Site announcements - how to proceed?

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Site announcements - how to proceed?

Postby phil » Mon Feb 23, 2004 6:08 pm

This is one of those "What does the team think?" things.

Yesterday I realised that at least two of our membership are not getting their TMC email messages (new member votes and any other administrative stuff).

Currently I manually maintain an email distribution list separately to the main site. Every member of the site has their email address added to the list, me included.

The alternative method that is available to me is to use the bulk email facility of the site itself.

Maintaining a separate distribution list has the following implications:
  • Everyone can use the list - its use is not dependant on a level of administrative privilege on the site. This has been quite useful this last weekend when we were discussing the reponse to certain external events!
  • I have to keep the list separately up to date, which creates the risk of things getting out of synch.
Using the built-in bulk emailer on the site means that :
  • People can maintain their own email addresses for contact purposes, as part of their profile data.
  • When people change their email address, they can just change their info without needing to tell me
  • Only someone with administration privilege can use the bulk emailer, so using it to contact everyone in the group is not an option for the membership I'm afraid

Now, the real reason the problem came to light this weekend is that a couple of people had forgotten they had TMC email accounts. So I suppose that the next question is, do you think we should continue to dish out TMC email addresses to anyone in the group who wants one? Frankly, recently very few people have. Technically there's no problem with dishing these out, although it'll give me slightly more work when I eventually move us to our new server (real soon now, folks!).

I'm deliberately putting this discussion in an open forum as I see no reason why non-members should not be exposed to our democratic processes, and every reason in fact why they should! However, since this is an open forum please do not mention the list name in your replies.

OK, please let me know what you think! Separate email distribution list available to everyone, or just me using the bulk emailer?

TMC email accounts (with webmail service) available to new members or don't bother?

Cheers

Phil
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Postby phil » Fri Mar 05, 2004 4:11 pm

OK, well since no-one seems to be worried about this, I may at some time withdraw the external distribution list as it's extra work for me to maintain it.

Cheers

Phil
La Spaziale Spazio 2 group semi-auto

La Spaziale Lusso grinder (espresso),
Macap MC4 shop grinder (brewed coffee)
Three Thor tampers
Two Hottops, first since Feb 2003
No partridge, no pear tree either
Conas, Zassenhaus hand grinder....
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Postby Raf » Fri Mar 05, 2004 4:30 pm

I thought I'd answered this one: I like being able to send everyone a message, but maybe you could replace the external distribution list with a possibility to send everybody the same private message on the site.

Also, I have a feature request: is it possible to have a "Unread Posts"-functionality in addition to the "Posts since last visit"? Sometimes I don't have time to read all the posts in one visit.

And another one: could you make the "jump to new post/latest post"-function work?

Just asking, mind you.
This week I am eagerly anticipating the first god shots from my La Spaziale machine....

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Postby moccafaux » Sat Mar 06, 2004 11:28 am

Since I dont quite understand the request: I can live with every variation.
chocolate+-----__0
coffee=-------- \ >;
myfuel------- (_)/(_)
_____________________________________________
Wo ich geh und steh brauch ich mein Kaffee........
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Postby phil » Sun Mar 07, 2004 10:48 am

Neku

If you've answered this at all it must have been by email. I don't recall however.

All of the things you ask for have one response: if that's what it does, then that's what it does. In particular, I recall looking through the functionality related to whch posts you've read, and I seem to think that the package assumes you've read everything new in a session. Not ideal, but that's what it does.

Re the "messages to everyone" idea, you're really saying you want to keep the mailing list as I don't think the PM functionality lets you broadcast. Equally, the bulk email function for PNphpBB is part of the administrative functionality and I'm just not going to open that up. Sorry. Similarly the Postnuke version too I think. Sorry.

Be assured that if something like the things you want comes up in a new software version or add-on, I'll be sure to get it for us. However, as things stand I don't have time to do the development work necessary to modify the package, and I also am not sure that would be a good idea as it would add complication to future maintenance.

I'll keep the mailing list for now then. When no-one responded I thought no-one cared.
La Spaziale Spazio 2 group semi-auto

La Spaziale Lusso grinder (espresso),
Macap MC4 shop grinder (brewed coffee)
Three Thor tampers
Two Hottops, first since Feb 2003
No partridge, no pear tree either
Conas, Zassenhaus hand grinder....
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Postby Steve » Sun Mar 07, 2004 1:53 pm

I care phil, its a great back up plan if you dont want to post.
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Postby phil » Sun Mar 07, 2004 5:31 pm

Ta Eeffoc. I don't have an agenda here btw: I just wanted people to tell me what they wanted.
La Spaziale Spazio 2 group semi-auto

