Notification Emails Updated

Boards.ie: Nicola

Hi guys,

Today we are going to make some changes to the look of notification emails, they will now be enclosed in a HTML wrapper as well as shortened URL's making the information in the emails a lot easier to read. This is essentially the same as the account activation email which is sent after you register.

Below is an example of what they will look like:



These should be going live just after lunchtime today, as usual feedback is appreciated.

Thanks,
Nicola

Spear

Will there be any option for plaintext mails?

Boards.ie: Nicola

Spear wrote: »

Will there be any option for plaintext mails?

I don't think so, I'll double check though.

Dades

Too much padding. Too much white-space. Why I can't use the old look mail?

I'm never using email again.

/ waves fist

Spear

Dades wrote: »

Too much padding. Too much white-space. Why I can't use the old look mail?

I'm never using email again.

/ waves fist

Or slightly more realisically, HTML mails are bloated and carry risks such as the use of webbugs, something that we've seen before being used by spammers on here.

28064212

Was this delayed? Still receiving the old style. Waiting to see whether it will have the same bug in Gmail as the last update: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=81878282

Spear wrote: »

Or slightly more realisically, HTML mails are bloated and carry risks such as the use of webbugs, something that we've seen before being used by spammers on here.

Simple enough to prevent, just transmit plaintext in the quoted post section.

Boards.ie: Nicola

Yup we did have to delay rolling it out, I'm just going to catch up with the lads and will have an update then

Steve

Oh, dear god, no.

Please include a plain text option


Won't someone please think of the children old people!!!111!

Boards.ie: Nicola

Hi guys,

After a slight delay we will be updating the notification emails around lunchtime today. As always, feedback is much appreciated.

Dades

Boards.ie: Nicola wrote: »

As always, feedback is much appreciated.

Famous last words.

dr.bollocko

The reported post email notification does not take you to the reported post discussion page.

Boards.ie: Alvis

dr.bollocko wrote: »

The reported post email notification does not take you to the reported post discussion page.

Hi there, thanks for letting us know. We'll look into this now.

Raphael

Ah-ha, my plan to follow this thread and get the earliest possible notification on the new system worked!

*ahem* New emails for followed threads look fine.

Zascar

Nice one! It's about time we got up to speed and started using HTML emails. Seriously anyone that still wants plain texts should put down internet explorer and leave the internet

Only feedback I have is there should be a few dashes or a line underneath the quoted text separating the "You won't get any more...."

Good work though!

Twee.

Very small text to read on iPhone, thought I might need to break out my glasses!

No real complaints here, possibly a bug though.

I've noticed that if there's a quotation mark in the thread title, it shows up as " in the subject line and header.

28064212

Karsini wrote: »

No real complaints here, possibly a bug though.

I've noticed that if there's a quotation mark in the thread title, it shows up as " in the subject line and header.

Same for & - &

The Hill Billy

I like it. Please resend all previous emails in this format.

Kthxbai!

Mothman

I can see that the general consensus is positive but at my end the print is a lot smaller than any other email, and with my sight getting more compromised in my maturity this is not a good move for me.
The issue is simply the text size.

This on a mac using mail

alyssum

are there web bugs or some thing of that sort in them?

Smash The House

Please give an option for plain text email. 80% of my emails are read on mobile devices as do many others. The new notification email is a pain to read

Boards.ie: Danny

Smash The House wrote: »

Please give an option for plain text email. 80% of my emails are read on mobile devices as do many others. The new notification email is a pain to read

This isn't possible I'm afraid. What are the specific issues with the HTML mails?

Danny

Smash The House

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

This isn't possible I'm afraid. What are the specific issues with the HTML mails?

Danny

On my tablet they read fine as it automatically adjusts to the screen, quite nice actually.

It's my phone that's a pain though as I have to zoom in and scroll left and right to read. I have a Windows Phone though so that may be the problem.

Has anyone reported a similar problem on android? I think someone did for ios above

Spear

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

This isn't possible I'm afraid. What are the specific issues with the HTML mails?

Danny

Aside from the issues already mentioned, they now also make phishing for boards.ie account details much easier.

Boards.ie: Danny

Spear wrote: »

Aside from the issues already mentioned, they now also make phishing for boards.ie account details much easier.

The character escaping issues are being resolved.

The risk of phishing Boards accounts won't hold back progress. There are many, many sites, bigger and smaller, processing payments and personal details beyond that which Boards.ie does who use HTML mails.

