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Newsletter-type feature [message #10860] Thu, 12 June 2003 00:21 Go to next message
djmm is currently offline  djmm   United States
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I'm hoping this is a feature I just wasn't able to find, but if not, it's a suggestion.

My moderators want to occassionally send out an e-mail to the subscribers of a particular list. This is a regular e-mail, not a link back to the forum. Is there anyway to blast an email from a moderator to members of a list regardless of their 'subscription' status (and also have that appear as a post in the forum)?

On a related note, is there anyway for users to subscribe to getting the full text in the email from a subscription rather than just a link to the post in the forum?

Thanks,
David
Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #10871 is a reply to message #10860] Thu, 12 June 2003 16:49 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Ilia is currently offline  Ilia   Canada
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The admin has the ability to send an e-mail to all of the forum users via the mass mail control panel.

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Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #10876 is a reply to message #10860] Thu, 12 June 2003 16:55 Go to previous messageGo to next message
djmm is currently offline  djmm   United States
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Right, but the 'mass mailing' doesn't have the functionality I described.

Can I make this a feature request?

Those requests are:

1) Ability for Admins/moderators to send email to forum members.
(Not just mass email to EVERYONE, but selectively to a particular forum)

2) Ability to recieve post notifications as full e-mails, not just a notification.

These features would give fudforum the ability to run a forum or a mailing list or both (archiving a mailing list).



David
Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #10878 is a reply to message #10876] Thu, 12 June 2003 16:58 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Ilia is currently offline  Ilia   Canada
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There is no association between a user & a forum so that part at least based on your request is impossible.

You can already make the forum send the full message body instead of just a URL notification. Go through the options in the e-mail section carefuly.


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Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #10881 is a reply to message #10878] Thu, 12 June 2003 17:10 Go to previous messageGo to next message
djmm is currently offline  djmm   United States
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prottoss wrote on Thu, 12 June 2003 12:58

There is no association between a user & a forum so that part at least based on your request is impossible.


There isn't? In Group(s) Manager, I can (and have) member associated with a forum. Right now I have a 'protected' forum that anonymous and registered users see (as visible), but only specific members I add have the ability to read/post/etc.

What I would like to be able to do is have the admin/moderator
email those members only for that particular forum.

prottoss wrote on Thu, 12 June 2003 12:58


You can already make the forum send the full message body instead of just a URL notification. Go through the options in the e-mail section carefuly.


I see that now. Thanks.
Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #10883 is a reply to message #10881] Thu, 12 June 2003 17:16 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Ilia is currently offline  Ilia   Canada
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Your confusing groups & forums, there are users who are members of a particular group, but this group may control access rights to >1 forum. In fact it future releases it may even control rights to things that are not forum related like the ability to send private messages etc...

That said, would I be wrong in saying that you want to have the ability to send an e-mail to all members of a particular group?

Allowing moderator to send a mass e-mail even to members of particular group is rather dangerous since they may affect large number of users and put a heavy load on the mail server. Therefor the decision was made to restrict this ability to (usually) more competent and careful administrators.


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Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #10908 is a reply to message #10860] Thu, 12 June 2003 20:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
djmm is currently offline  djmm   United States
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My moderators want to be able to send newsletters out to members of a forum (or group). I was hoping that this could be handled with one application. Are there other forum/newsletter
software packages that would allow me to do this from one
single application?

If I want to have full seamless forum/mailing-list integration, it sounds like I will need to maintain
two identical lists of members through two different applications - a forum and a maillist manager.
I'll have to make sure they both remain synced up somehow because essentially it's the same list of people.

Any users have a need for this type of full mailing list,
forum, web archiver type of application? FudForum seems
SO close to this, but not quite.
Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #10909 is a reply to message #10908] Thu, 12 June 2003 21:24 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Ilia is currently offline  Ilia   Canada
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Forum is not a mailing list manager, and there is no forum's package that is. The two are completely separate applications, the forum is not aware whether or not a user is subscribed to a particular mailing list unlike the mailing list manager.
If you want that to change then put on your programming hat and start hacking Wink


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Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #10912 is a reply to message #10860] Fri, 13 June 2003 01:34 Go to previous messageGo to next message
djmm is currently offline  djmm   United States
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Well actually, there is http://mailgust.phpoutsourcing.com,
but it's features just don't come close to FUDForum.

Uggh..decisions...decisions... Smile

[Updated on: Fri, 13 June 2003 01:34]

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Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #10913 is a reply to message #10912] Fri, 13 June 2003 01:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Ilia is currently offline  Ilia   Canada
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Cool, I guess there is a forum that does it Smile Always good to know

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Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #11114 is a reply to message #10860] Wed, 18 June 2003 00:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Tobias Eigen is currently offline  Tobias Eigen   United States
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Hi Protoss,

I thought I'd weigh in on this issue. This is a concern, since forum users will benefit from the knowledge that there are other ways to be involved in a mailing list.

To solve this, if you could provide two mailing list related fields associated with each forum I'd be happy:

  1. URL for Mailing list homepage for managing subscription (ie. getting on and leaving a list) eg: http://www.lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/test
  2. Mailto link for mailing list e-mail address for subscribing and unsubscribing eg: test-request(at)lists(dot)kabissa(dot)org


What do you think?

