notifications not working?

[mel_t]

do you know anything about this? 

I have subscribed to notification of a few threads, but have yet to receive any notifications when replies are posted.

[Therese]

Mel, I've not used this forum software before, so please bear with me as I try to figure it out.

Did you click the "notify" button on the threads you want to get notifications from?

Here's what it says in your profile:

You aren't receiving notifications on any boards right now.

To request notifications from a specific board, click the "notify" button in the index of that board.

Therese

[mel_t]

Hi Therese,

I haven't subscribed to any full boards, but I have subscribed to the following threads:
Current Topic Notifications
  Subject Started by 
STRUVITE CRYSTALS DIET for 9 yo overweight indoor Tonkinese:
in Cat Nutrition  Shulie   
Senator Durbin needs your help!
in Rallies, Marches, Campaigns, etc.  mel_t   
How can we organize? Brainstorming session!!
in Rallies, Marches, Campaigns, etc.  Therese   
A Community Forum Re: Pet Nutrition Friday, May 18th!
in Rallies, Marches, Campaigns, etc.  willyagogo   
Let's Get The Media On This
in General Recall Discussion  Geff 

It's not the end of the world if I can't get notifications, but it would be "nice" 

I'll try subscribing to a Board too, to see if that works.  Is everyone else able to get notifications?  I belong to another forum by SMF and I can get notifications just fine.

...ok, I just subscribed to notification from 2 boards too, so we'll see if that works.

[mel_t]

I've gotten 2 notifications now - might be because I've subscribed to the entire board, rather than the individual thread. not ideal, but at least I'm getting them.

[Geff]

If you are using Yahoo free email, their spam filters have broken in the last month. If you are using Hotmail, do not expect to receive anything OTHER then spam.

I personally recommend gmail as the best free option at this exact moment (that means today, but not necessarily tomorrow). The new problems with Yahoo are a shame. To the best of my knowledge, it's only in the last month or 2 they've developed serious delivery problems with legitimate email.

For what it's worth, I had the notification problems with this board until switching to gmail. Yahoo has become a nightmare for my (non spam) business. Hotmail (& MSN) have become such a joke that they should just shut down.

Both AOL & Comcast have also been very spotty this year regarding email delivery.

Part of the problem is that the spammers have gotten VERY good; the short version is that the spammers (often organized crime) are now paying the virus writers (also often organized crime) to see that their messages are delivered. The spam filters at both server level & user level are way behind the curve & mostly giving false positives & missing many true spam emails.

Their is a simple solution; though it will never happen; Require Visa, MC, etc. to refuse payments for known spammers. Get rid of the profit & the problem goes away. Unfortunately, their is phenomenal profit for everyone (INCLUDING THE BANKS) if only 1/4 of 1% (.0025)of recipients buys the product of the moment. Rogue (read Eastern Europe, Asia & Communist China) governments don't exactly help..... I subscribe to 2 newsletters for "legitimate" emailers. Their morals seem to be slightly below that of a cobra. & these are the "legitimate email marketers".

Once again, the motive is purely profit, the same reason our beloved pets have been dying.

Whatever it is that gmail is doing right, I wish they'd share with a few of the other services, but then the spammers & virus writers would just get the info quicker on how to crack their algorithms.

I've had an internet biz since 1998. 60%+ of our revenue was based on (opt in only; i.e. NOT SPAM)  newsletter subscribers. Most of that business is now gone; most of our subscribers never see the newsletter.

In my somewhat educated opinion, email is no longer necessarily a reliable form of communication.  RSS could be an option, but it's too complicated for most people.

[mel_t]

I seem to be getting the notifications now. I'm actually not using any free email service, I'm using the one provided by my ISP, with Outlook.  however, my ISP is extremely bad for SPAM.

[Davis]

Geff, thanks for the email information.  Now I know why I've been having so many problems with my Yahoo account.  Regular emails are getting recognized as spam, and even worse, they are now being sent back to he sender as "not deliverable".  I've also had some spam come through as regular mail. Ugh! It all goes back to what you said...the almighty dollar has caused this and everything else to go wrong.

[Cindy Nevarez]

Very interesting Geff.

Dare I ask...what's RSS?

[Geff]

Hi Cindy - It's actually not that easy for me to explain; it's basically an automated feed that you can sign up for that's pushed to your pc when you request it. Despite a strong push, it's been largely unsuccessful to date. Here's a link to a better explanation at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS

[Cindy Nevarez]

Thanks...and you're right...I don't get it. 

At first I thought it was the thing I have set up on my website that automatically sends email from my "contact us" page into my personal email box, but I see it's way more complicated than that!

[Geff]

Here's an example of an rss feed:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/rss/subscribe.asp?feed=91

Generally, most internet browsers need a free add on to use it fully.

I don't personally use RSS much at all.

[Cindy Nevarez]

Oh....I see now.

Boy, once you sign up for these...it's like a full time job to sit there and read it all!