emails to my team. One girl in the group only gets them when someone else from the group opens theirs and replies!  :S I just phone her now to tell her to read someone else's instructions.  :ninja:

Don't have this nonsense with pempsils and paper!  0_0
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Acorn on February 11, 2020, 09:14:20 AM
I did find a suggestion that if it carries on for a long time with a large group of members (and I guess gmail users is probably quite a large group) then changing the wording of the email might help, as they won't then be identical to automated emails from all the other SMF forums.

If we get to that point I will try it, although I'm not convinced it would help with 'mentions' emails because they have quite a variation in wording - username, other username, thread name and link (although automated emails with links are generally viewed with suspicion by the PTB in the ether anyway).  However, the structure is the same, and that may be enough.

It is all about preventing spam, and the approach does seem to be overkill followed by refining things a bit.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Celia on February 11, 2020, 09:21:54 AM
The whole email says No Sender and if I try to look to see who it is from it just says  other and no details it did used to say The sewing place, no real problem to me but just thought it might help with the problem. The last one with the address was last Tuesday.


The address is back this morning ??
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Acorn on February 11, 2020, 09:32:14 AM
That is weird!   ><  Good though - one less thing to worry about! 
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Celia on February 11, 2020, 10:35:30 AM
Do you think the internet goods read our thread :P
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Bodgeitandscarper on February 11, 2020, 15:15:08 PM
And lo and behold, mine is also working again - not that I did anything to my gmail.
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: b15erk on February 11, 2020, 15:27:37 PM
@Bodgeitandscarper , I didn't either!  It's like magic!

Mine is also Gmail, and it can be slow at times.

Wonder of t'internet!

Jessie
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Acorn on February 11, 2020, 15:42:47 PM
There isn't anything you can do - you just have to wait until things change again.  They usually do, although I have two members on another forum whose notification emails have been blocked for years - others have come and gone, as on here, but for these two there seems to be nothing anyone can do. 

In an ideal world you would be able to contact the email provider and say that the emails aren't getting through and should be, but in practice there is nobody there who cares. 

@Bodgeitandscarper You seem to think that there's some sort of conspiracy going on...?   -<
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Bodgeitandscarper on February 11, 2020, 16:02:10 PM
There's lots of conspiracies going on, you never know which one this might be part of...

*dons one of many tinfoil hats, just in case*
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Acorn on February 11, 2020, 16:02:54 PM
?
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Bodgeitandscarper on February 11, 2020, 16:05:23 PM
Well, you know Armaggedon is due in a few hours..

You have been watching Good Omens haven't you?
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: UttaRetch on February 11, 2020, 18:54:24 PM
Yes, but @Bodgeitandscarper ...
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: Bodgeitandscarper on February 11, 2020, 19:04:36 PM
Yes, but @Bodgeitandscarper ...
@UttaRetch  Oh no, you know the ending don't you?  No, don't tell me!

*sticks fingers in ears and sings* lalalalalalalala
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: UttaRetch on February 12, 2020, 08:14:07 AM
I know the ending because I've heard the radio version.  :D
Title: Re: No emails when "mentioned"
Post by: sewingj on February 13, 2020, 10:24:47 AM
Emails are back!