Spam in Boards.ie emails

Tallon

Hey guys,

Whats the deal on putting the boards deals in the subscription emails?

It's where the unsub to thread option was so now I end up opening tabs and tabs of boards deals with a pre-loaded email address even though I'm already signed up to it. Tis' very annoying!

Also, whats with the new short URLS?

http://boards.ie/tre/

DeVore

coming on Monday but you can already unsubscribe to threads in your User Control Panel!

DeV.

Tallon

DeVore wrote: »

coming on Monday but you can already unsubscribe to threads in your User Control Panel!

DeV.

Yes but you can could also do it within the email, which was handy, but has now been replaced by something I'm already subscribed to, and very much like.

It is spam, and nothing more. Sorry

Conor

Tallon wrote: »

Yes but you can could also do it within the email, which was handy, but has now been replaced by something I'm already subscribed to, and very much like.

It is spam, and nothing more. Sorry

The ad does not replace the unsub links. The unsub links are available below it.

Quazzie

Why are unsolicited ads in the e-mails?

seamus

Quazzie wrote: »

Why are unsolicited ads in the e-mails?

There aren't. Not what I'd call ads anyway.

There are 4 lines in the email - at the bottom, away from the rest of the content, for example:

---

Click here to get fantastic discounted deals on restaurants, beauty and fun activities with BoardsDeals.ie!
http://www.boardsdeals.ie/?nls=1&email=joe@bloggs.com&utm_source=boards&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=emailstrap

---

The unsubscribe links are below this.

The mail is still in plaintext and the size is barely affected by this.

Of all of the "evil company includes ads in emails" campaigns I've seen, this ranks somewhere very close to "least evil".

Quazzie

seamus wrote: »

Of all of the "evil company includes ads in emails" campaigns I've seen, this ranks somewhere very close to "least evil".

To be honest I noticed the short link to the threads (\tre) and I never noticed this so for me it ain't a problem, I just thought (presumably wrong now) that any ads sent via e-mail had to be solicited.

seamus

Quazzie wrote: »

To be honest I noticed the short link to the threads (\tre) and I never noticed this so for me it ain't a problem, I just thought (presumably wrong now) that any ads sent via e-mail had to be solicited.

Only where the advertisement is the subject of the email.

There's no problem with tagging it on as a banner/footer.

Tallon

Conor wrote: »

The ad does not replace the unsub links. The unsub links are available below it.

Original emails:

There may also be other replies, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again.

All the best,
boards.ie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unsubscription information:

To unsubscribe from this thread, please visit this page:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/xxxx

New emails:

There may also be other replies, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again.

All the best,
boards.ie

---

Click here to get fantastic discounted deals on restaurants, beauty and fun activities with BoardsDeals.ie!
http://www.boardsdeals.ie/xxxx

---

So you can see they are directly replacing them, i know they are at the bottom of the emails but that means scrolling, and no it's not lazyness that I'm unable to scroll, it's convience.

I unsub to a lot of threads after I post in them because of the sheer volume of replies, like a post in AH for example.

seamus wrote: »

There aren't.

yes there are

seamus wrote: »

Not what I'd call ads anyway.

In your opnion.

seamus wrote: »

There are 4 lines in the email - at the bottom, away from the rest of the content, for example:

no they're not, see above

seamus wrote: »

The unsubscribe links are below this.

The mail is still in plaintext and the size is barely affected by this.

See above

seamus wrote: »

Of all of the "evil company includes ads in emails" campaigns I've seen, this ranks somewhere very close to "least evil".

Please don't patronise me, at no point did i say it was evil, don't try and find some underlying slating of the site, thats not what I'm here for. I just don't want something advertised to me that:

1) I'm already subscribed to because I think it's a great site and
2) I didn't ask for

in a subscription email, not a newsletter or site update, a subscription email

Tallon

seamus wrote: »

Only where the advertisement is the subject of the email.

There's no problem with tagging it on as a banner/footer.

