board77

I see you got this latest batch out without me, but for the future, you might want to consider the following:

1. Small batch of messages. Mayor opens up member list (at top of page) and clicks on "email" button next to person to be notified. Mayor copies and pastes message into text box, and sends off the email. Repeat for each person. This feature of phpbber is a blind email forwarding system. It reveals neither the Mayor's email address nor the recipient's email address, to either party. The email will appear to come from b77_ad at yahoo.

3. If the Mayor doesn't have time to do the above, s/he can post the list of people to be notified, and the message, and the rangers can do it. The ranger can first go into the Admin Panel, switch the apparent email return address from b77_ad to the mayor's address, then send the messages, then switch the email address back. Then the messages will appear to come from the mayor.

3. Same idea, but PM. This way, the message is only received when the person gets on the board, and doesn't bother people who are inactive. Just go to the member list and click on PM for each recipient. Who ever is doing the PMing should be in the Mayor's suit at the moment.

4. If the Mayor wants the email to appear to come from the Mayor's account, for a mass emailing, s/he should request that here, with a copy of the text. A ranger can then go into the Admin Panel, under general configuration, and change the apparent email return address to the Mayor's address, then send the message to the "all emailees" group, then remember to switch the apparent email return address back to b77_ad.

There is really no reason to look up actual email addresses with this system.

laureanna, sending individual PM's is the way I did it the first time and it was really quite tedious. I presume that sending individual emails would be the same.

What we were looking for was some way to send the one message to an entire group at once, but the group changes every time a message goes out because the group will always be members who happened to join in a particular week. That's why the Rangers looked up the addresses ... but looking up individual addresses is not less tedious for the Rangers, I guess, than sending individual emails is for the Mayor.

Without actually having used admin powers, I can't tell if your proposal #4 is easier than what Eru did or not. The "all emailees" group would still have to be created, wouldn't it, by looking up addies for that subset of members?

Maybe it should just be the Mayor's hard luck to have to go in once a week and send out a dozen or two emails directly from the memberlist.

Jn

Not all members have their emails available either, so the mayor might not be able to email certain people.

Really, what I did wasn't hard at all and not time consuming either. It was a peice of cake.

I suppose we could create a group just for a mass emailing, then delete it later. Trouble is, the person would get an advisory email for the adding and an advisory email for the deleting, unless we can figure out how to stop that process. Right now we just have one big group - all emailees - that consists of all real people (no RP) who are registered, except those who have asked not to get so much email from us.

The first greeting from the Mayor goes out tomorrow to the new active members.

Let me try doing it directly from the memberlist, one at a time, and see how long it takes. This will actually be the worst the job can be because the join dates are spread out - usually they would all be in one place - so it can't be harder in the future that is it this time, and if it's not too bad we can just let the mayor do it.

But it's good to have options. If the list is really long, it can be split up between the mayor and the Rangers, as long as everyone has access to the form letter.

I definitely do not want there to be three emails - two group advisories and one letter - everytime an greeting or eligibility notification goes out.

Jn

Okaaaay ... I've got a list of 41 people who get the greeting from the Mayor, and only six of them could be emailed from the memberlist. (I did email those people.)

Everyone can be PM'd from the memberlist, of course, but that presumes that all those who were waiting to enter did receive the email saying that we are open now, right?

How do the Rangers want to handle this? - shall I PM the other 35 people and assume that if they are interested they will show up and read their PM at that point? Or do you want to look up the addies in the Ranger-access info and send these out as Mayor's emails?

I don't mind trying this as a PM. It seems to me that it should be about the same amount of work for me as it is for you.

Jn

Jn, if you want to post the list of people here, I would be more then happy to email them from the Mayor's account. I do think that that would be less work for me then having you have to individually PM all of them.