La Spaziale Lusso grinder (espresso),
Macap MC4 shop grinder (brewed coffee)
Three Thor tampers
Two Hottops, first since Feb 2003
No partridge, no pear tree either
Conas, Zassenhaus hand grinder....
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Postby alans » Mon Mar 08, 2004 11:29 am

I had to read it a few times before I was sure exactly what you meant (evidently I'm slow ;) ). For me I find the @toomuchcoffee mass mail address very useful, when I look back over what has come via that address I would also say that it has been used correctly and appropriatly in the past. But if it were a lot easier for you Phil I would definatly support you sending only to our "Current e-mail" address, although I do prefer to know I can mail everyone on the list if required.
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Postby phil » Mon Mar 08, 2004 12:33 pm

Alan (and anyone else for that matter)

It's like this:

When creating a new user, I have in the past offered them an email account on the TMC domain. This is a habit that started with the earliest members, who were very keen to have such an account. Note that Neku, myself, Eeffoc and Sunnyfield (who's very very busy at work btw, so that's why you haven't seen him recently - and he's having a really sh*tty time so our thoughts are with him) all have TMC email accounts, as do yourself (Alan) and a few other members.

However, not many people have taken me up on the offer of an email account recently. I have plenty of capacity, but most candidate members are usually very well sorted in this area and simply don't need another email addy.

Now, recently I discovered that Michel and Moccafaux were not receiving their TMC broadcast emails. Actually this was because they'd forgotten that they had TMC email accounts. This fact and the recent lack of take-up made me wonder whether the tradition of offering TMC email accounts to new members was worth keeping up.

This also made me think about the maintenance side of things. I have to maintain the email list as that's a domain administration function. When I add a new member I give them a user account in TMC and add their current email to the distribution list. However, if someone changes their email address subsequently I have to rely on them telling me. If it's part of their TMC profile data it's up to them to change it and so using the bulk emailer capability on the site reduces the risk of people dropping out of the loop if they change their email address (providing they update their TMC profile of course).

So the question about the perpetuation of the mailing list was not about the extra effort involved in maintaining it. It was about the risk of members not being involved in the TMC democratic process, as indeed has happened recently with Moccafaux and Michel. I was concerned about that. The tiny amount of extra effort involved is not an issue - we don't get that many new members :-(!

The secondary question about whether to offer TMC email addresses to new members was based solely on the lack of recent take-up. I just wondered what people thought.

On balance I think people want to keep the email distribution list. Fair enough, I can relate to that.

BUT people need to tell me if they change their email address so I can keep it up to date. When I've finished the move to the new server I'll set up a regular SQL extract to update the mailing list from the site profile data, but that's very much a nice to have and I have lots of other more important stuff to do first.
La Spaziale Spazio 2 group semi-auto

La Spaziale Lusso grinder (espresso),
Macap MC4 shop grinder (brewed coffee)
Three Thor tampers
Two Hottops, first since Feb 2003
No partridge, no pear tree either
Conas, Zassenhaus hand grinder....
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Postby quink » Mon Mar 08, 2004 3:42 pm

I never knew you could give out e-mail addresses Phil. If you still offer them, can I have one? With your bulk e-mail problem, I can only say that I'll probably not notice any difference as I'm still quite new here, so I'll say go with what in your wisdom will allow you to drink the most coffee, or failing that what ever is easist for you.
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Postby phil » Mon Mar 08, 2004 5:14 pm

I've sent you an email quink.
La Spaziale Spazio 2 group semi-auto

La Spaziale Lusso grinder (espresso),
Macap MC4 shop grinder (brewed coffee)
Three Thor tampers
Two Hottops, first since Feb 2003
No partridge, no pear tree either
Conas, Zassenhaus hand grinder....
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Postby Sunnyfield » Sat Mar 20, 2004 7:01 pm

Vote for TMC mail and for TMC mailing list (coffeeXXXX@tmc)
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Postby Joey » Sun May 02, 2004 6:10 pm

Ok, I understood most of it. So, is it possible to get an additional email adress like: joey@toomu..... I could use that for some coffee related friends and make advertising for TMC ...
I do have several adresses, but I like the idea to have a "coffee related one".
Just a thougt.

Joey
"Latte" is french for "you've paid too much for your coffee"
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Postby phil » Mon May 03, 2004 7:16 pm

If you want a TMC email address Joey just send me an email confirming the address you'd like to have and whether you want it to be the address I send your TMC notifications to, and I'll sort it out immediately.

The same applies to any member who doesn't have a TMC email address but would like one.
La Spaziale Spazio 2 group semi-auto

La Spaziale Lusso grinder (espresso),
Macap MC4 shop grinder (brewed coffee)
Three Thor tampers
Two Hottops, first since Feb 2003
No partridge, no pear tree either
Conas, Zassenhaus hand grinder....
User avatar
phil
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Posts: 2321
Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2003 12:05 pm
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