It is not a banner or footer, it's essentially in the middle of the email

DeVore

Can you copy and paste what you have gotten verbatim? They shouldnt be in the middle of the mail, and looking at the example above they arent. They certainly shouldnt be replacing the unsub info, so I'd be concerned if thats happening. Other then that, we send 30,000 emails a day. BoardsDeals is one way we intend to power boards, Adverts is another, there will be other sites too... the intention being to isolate what boards IS (which is discussion) away from monetization.

Money is not evil, money has to be made to pay the team and I'm ok with that, always have been. Its how its done thats important to me.

Do post the mail you got so we can check nothing weird is happening.

DeV.

Quazzie

.

Dear Quazzie,

Tar.Aldarion has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - Random Thread Title - in the ????? forum of boards.ie.

This thread is located at:
http://boards.ie/tre/xxxxxxxxxx

Here is the message that has just been posted:
***************
Blah Blah Blah
***************


There may also be other replies, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again.

All the best,
boards.ie

---

Click here to get fantastic discounted deals on restaurants, beauty and fun activities with BoardsDeals.ie!
http://www.boardsdeals.ie/?nls=1&email=Quazzie@mail.com&utm_source=boards&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=emailstrap

---

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unsubscription information:

To unsubscribe from this thread, please visit this page:
http://boards.ie/tsr/xxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To unsubscribe from ALL threads, please visit this page:
http://boards.ie/tsra

Tallon

DeVore wrote: »

Can you copy and paste what you have gotten verbatim? They shouldnt be in the middle of the mail, and looking at the example above they arent. They certainly shouldnt be replacing the unsub info, so I'd be concerned if thats happening. Other then that, we send 30,000 emails a day. BoardsDeals is one way we intend to power boards, Adverts is another, there will be other sites too... the intention being to isolate what boards IS (which is discussion) away from monetization.

Money is not evil, money has to be made to pay the team and I'm ok with that, always have been. Its how its done thats important to me.

Do post the mail you got so we can check nothing weird is happening.

DeV.

Ok, once again, Why are people bringing the word 'evil' into this? I never mentioned that word or even insinuated it!

I know money is important, thats why I subscribe, but I am already subbed to Boardsdeals and to have them in a subscription email, forcing me to sign up when I already have, is a bit silly

I have posted the mail, above... well at least the part I am raising.

>Please see verbatim above! (Quazzie)

DeVore

Sorry I was just using the word apropos of nothing. I'm not dismissing your feedback Tallon, but you said there was no unsub links, quazzies post shows them so are they showing for you?

Q's mail looks fine to me, it's a mail signature, it's not an unsolicited mail as the primary important stuff is front and central and as requested. An update on Monday will make it easier to add and remove forums and threads to and from your subscritpions.

DeV.

Tallon

DeVore wrote: »

but you said there was no unsub links.

It seems I did, I meant where the unsub used to be, but we all know that now.

Cheers DeV, I'll eagerly hold on until Monday

DeVore

Watch our deadline slip till tuesday now

(plus I've somewhat stolen Dav's thunder... but then I did warn him about that chilli....)


DeV.

Random

i don't like this "advertising" in the emails either.

DeVore

oh, I dont like it one little BIT.... but can you see that its necessary ?

We have to have balance in all things, there should be a balance between the needs of the community and the needs of the company which is custodian of the platform.

I think this balance is right in this case, which means that at least some people will not like it.

Its a trade off, we need money for Conor and Ross and the team... we like the new found stability and you will (i hope) really like some of the code changes we will now be able to make given that we have broken codebase with vB. But that comes at a cost, a real world cost. We cannot pay Conors mortage with "the free interchange of ideas". His bank just arent going to go for that


So there is a trade off and we try to limit the impact on the site and community but we must accept some level of real world intrusion into our little socialistic commune
This to me feels like an acceptible trade off and achieves a reasonable "balance".

DeV.

Tragedy

Was any of that necessary considering people use boards because it's a message board? I don't care about adverts(since I find adverts.ie quite poor compared to the alternatives, including free and find the administration to be haphazard and very much dependent on which admin you get), the members sites never took up, same for e-mail and the biki. I don't care about new social aspects, or new code - I just want to be able to post messages on a board.