Danny

Mrs OBumble

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

What are the specific issues with the HTML mails?

Danny

I'm pretty seriously p*** about this.


Why: Welll I'm a moderator.

At work, I need to read my emails thru my email provider's web service, which means reported-post notifications look like the following.

Can you figure out what I shoudl do???


NB I reported one of my own posts to get a realistic-looking example for ya ... but when I post it here, all the extra line breaks are stripped out. In my email browser, all the text is spread out over several pages.



Reported Post from boards.ie / Work & Jobs /* Client-specific styles */ #outlook a { padding: 0; } /* Force Outlook to provide a "view in browser" button. */ body { width: 100% !important; } .ReadMsgBody { width: 100%; } .ExternalClass {width: 100%; } /* Force Hotmail to display emails at full width */ body { -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: none; } /* PreventWebkit and Windows Mobile platforms from changing default font sizes. */ /* Fix header styling in hotmail */ h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 { color: black !important; line-height: 100% !important; } h1 a, h2 a, h3 a, h4 a, h5 a, h6 a { color: blue !important; } h1 a:active, h2 a:active, h3 a:active, h4 a:active, h5 a:active, h6 a:active {color: red !important; } h1 a:visited, h2 a:visited, h3 a:visited, h4 a:visited, h5 a:visited, h6 a:visited{ color: purple !important; } /* Reset Styles */ body { margin: 0; padding: 0; } img { height: auto; line-height: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration: none; } a img { border: none; }; /* Fix 1px padding on table cells in Outlook 07/10 */ table td { border-collapse: collapse; } /* Render yahoo short cuts as invisible */ .yshortcuts, .yshortcuts a, .yshortcuts a:link,.yshortcuts a:visited, .yshortcutsa:hover, .yshortcuts a span { color: black; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom: none !important;background: none !important; } Mrs OBumble has reported this post.This is part of this thread (Job Bridge - From Employers point of view).This is the reason that the user gave:No problem with the post: am ust reporting it so I have a real example to use togive some feedback about how crap the new notification emails are when I see them atwork!A discussion thread has been created here.This message has been sent to all moderators of this forum, or all administrators ifthere are no moderators.Please respond to this post as applicable. © Boards.ie Ltd. 2013

Boards.ie: Danny

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Sigh. I'm a moderator.

At work, I need to read my emails thru my email provider's web service, which means reported-post notifications look like the following.

Can you figure out what I shoudl do???

(I'm pretty seriously p*** about this, btw).

NB I reported one of my own posts to get a realistic-looking example for ya ...

Reported Post from boards.ie / Work & Jobs /* Client-specific styles */ #outlook a { padding: 0; } /* Force Outlook to provide a "view in browser" button. */ body { width: 100% !important; } .ReadMsgBody { width: 100%; } .ExternalClass {width: 100%; } /* Force Hotmail to display emails at full width */ body { -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: none; } /* PreventWebkit and Windows Mobile platforms from changing default font sizes. */ /* Fix header styling in hotmail */ h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 { color: black !important; line-height: 100% !important; } h1 a, h2 a, h3 a, h4 a, h5 a, h6 a { color: blue !important; } h1 a:active, h2 a:active, h3 a:active, h4 a:active, h5 a:active, h6 a:active {color: red !important; } h1 a:visited, h2 a:visited, h3 a:visited, h4 a:visited, h5 a:visited, h6 a:visited{ color: purple !important; } /* Reset Styles */ body { margin: 0; padding: 0; } img { height: auto; line-height: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration: none; } a img { border: none; }; /* Fix 1px padding on table cells in Outlook 07/10 */ table td { border-collapse: collapse; } /* Render yahoo short cuts as invisible */ .yshortcuts, .yshortcuts a, .yshortcuts a:link,.yshortcuts a:visited, .yshortcutsa:hover, .yshortcuts a span { color: black; text-decoration: none !important; border-bottom: none !important;background: none !important; } Mrs OBumble has reported this post.This is part of this thread (Job Bridge - From Employers point of view).This is the reason that the user gave:No problem with the post: am ust reporting it so I have a real example to use togive some feedback about how crap the new notification emails are when I see them atwork!A discussion thread has been created here.This message has been sent to all moderators of this forum, or all administrators ifthere are no moderators.Please respond to this post as applicable. © Boards.ie Ltd. 2013

Hi,

It seems like your email provider's web client doesn't support HTML or you've not enabled it; it's just spitting out a sanitised form of the page as a fallback. I'd suggest you contact their support service to enquire as to why it's not working.

