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Re: Details on the Email List migration: It’s a good thing
Subject:Re: Details on the Email List migration: It’s a good thing From:Julie Stickler <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com> To:INKtopia Admin <admin -at- inktopia -dot- net>, Techwr-l <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 3 Oct 2013 12:58:42 -0400
Thanks for the update! I kinda figured we were all hunking down and
waiting for the "all clear" to start up discussions again.
On Thu, Oct 3, 2013 at 11:35 AM, INKtopia Admin <admin -at- inktopia -dot- net> wrote:
> (From Al)
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I wanted to send a note to add some information and an update. We're going
> to start communicating more today and tomorrow to help with the migration
> but wanted to clear up a couple questions in this thread.
>
> I'm just going to reply to various comments inline rather than trying to
> write copy to each one
>
> >Since this is the first actual discussion list message I've received in
>> two days, I was beginning to think that I would only be getting those forum
>> notifications from now on (which you can turn off > through your profile
>> settings BTW). Glad to see the list is still working.
>>
>>
>
> The Email Discussion List run by MailMan (which will deliver this note) is
> still running and everything is like it has been for the last few years. We
> never officially made the cutover but were caught in between when someone
> posted on the new Forums. You all have accounts there and we were in the
> process of doing the final cutover including a detailed note saying what
> was about to happen and what to expect when things spun out of control on
> Tuesday.
>
> We hit damage control mode on Tuesday and took a couple steps to stop the
> barrage of emails coming from the new system.
>
> First, we got Eric Ray to start working on our mail server to have it
> start rejecting the out of office, not a real person emails that were
> hammering everyone and we deleted a few accounts that were auto responders
> - this reduced the flow notes and things relaxed around 50 minutes after
> everything went out of control on Tuesday. BUT, the changes to the mail
> server weren't in place AND we realized that in addition to the new email
> distribution capabilities not handling SPAM as well as our old one, it also
> delivered emails in a different way that seemed to confuse a lot of people.
>
> Today, the notes have Email name via lists.techwr-l.com -- the new system
> doesn't append the user name with via [list name] but appends the Subject
> line of the email and if you look at the From address it shows @
> techwhirl.net. This second issue made us realize that we really need to
> communicate more about the changes before resuming the migration so we
> turned off the Email Distribution capabilities of the new Forum. Without
> getting to detailed, this is a plugin for the software and I (Al) thought
> that this would turn off emailing completely, but it didn't. It just turned
> off the systems ability to send the full notes and for people to reply but
> sends a - username has made a comment - note.
>
> While not great, the current state of the system and the "notifications"
> aren't confusing so we've tolerated having them while we regrouped.
>
> It's best to think of the last day and a half as us stopping the
> Enterprise to inspect damage and do some repairs while keeping the engines
> running. It's not surprising that our emails have dropped since Oct 1st
> considering the last real conversation spun out of control.
>
> The problems on Tuesday were unanticipated so we had to get a handle on
> what happened as well as how to help everyone better understand what is
> about to happen.
>
> Here's what's coming:
>
>
> - We're going to send a more detailed note tomorrow on the cutover and
> what to expect (now with elaboration on what emails will look like)
> - We will then cutover during the weekend when volume is low and
> monitor things very closely to update our SPAM filters with new and unique
> out of office copy that we weren't able to guess.
> - we'll course correct when and if necessary to get things stable and
> for everyone to get back to communicating rather than worrying about the
> tech as soon as possible.
> - We're also going to put together a survey on some policy stuff
> including how to handle general members posting their articles to the forum
> - it hasn't been a problem here since we've owned TechWhirl but we've
> already seen an increase in this behavior in the last few days. We may
> create a category for people to post and then email members can choose to
> follow or not, but we really want your feedback.
>
> > I too find the notification method of discussion to be pretty much a
>> no-go for me.
>>
>
> Agreed - this is just a short term thing while we fix the problems with
> the full email distribution capabilities.
>
>
>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message----- From: Julie Stickler
>>
>> I am currently not receiving comments from the forum, only e-mails that
>> contain links to comments. Usability issue one, I have to click through.
>>
>> And the subject line in the e-mail does not include the discussion thread
>> title, so I have no idea if the discussion would be one I have any interest
>> in joining/following. Usability issue number two, I have to click through
>> with no idea what might be on the other side.
>>
>> Thankfully my G-mail pretty much took care of the rash of weird e-mails
>> in the past couple of days during the transition. But I'm missing the
>> chatter from the old TECHWR-L list. My inbox has been too quiet this week.
>> Are there actual discussions going on over on the forums that just aren't
>> coming through?
>>
>
> We agree - for the record the list is still running as it always has but
> as a guess, one bitten, twice shy.
>
>
> We hope you're all doing well and look forward to reaching out soon to
> talk more about the new system.
>
> Take care
> al
>