DeVore

How is this stopping you? You only get this email if you request it. i'm sorry, I dont understand your feedback and/or objection.

DeV.

ps: ironically the extra sites have not performed as well as we would like because we didnt have the money/resources to put into them.

Tragedy

DeVore wrote: »

How is this stopping you? You only get this email if you request it. i'm sorry, I dont understand your feedback and/or objection.

DeV.

ps: ironically the extra sites have not performed as well as we would like because we didnt have the money/resources to put into them.

You're saying that the further monetisation of boards.ie is both necessary and inevitable to fund developers and their projects and your vision™ of boards.ie

This is an example of monetisation to fund developers and their/your projects and vision™

I'm questioning why it's necessary to keep adding paid staff and facilities and features to what is essentially, and always will be, a message board on the internet and to then tell users it's necessary to have more ads if they want paid staff working for boards.ie on features and facilities that were neither requested nor desired.

GTE

Well its cheeky and Im sure if I received emails from people and organisations to find ad's cropping up in emails Id be disappointed.

Sure arent the ads that you see when you are not logged in have some text saying remove them by becoming a member?

If they think it will sell and it will keep the people advertising on the site happy then I can see some justification.

Random

the ads in the emails alone won't stop me using boards but they're very annoying. i can't offer an alternative but that doesn't mean i can't complain about them.

DeVore

We have something like 18 servers to run this message board. Who will keep their OS's up to date. Who will maintain the database, clear out the logs, patch the load balancers etc etc etc. There are a hundred other jobs we do every day. Your idea of what it takes to run a site used by upwards of 2million people regularly is the root of your confusion. And yes, I have a vision for this site and I've always been very clear about it.

DeV.

The Hill Billy

I can't see what all the fuss is about really. It is a few lines of text and a link or two in an email about a related boards enterprise. Big deal. If it keeps this place ticking over I'm happy.

Tallon

Hill Billy wrote: »

I can't see what all the fuss is about really. It is a few lines of text and a link or two in an email about a related boards enterprise. Big deal. If it keeps this place ticking over I'm happy.

I'm annoyed that it replaced the unsub link, had it been at the bottom I probably would never have noticed, or cared!

Gordon

Tallon wrote: »

I'm annoyed that it replaced the unsub link, had it been at the bottom I probably would never have noticed, or cared!

Well, it hasn't been replaced, just moved, the unsub link is still there.

Out of curiosity, how many of these emails do you get daily? And out of that, how many emails do you click on the unsub link, daily?

Tallon

Gordon wrote: »

Well, it hasn't been replaced, just moved, the unsub link is still there.

It has, read back through the thread

Gordon wrote: »

Out of curiosity, how many of these emails do you get daily? And out of that, how many emails do you click on the unsub link, daily?

A lot, and a lot.

Gordon

Tallon wrote: »

It has, read back through the thread

I have read the thread, you state that the unsub link has been replaced, you also state it has moved, I know it's semantics, but 'replaced' suggests 'removed' so I'm clarifying that they haven't been removed, for the thread.

A lot, and a lot.

How many if you don't mind me asking? You can just give a rough, average guesstimate on:
a) How many you get.
b) How many of those you click on 'unsub'.

No need for exact figures.

Quazzie

Gordon wrote: »

I have read the thread, you state that the unsub link has been replaced, you also state it has moved, I know it's semantics, but 'replaced' suggests 'removed' so I'm clarifying that they haven't been removed, for the thread.

How many if you don't mind me asking? You can just give a rough, average guesstimate on:
a) How many you get.
b) How many of those you click on 'unsub'.

No need for exact figures.

I think where the problem is that its not at the bottom of the e-mail as a footer but instead is placed in the middle of it therefore replacing the position of the unsub link.

I don't think anyone has a problem receiving the ad but its just the placement that is mildly annoying for some.

The Hill Billy

Come on, seriously - stating that it is spam, when it all boils down to the fact that it may affect the very occasional user who subs and unsubs to lots of threads.

A simple "can you move the new bit so that it doesn't confuse me?" request would have sufficed.