Danny

Dades

Smash The House wrote: »

It's my phone that's a pain though as I have to zoom in and scroll left and right to read. I have a Windows Phone though so that may be the problem.

Has anyone reported a similar problem on android? I think someone did for ios above

Just compared an older reported post with the new style on an iPhone and it's a definite improvement.
It was fine to read before, but now it's just that bit clearer.

As for developing, I hate the idea that we should be producing stuff that has to cater for the lowest technological denominator. I'm a developer too, and people would still be using IE6 if every site still pandered to their needs. You have to push people to improve their own UX or we'll all be stuck in the past forever.

PrzemoF

Do I read it all correctly: "Use html email client. Forget about other options"?

Could you briefly explain why you can't use MIME multipart/alternative?

Boards.ie: Danny

PrzemoF wrote: »

Do I read it all correctly: "Use html email client. Forget about other options"?

Could you briefly explain why you can't use MIME multipart/alternative?

Because the email system will need to be significantly modified, along with the phrases systems. The plan is that these will be rolled into an overhaul of how Boards.ie handles mail at a future point.

Danny

Chucken

My emails arent showing proper links just ordinary writing ( I know, Im great at explaining myself )
For example, a reply from CVPL, I used to be able to click the link in the email, now I cant.

Chucken

Chucken wrote: »

My emails arent showing proper links just ordinary writing ( I know, Im great at explaining myself )
For example, a reply from CVPL, I used to be able to click the link in the email, now I cant.

What's happening here is that your e-mail client was parsing links in plain text e-mails, but the HTML mails aren't formatted that way so you can't click them. I noticed the same thing myself.

Smash The House

Dades wrote: »

Just compared an older reported post with the new style on an iPhone and it's a definite improvement.
It was fine to read before, but now it's just that bit clearer.

As for developing, I hate the idea that we should be producing stuff that has to cater for the lowest technological denominator. I'm a developer too, and people would still be using IE6 if every site still pandered to their needs. You have to push people to improve their own UX or we'll all be stuck in the past forever.

ah come on
WP7.8 might be just a bit old but to comapre it to IE 6 is ridcoulous.

Anyway, I never asked for the whole system to go back to plain text. Why can't it be possible for us to specify on our account settings if we want html or text.

I just would of expected Boards to test out the new email on a variety of devices with a variety of OS's before rolling it out. (Im sure they did test it, not everyone has an iPhone though)
since no one has commented what the emails are like in android I'll test it out myself.

Chucken

Karsini wrote: »

What's happening here is that your e-mail client was parsing links in plain text e-mails, but the HTML mails aren't formatted that way so you can't click them. I noticed the same thing myself.

Its pretty annoying.

Steve

<old and grumpy>Opinion: I don't like them, I prefer the plain text mails </old and grumpy>

Observation: Gmail blocks the images in the html by default so it looks crap unless you opt-in to allowing them from boards.

Dades

Smash The House wrote: »

ah come on
WP7.8 might be just a bit old but to comapre it to IE 6 is ridcoulous.

I can't believe a year old OS can't display HTML emails! But, yeah, that shouldn't be spoken of with IE6 but Microsoft mail clients always sucked. A huge percentage of PC outlook versions still being supported uses MS Word to render its mails. PITA.

Don't people get loads of HTML emails? Leaving aside brief work and general chitchat mails almost every mail I get from stuff I subscribe too/buy from/belong to is a HTML mail now.

Chucken

Dades wrote: »

I can't believe a year old OS can't display HTML emails! But, yeah, that shouldn't be spoken of with IE6 but Microsoft mail clients always sucked. A huge percentage of PC outlook versions still being supported uses MS Word to render its mails. PITA.

Don't people get loads of HTML emails? Leaving aside brief work and general chitchat mails almost every mail I get from stuff I subscribe too/buy from/belong to is a HTML mail now.

This is where I get lost. I have no idea what any of that means.

All I know is I've never seen emails that look like these new ones before.

Mothman

Mothman wrote: »

I can see that the general consensus is positive but at my end the print is a lot smaller than any other email, and with my sight getting more compromised in my maturity this is not a good move for me.
The issue is simply the text size.

This on a mac using mail

I'd like a response to this issue....in fact I'm pleading, either a fix I can make at my end or a fix at your end.

Attached is a screenshot of before (left) and after.
The old version, the text is same size as any other email and I can read it fine. Now the smallness of the text size is a real struggle. I can read a line or 2, but anything more takes too much effort/concentration and I'm giving up.