Cheers,

Tobias


Kabissa - Space for change in Africa

[Updated on: Wed, 18 June 2003 00:07]

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Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #11129 is a reply to message #11114] Wed, 18 June 2003 12:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Ilia is currently offline  Ilia   Canada
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Each e-mail notification already contains a URL to the unsubscribe link. Unsubcribing/subscribing is nearly impossible via e-mail because the e-mail won't get to the forum & secondly to subscribe a user would need an a valid account to subscribe. Therefor subscribing/unsubscribing can only be done via the forum's web interface.

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Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #11250 is a reply to message #11114] Tue, 24 June 2003 19:50 Go to previous messageGo to next message
joshmccormack is currently offline  joshmccormack   United States
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I tried subscribing to various discussions and threads and what not on this site, but haven't received anything when someone has posted a message. Am I doing something wrong?

I'm really looking for a forum that can also be used as a mailing list, so people can get the entire message and respond to them via email and those using a browser can see and respond as well. I get the impression this is possible with fudforum, but want to try it out.

Josh
Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #11292 is a reply to message #11250] Thu, 26 June 2003 01:14 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Ilia is currently offline  Ilia   Canada
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Make sure you have no unread messages in any subscribed forums/topics.

FUDforum Core Developer
Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #11395 is a reply to message #11292] Fri, 27 June 2003 00:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
davew is currently offline  davew   Australia
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I think this would be a very useful feature also!

How about a compromise? Would it be possible to output a text file containing the names & email addresses of people in any given group?

Then simply use the list in a mail-merge...
Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #11438 is a reply to message #11395] Sun, 29 June 2003 14:37 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Anonymous   United States
Mailman has a 'synchlist' script that can be used to compare the subscriber list with a text file containing a list of email addresses.

If this is the type of functionality you need, then you could write a script to get the email addresses for each forum from the fud database.

Personally, I like the idea of separating the list subscribe/unsubscribe actions from the forum altogether. Not all email subscribers want to be in the forum and vice versa.

Cheers,

Tobias

Cheers,

Tobias
Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #11443 is a reply to message #11395] Sun, 29 June 2003 17:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Ilia is currently offline  Ilia   Canada
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davew wrote on Thu, 26 June 2003 20:52

I think this would be a very useful feature also!

How about a compromise? Would it be possible to output a text file containing the names & email addresses of people in any given group?

Then simply use the list in a mail-merge...



Simple query:
SELECT u.name, u.email FROM group_members gm INNER JOIN users u ON gm.user_id=u.id WHERE gm.id={group_id}.

You'll need to prefix table names with your sql table prefix and replace the group_id with the actual group id.


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Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #11684 is a reply to message #11443] Sat, 12 July 2003 05:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
davew is currently offline  davew   Australia
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prottoss wrote on Mon, 30 June 2003 02:34

davew wrote on Thu, 26 June 2003 20:52

I think this would be a very useful feature also!

How about a compromise? Would it be possible to output a text file containing the names & email addresses of people in any given group?

Then simply use the list in a mail-merge...



Simple query:
SELECT u.name, u.email FROM group_members gm INNER JOIN users u ON gm.user_id=u.id WHERE gm.id={group_id}.

You'll need to prefix table names with your sql table prefix and replace the group_id with the actual group id.



Cool! Thanks for that!
Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #11743 is a reply to message #10860] Wed, 16 July 2003 09:18 Go to previous messageGo to next message
onlyme is currently offline  onlyme   Australia
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phpBB2 has this facility. Registered forum subscribers can join a group (by choice), the mass mail facility has the option to mail to everybody or just to a group. It's a very nice feature. Works really well if you go in and change the wording from "Join a group" to "join a newsletter".

I agree mailing lists and forums are different apps, but since the email address is already on record, it would seem to be a logical extension.
Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #11755 is a reply to message #11743] Wed, 16 July 2003 15:27 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Ilia is currently offline  Ilia   Canada
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Adding the ability to send an e-mail to all members of a particular group is indeed an interesting one and I will take a look at adding such a feature to an existing mass-mailer.

As for allowing people to ask to join a group, that's something I am not certain about. Originally when group system was developed this is something I kept in mind and the database structure technically supports such capabilities although it is not reflected in the actual source code.
My hesitation and ultimate decision not to implement such a feature stems for security concernes. In phpBB by allowing people to see groups as well as members of those groups and resources this group controls first of all it takes away a little bit of security from 'blocked' resources. it also opens a door to people who will nag and annoy group managers & administrators to gain access to various resources (forums) they have no access to and probably for a good reason.


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Odp: Re: Newsletter-type feature [message #13529 is a reply to message #11755] Thu, 16 October 2003 12:56 Go to previous message
StarLight{PL} is currently offline  StarLight{PL}   Poland
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Ilia napisał(a) dnia śro, 16 lipiec 2003 05:27

Adding the ability to send an e-mail to all members of a particular group is indeed an interesting one and I will take a look at adding such a feature to an existing mass-mailer.

My hesitation and ultimate decision not to implement such a feature stems for security concernes. In phpBB by allowing people to see groups as well as members of those groups and resources this group controls first of all it takes away a little bit of security from 'blocked' resources. it also opens a door to people who will nag and annoy group managers & administrators to gain access to various resources (forums) they have no access to and probably for a good reason.


A mass mailer to specific group is a very useful feature, my forum also has a need for this.

As for "asking for joining a group" it's also very desirable to have this feature around. Those not wanting to have this "security flaw" should have the ability to retain current FUD behavior by turning that feature off... I've forums for different projects and people do not like the idea of PM'ing a moderator for joining...


Whoops sorry, came here from search and didn't notice the date...

[Updated on: Thu, 16 October 2003 13:40]

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