OK, thanks, Voronwe.

tetasarewen
Lurker
roaccarcsson
Ladyofboxclocks
PrinceElessar
10FTTALL
TheWhiteTree
Finrod's Brother
Fir-Bolg
Aquarius
Bornilon
capt.jack_sparrow
fishy071
Galadriel_elanor
HaplosDog
Llinos
Matty
S_O
Sojourner
Tar_Elinion
THE_King_of_TORC
vynaca_of_mirkwood
aulini
scarlet
Raksha The Demon
TheMary
PrincessofIthilien
jeanelf
DaMuzicMan
skyfiery
sabian
Sharon
Eldamir
ninanina
fras

I'm curious why you say that only 6 can be emailed from the member list. When I click on the member list, I see an email button for everyone. Is that because I'm an admin?

I had to send it in two separate emails, because Yahoo said there were too many addresses in the bcc: field, but it was still MUCH easier then it would have been to email or PM each person individually. I did not send it to aulini, who is not yet a member, or captain jack sparrow, who's email bounced when we sent him a greeting before.

Thank you so much, Voronwe.

I guess the original way we planned to do it was the best then. The list will be posted here, the email to go out will be designated, and the Rangers will push the button using bcc's.

I'll move aulini and Capt. Jack down the list and check again next week whether they've actually joined with a valid email.

Jn

laureanna wrote:

I see an email button for everyone. Is that because I'm an admin?

Yes.

I remember looking to see if I could email a person before I was rangerized and saw that I couldn't. But now I could if I wanted to.

Jn, according to the member list, aulini has never joined. He/she had expressed interest back when we were doing invites. I remember getting some emails.

laureanna,

I'm sorry I didn't see your earlier post. Yeah, most of my email lines are blank on the memberlist.

Eru,

I don't understand the status of aulini. He must have tried to register if his name appears on the member list, yes? I thought everyone who had tried to register was automatically activated on 6/27. Not that it matters - I'll remove him from the list if he's not a registered member but I'd like to know how to tell if someone is a registered member.

If it's a matter of waiting until he uses the link to activate his account, I'll leave him on the list until he does that.

Jn

A note to former Rangers:

I've put your names back into the pool with an arbitrary eligibility date of July 6, because most of you passed the point of avoiding 'two consecutive terms' long ago.

I did PM most of the people who were invited by March 4 and activated after March 12, and most have also received emails - so everyone got some kind of notification. I'm not sure how long to wait for additional responses but if more come within ten days or so of the last notification, I will give them the June 27 eligibility date so that they'll appear on the roster ahead of you. This is the only time this 'out-of-order' issue will arise. From here on out, eligibility will go strictly by join date and by the expiry date of your term.

Also, I think there were some other people who pitched in as temporary Rangers ... Griffon did, I recall. Could anyone who served a temp term let me know when that was? At Alandriel's request I've added a list for that history as well.

Jn

He never tried to register, he just sent an email some time ago. He has been contacted, now that someone found the email, and we may yet hear from him.

Ah - I see now. Thanks, laureanna. I thought I had gotten his name from the member list but I must have picked it up reading Forum Management.

I notice there are other people on the member list who tried to register long ago ... I'll have to go throught the list again later today and see how many more folks need the welcome.

Jn

Jny, aulini contacted b77 to join, but when asked to find himself a sponsor said he'd rather not do that but that he would like to join once we are open.

That's why I put him on list of people to deal with when we open.

I've now dug up his e-mail addy and notified him that we are open (didn't get round to that earlier - sorry).

Quote:

I notice there are other people on the member list who tried to register long ago

Who we haven't activated?

Griff never served as a temp admin IIRC. Alandriel did though.

Hobby and Voronwe - No, I presume that you did activate them, but there's nothing at all showing in their blocks on the member list. When they get the activation email they have to click on the link to be actual active members, don't they?

Oh well ... I'm not going to worry about it unless I see someone with a post count who hasn't been sent a greeting.

Eru - thanks. I got Alandriel and I got you. That record is just for extra credit or something so I guess people will contact me if they should be added to that list.

Jn