Broadcast Email Is Unreliable

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doughy
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Location: Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Broadcast Email Is Unreliable

#1

Post by doughy »

Ok, as much as I appreciate those trying to improve the ward email system, it's unreliable.

Last night I had to send out a last minute email to our ward. I typed it up, sent it, and got a "confirmation" message sent back to me saying that my email had been delivered to the addresses listed. I assumed everything was working correctly, so I left my house. I came back two hours later and asked my wife if she had received the email. No. I called a friend, he didn't get it either.

This is probably the 10th time that this has happened! Can't we get this issue fixed? It's starting to get really frustrating and making me wish we could just use google groups or something. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but something needs to be done about this.

Note: This thread is a continuation of a previous thread at: http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2073
techgy
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Location: California

#2

Post by techgy »

Doughy wrote:Ok, as much as I appreciate those trying to improve the ward email system, it's terrible.

Last night I had to send out a last minute email to our ward. I typed it up, sent it, and got a "confirmation" message sent back to me saying that my email had been delivered to the addresses listed. I assumed everything was working correctly, so I left my house. I came back two hours later and asked my wife if she had received the email. No. I called a friend, he didn't get it either.

This is probably the 10th time that this has happened! Can't we get this issue fixed? It's starting to get really frustrating and making me wish we could just use google groups or something. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but something needs to be done about this.
Can you provide a little more information regarding your experience. I assume that you were sending this as a ward administrator -?? Did you ever receive any responses indicating that any of the Emails were refused? Any other details that you can provide might be helpful.
doughy
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Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2008 11:39 pm
Location: Salt Lake City, UT, USA

#3

Post by doughy »

Techgy wrote:Can you provide a little more information regarding your experience. I assume that were sending this as a ward administrator -?? Did you ever receive any responses indicating that any of the Emails were refused? Any other details that you can provide might be helpful.
This has happened to me multiple times. I am a ward admin. I did not receive any "refused" emails.

I sent the broadcast as usual, and received the "Stake/Ward Website email verification" email that said my "email had been sent to the following recipients..." After which it lists all the emails that it should have been sent to.

I did not actually receive the email as an echo back to my account, although I am one of the recipients on the list.

My system is:
Ubuntu 8.10
Firefox 3
techgy
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#4

Post by techgy »

Doughy wrote:This has happened to me multiple times. I am a ward admin. I did not receive any "refused" emails.

I sent the broadcast as usual, and received the "Stake/Ward Website email verification" email that said my "email had been sent to the following recipients..." After which it lists all the emails that it should have been sent to.

I did not actually receive the email as an echo back to my account, although I am one of the recipients on the list.

My system is:
Ubuntu 8.10
Firefox 3
I agree that this would be frustrating. Have you ever been successful in sending an Email in the same manner? Have you recently changed your own Email account?

The reason I ask about your own account is that I've seen one instance with myself where the Email domain that I was using was being refused by other Email accounts. However, usually in this case, you receive a bounce-back message. From what you're telling us, your Email went off into space. Have you tried sending a message using a different computer?
doughy
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Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2008 11:39 pm
Location: Salt Lake City, UT, USA

#5

Post by doughy »

Techgy wrote:I agree that this would be frustrating. Have you ever been successful in sending an Email in the same manner? Have you recently changed your own Email account?

The reason I ask about your own account is that I've seen one instance with myself where the Email domain that I was using was being refused by other Email accounts. However, usually in this case, you receive a bounce-back message. From what you're telling us, your Email went off into space.
Yes, I have been able to send emails using the same exact process. I have not changed my email address either. Like I said, sometimes this happens, and sometimes it doesn't. I do the same thing every time.
techgy
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Location: California

#6

Post by techgy »

Doughy wrote:Yes, I have been able to send emails using the same exact process. I have not changed my email address either. Like I said, sometimes this happens, and sometimes it doesn't. I do the same thing every time.
Hmmmm.. This one's a toughy. If you don't mind try a little experiment. Pick someone in the ward whom you know well and is willing to work with you. Send them an Email from your personal Email address (the same one you use for the web site account) and verify that they can receive it. This should be someone whom you know has not received your Email that have been sent through the LUWS (local unit web site).

One last thought, as you've mentioned that you're the ward admin, have you contacted the STS (Stake Technology Specialist) for assistance? It might be helpful to try that as well. He can then contact the clerks support desk and see if they can help.