In mail there is a text size adjuster but its not working with these emails.

Mrs OBumble

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

Hi,

It seems like your email provider's web client doesn't support HTML

Well spotted, Sherlock Holmes.

Boards.ie is the only site which sends me non-text emails that I really do need to look at during the day, ie which cannot wait for me to get home to my machine with an email client at night.

The others that send HTML-only email are basically marketing bumph, which can wait.

Smash The House

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Well spotted, Sherlock Holmes.

Boards.ie is the only site which sends me non-text emails that I really do need to look at during the day, ie which cannot wait for me to get home to my machine with an email client at night.

The others that send HTML-only email are basically marketing bumph, which can wait.

Exactly, they are called notification emails for a reason! I'd lose my mind if every conversational email I had was in HTML.
It's almost as if boards are just trying to create work for the new staff they hired.

Dades wrote: »

I can't believe a year old OS can't display HTML emails! But, yeah, that shouldn't be spoken of with IE6 but Microsoft mail clients always sucked. A huge percentage of PC outlook versions still being supported uses MS Word to render its mails. PITA.

Emails working fine on two android devices I tested it on; one a low end spec and one high end. So it is just WP causing me bother.

Mr. G

This is what it looks like in outlook. To be honest I think the font would be much better if it was Arial rather than Times New Roman. Otherwise it looks fine

28064212

Mr. G wrote: »

This is what it looks like in outlook. To be honest I think the font would be much better if it was Arial rather than Times New Roman. Otherwise it looks fine

The emails are in Arial, or at least they should be. Looks like the usual Outlook/MS "special" interpretation of HTML is coming into play

Mr. G

28064212 wrote: »

The emails are in Arial, or at least they should be. Looks like the usual Outlook/MS "special" interpretation of HTML is coming into play

Hmm That's what I was thinking because if I view in a browser, its Arial. I have other emails that are HTML with Arial font, and they come in as Arial. Must be outlook I guess :rolleyes:

Dades

^^ You are right - that does not look good.

I've been viewing mine in Gmail but if I view them in Outlook 2010 I see what you have there. Outlook is simply using the default font associated with it's HTML rendering engine (Word).

A quick look at the source code suggests the font-size and family need to be added to the <table> tags actually containing the text of the mails. The correct font is referenced elsewhere but is not being picked up where it's needed.

You can beat Outlook - but you need to hardcode stuff in everywhere.

Mr. G

Dades wrote: »

^^ You are right - that does not look good.

I've been viewing mine in Gmail but if I view them in Outlook 2010 I see what you have there. Outlook is simply using the default font associated with it's HTML rendering engine (Word).

A quick look at the source code suggests the font-size and family need to be added to the <table> tags actually containing the text of the mails. The correct font is referenced elsewhere but is not being picked up where it's needed.

You can beat Outlook - but you need to hardcode stuff in everywhere.

Thanks Dades. I don't think its really worth the hassle doing it anyway..

I'm not even able to view the source code in outlook 2013, it's a pain to be honest, its not as easy as 2010 to get the source code (if I right click there is no View Source option... I think the only way is to work around with registries)

Dades

Mr. G wrote: »

Thanks Dades. I don't think its really worth the hassle doing it anyway..

I really meant those suggestions as a job for the Boards dev lads!

They should be able to fix the source code for those on Outlook. I spent some time earlier in the year creating a template for notification emails so I know how much of a pain it is.

kc66

When I click "Link to Post" in my notifications, it doesn't scroll to the post, just opens the page.

An example of a link:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=85735213#post85735213&utm_source=notification&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digestthread%23post85735213

I think the problem is %23 instead of #

At first I thought the e-mails were fine, but now that I've seen them on my 27" 1920x1080 monitor, the text size is just too small. It could do with being increased a bit.

Zascar

Realistically should the design of these emails not be responsive to easily adapt to any size display?

oscarBravo

Zascar wrote: »

Realistically should the design of these emails not be responsive to easily adapt to any size display?

Ideally, but we've already seen how hard it is to design for how badly broken some email clients are. If a MUA can't render simple HTML without pitching a fit, how likely is it to cope with responsive styles?

Sparks

Zascar wrote: »

Nice one! It's about time we got up to speed and started using HTML emails. Seriously anyone that still wants plain texts should put down internet explorer and leave the internet

Come here until I beat some sense into you with the keyboard from my VT220 you upstart!