Tragedy

DeVore wrote: »

We have something like 18 servers to run this message board. Who will keep their OS's up to date. Who will maintain the database, clear out the logs, patch the load balancers etc etc etc. There are a hundred other jobs we do every day.

Dav and Darragh aren't technical staff are they? And I was under(the perhaps mistaken) impression that the main gist of at least one of the two techie jobs was boards.ie development, rather than maintenance.

Your idea of what it takes to run a site used by upwards of 2million people regularly is the root of your confusion.

I'm not the one confused about the jobs two of my employee's do, if you want to be a smart alec about it :pac:

And yes, I have a vision for this site and I've always been very clear about it.

DeV.

However it doesn't seem to have actually achieved much, boards.ie appears to have grown organically since it's inception and I can't think of a single visionary decision the people who run the site have made to alter that? Can you?

Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge your right to have a vision, decide to hire employees, decide on a new direction for boards etc etc - but I do begrudge you coming across as if it's users fault all of this is necessary when and that they asked for it - when something changes they don't like

Tallon

Hill Billy wrote: »

Come on, seriously - stating that it is spam, when it all boils down to the fact that it may affect the very occasional user who subs and unsubs to lots of threads.

A simple "can you move the new bit so that it doesn't confuse me?" request would have sufficed.

Thats exactly whats being discussed here, I'm seriously not moaning here and I think the lads know that. just pointing out something that has changed

The Hill Billy

Tragedy wrote:

...but I do begrudge you coming across as if it's users fault all of this is necessary when and that they asked for it...

Now that is a serious case of putting words in other people's mouths. That was never said or even hinted at.

The Hill Billy

Tallon wrote: »

Thats exactly whats being discussed here, I'm seriously not moaning here and I think the lads know that. just pointing out something that has changed

So why the need for the sensationalist "Spam in Boards.ie emails" thread title?

This is a 'storm in a tea cup' issue really. No harm being done at the end of the day and people giving out for no real reason.

Tallon

Hill Billy wrote: »

So why the need for the sensationalist "Spam in Boards.ie emails" thread title?

This is a 'storm in a tea cup' issue really. No harm being done at the end of the day and people giving out for no real reason.

Not my fault your reading too much into it.

It was a regular teacup until people starting saying I was here for the wrong reasons.

I'm here to point out my annoyances at it and provide feedback, I also have a habit of making OTT thread titles

Tallon

Ooooh, I like that new front page DeV

The two pages I use the most are, Subbed & Subscriptions. All on one page is awesome

The unfollow is nice, are the emails staying in the same format?

DeVore

Yes, the mails will be staying in that format. :^/
This is just one of those decisions that cant please everyone.

I have to cheekily point out though that those new features you like come at a price...

DeV.

Tallon

DeVore wrote: »

I have to cheekily point out though that those new features you like come at a price...

I would have done them for free...

Conor

Tallon wrote: »

I would have done them for free...

Well, if you're volunteering, I'm always open to patches.

In fact, if you could send me a patch to remove the forum cache and replace it with something that'll handle >800 forums at 60+ pages per second that'd be awesome. It's a right pain in the arse to do while trying to get everything else done and it's a performance bottleneck at the moment.

Source is available at vbulletin.com, if you make the patch against 3.8.6-PL1 I'll handle porting it to our codebase.

Thanks!

RoundyMooney

Conor wrote: »

In fact, if you could send me a patch to remove the forum cache and replace it with something that'll handle >800 forums at 60+ pages per second that'd be awesome. It's a right pain in the arse to do while trying to get everything else done and it's a performance bottleneck at the moment.

Have you tried turning it off and on again?
.
.
.
.
.
Seriously, I haven't a clue what you just said, but I'd imagine it's up there with asking someone to dance on the head of a pin balanced on the centre of a hairspring of a ticking bomb while juggling pints of Guinness.

Without spilling any.

From someone who's not quite a technophobe, but relatively clueless about the pipe that bring boards to my phone, laptop, tv screen or whatever, thanks.

The Hill Billy

It's the hamsters that I feel sorry for.