I don't have any experience with Ubuntu so we may have to wait until others can chime into the discussion. Let us know how the above goes.
dmaynes
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Location: Pleasant Grove, Utah

I have had failures also

#7

Post by dmaynes »

Doughy wrote:This has happened to me multiple times. I am a ward admin. I did not receive any "refused" emails.

I sent the broadcast as usual, and received the "Stake/Ward Website email verification" email that said my "email had been sent to the following recipients..." After which it lists all the emails that it should have been sent to.

I did not actually receive the email as an echo back to my account, although I am one of the recipients on the list.

My system is:
Ubuntu 8.10
Firefox 3
I have had similar experiences. I thought it was because I was using Google Chrome, so I used Firefox with the last e-mail broadcast that I sent. (I am using Windows XP.)

I have also suspected that "errant" characters in the e-mail message can cause the system to fail. I have started opening up a plain vanilla text editor and pasting the composed e-mail into the editor. I can then clean up stray stuff. That seems to help with end-users getting characters such as question marks "?" that are being used to replace characters that are outside of the ASCII character set.

From there, I copy and paste into the e-mail submission form.

A week ago I experienced a failure and asked one of the recipients on the list to verify that it was received. It was received after I resent the message.

By the way, I would like to know if anyone has suggestions for making the simple text e-mail more readable.

Thanks,
Dennis
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aebrown
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Location: Draper, Utah

#8

Post by aebrown »

Doughy wrote:Can't we get this issue fixed?
Although discussions of technical problems are welcome on this forum, I would note that there is no guarantee that anything posted here will get to the LUWS developers.

There is an established LUWS feedback mechanism. Ward administrators can use the Feedback link on their LUWS administration page to send feedback to the Stake administrator; Stake administrators can use the Feedback link on their LUWS administration page to send feedback to the Church's LUWS support team.

So in addition to your posting here, I would recommend that you work through the appropriate channels to officially report the problem, supplying as many details as will be helpful to the developers in tracking down the problem.
gregneg
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Location: Elk Grove, California, USA (At the moment)

Feedback confirmation?

#9

Post by gregneg »

Alan_Brown wrote: There is an established LUWS feedback mechanism. Ward administrators can use the Feedback link on their LUWS administration page to send feedback to the Stake administrator;
I've tried that ---- no way of knowing if it went somewhere other than a black hole. Could it be using the same dubious email system under discussion here? Just how/ what does the Stake administrator see when a feedback item is sent to him from a local unit? Is there a mechanism for him to acknowledge the feedback? :confused:
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aebrown
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Location: Draper, Utah

#10

Post by aebrown »

elderj1 wrote:I've tried that ---- no way of knowing if it went somewhere other than a black hole. Could it be using the same dubious email system under discussion here? Just how/ what does the Stake administrator see when a feedback item is sent to him from a local unit? Is there a mechanism for him to acknowledge the feedback? :confused:

The feedback from ward administrator to stake administrator is sent via e-mail. I don't know if it is the exact same system used for broadcast e-mails and thus subject to the same problems you are having, but I suppose that is possible.

In my personal experience as a stake administrator, I have often received such e-mails from ward administrators. I get a normal e-mail (aside from the content, it appears to have come directly from the person), so that any responses I give and further interchange uses my e-mail system and has nothing to do with LUWS. I have never received any feedback from ward administrators that I failed to respond to their feedback messages.

An alternate way for you to send feedback to the stake administrator is to send e-mail directly. When you click on the Feedback link from the ward administration page, you go to a page that has a multi-line text box and a Submit button, which sends e-mail to the stake administrator as I mentioned above. But there is also a link for the "XXX Stake Administrator"; if you click on that link, a popup box will give the name and contact information for the stake administrator, including e-mail address. You can certainly use your normal e-mail system to send e-mail to the stake administrator using that e-mail address and keep LUWS completely out of the loop. Hopefully your stake administrator will respond to your e-mail so that you don't feel like it is a black hole, but you can also call him on the phone to follow up -- this is someone in your own stake so it shouldn't be a mysterious process.

FYI, the stake administrator's feedback page has a similar text box with a Submit button. No alternate contact link is presented, but his e-mail simply goes to the standard msrmail@ldsmail.net support address, so if he has any reason to suspect that LUWS is not sending the message, he can send regular e-mail. When I send LUWS feedback, I have always gotten some sort of response within a few days, generally the very next day.
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