PM notifications via email

[Matt Weasner]

Just out of curiosity; I had a recent PM conversation with someone regarding a TP item. He sent me several PMs, but I was never notified via email which struck me as odd.

I just confirmed that my email address is current on the forum, and sent myself a test PM. The test PM *did* generate an email notification.

Nothing in my junk/spam folders. Any thoughts as to why I didn't get notified on the other PMs?

Thanks,
Matt

[Andrew Lenz]

Are you using Gmail for your email?

Andrew

[Matt Weasner]

Yes I am. Issue with Gmail?

thanks!

Matt

[Andrew Lenz]

Mike Greene moved BDF to a new server recently and since the server isn't "established" Gmail considers it a high spam risk.

I've been having similar problems of not getting report posts from the forums that I moderate. I've been having to manually check the (top secret) Reported Posts forum to see if any have come through.

It was super bad at first, but it seems to be at least only intermittent now. Hopefully, it'll get better with time.

It seems that Gmail deletes what it considers spam without notice to the recipient.


Andrew

[Matt Weasner]

Ok, thanks for the info, Andrew.

I'll keep a closer eye on any PM conversations going forward.

Cheers,
Matt

[Mike Greene]

Gmail wasn't denying delivery, just rate limiting the delivery. Apparently the IP my new server was assigned was previously used for spamming. So i'm having to deal with improving the email sender rep for a brand new server on a previously abused IP address.

Managing email systems is something I'm quite familiar with (having run an ISP for 21 years) so it wasn't a big deal to do all the right things, such as SPF records, DKIM signing, DMARC policies etc. Still pretty annoying.

Gmail seems to calmed down quite a bit, outlook (and others that use their RBL are not quite so nice) I've submitted delisting requests numerous times to no avail, fortunately rejections to those providers are relatively low.

This would be a good time for all members to have a look at their profile and make sure their email address is correct. I get lots of bounces for non-existent accounts for active members. The caveat is that your old email must be able to receive the email confirmation to change the email address! (odd, but there you have it) if you are in that situation just send me an email or PM and I'll manually update your email account to whatever is current.

[Andrew Lenz]

Mike, I'm pretty darn certain that there were report posts that I found at BDF for which the corresponding email message never arrived (ever) in my inbox. That said, things have definitely improved.

Thanks for all of your hard work, Mr. Admin!

Andrew

[Mike Greene]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lenz

Mike, I'm pretty darn certain that there were report posts that I found at BDF for which the corresponding email message never arrived (ever) in my inbox. That said, things have definitely improved.

Thanks for all of your hard work, Mr. Admin!

Andrew

Gmail recently started "classifying" email, ie; bulk, social media, adverts, etc. So they may be filtering in a way that some gmail users are not accustomed to. If you look in your gmail interface you should see a number of tabs along the top, check to see if any of those missing emails haven't been filtered into those folders.

According to my logs, gmail hasn't ever actually 'rejected' any emails, only rate limited the delivery. Which is funny, because the 'rate' (volume) of email is very low from the forum, probably around 20 or so a day at best.

[Andrew Lenz]

I use the older alternative Gmail web interface (without threading), so, for me, I don't have any tabs across the top.

There are some folders hidden off to the left (Promotion, Update, etc.) but all those messages are also in my main inbox. (I checked.) Those folders just show messages in my inbox that meet Google's filter criteria.

If I send a message to myself, Gmail simply sends it to /dev/null and I never see it in any folder. (I've tried emailing reminders to myself and they just disappear.)

Maybe it has to do with some global setting used by the university which I have my alumni account through.


Andrew

[Mike Greene]

And folks praise gmail for their "awesome" spam filters, but in reality, they (gmail) are very heavy handed in their treatment of inbound email and bit bucket way to much legit email.