re: Bulk Email from tmw.net

[Jaxad0127]

To avoid confusion, TMWC and Advisors would like to stress that themanaworld.org is not the same as, nor is affiliated with, themanaworld.net. TMWC and Advisors do not condone bulk emails, however I am requesting feedback on sending out one round of emails to stress this point and inform forum members of this point. After this, or if consensus is against sending even one, we will disable admin bulk emails for all existing users and try to disable them for new accounts.

I have asked that this thread be strictly moderated, so please remain on topic, but don't hesitate to post a simple yes / no, or feel free to go into as much detail as you wish. After 5 days I will ask that this topic and poll be locked, so please answer within that time frame.

BC

[o11c]

At first I thought "we should not be like you-know-who", but after I observed a number of people appearing, confused by it, I must reluctantly agree that is is valid as an anti-scam measure.

On a technical note, I am confident that we can disable the admin-spam feature for all existing users, but I am still not sure if there is a way to disable it for newly created users.

[Jaxad0127]

If you don't want to receive the email from us (assuming we in fact send it), you can disable email from administrators in the Board Preferences section of your User Control Panel. We'll most likely disable it for all current member after the email is sent (or not sent).

[o11c]

Stuff the message should include:

• An apology for the spam
• , and the statement that we will be disabling the feature
• , and an acknowledgment that we replying to the email will fail, because we never intended for it to be used.
• A strongly-worded statement that we are not associated with themanaworld.net. Should we mention that The Mana World has been around for about 9 years (depending on how you count it), but .net has only been around for 2 months?
• A way to get in contact with us - IRC or the forums.

Obviously, the "strongly-worded statement" is the tough one. How much information should be provided there? My instinct is always for completeness, but brevity might serve us better.

[Sanity]

I voted yes, but I have a gut feeling that this might not be the best idea in the world.

[Big Crunch]

I voted yes, but I have a gut feeling that this might not be the best idea in the world.

That's why we are bringing it to the people. I think a reminder that we will not take such action and are not affiliated with the server that did send out the spam would be a one time exception and hopefully repair some of the damage the .net server caused.

[tux9th]

Spam is to be ignored.
You don't answer to spam neither should you answer to this spam nor apologize for what you didn't cause.

Voted No.

[o11c]

Spam is to be ignored.
You don't answer to spam neither should you answer to this spam nor apologize for what you didn't cause.

Voted No.

Agreed, but this is not just spam, it's scamming.


There's no "nice" way to disable it for new accounts, so I've made the following change to includes/functions_user.php:

Code: Select all

                'user_allow_pm'                 => 1,
                'user_allow_viewonline' => 1,
                'user_allow_viewemail'  => 1,
// BEGIN TMW customization: disable admin spam
                'user_allow_massemail'  => 0,
// END TMW customization: disable admin spam

                'user_sig'                                      => '',
                'user_sig_bbcode_uid'           => '',

[Cassy]

Voted yes. I agree with Sanity, that this is not the best idea, but it is an idea. There must be an information about this situation and that this is the original server ( + proof). If the people fell for you-know-who's mail, then they will most likely also read this mail. o11c described the right way.

Edit: Grammar...

[Platyna]

At http://forums.themanaworld.net we have a nice HOWTO set your profile to not receive any emails. ;-)
At least someone with admin/mod powers on forums should know how PHPBB User CP works. ;) *Sigh* if you made an unauthorized copy for the files at least learn how to handle it in proper way.

Regards.

[Reid]

Spam is to be ignored.
You don't answer to spam neither should you answer to this spam nor apologize for what you didn't cause.

Voted No.

Voted no as well, for the same reasons.

[Ablu]

Hi,

I did not vote because my opinion is not present in both options: I think that TMWC should be allow to send admin messages when they feel that they make sense (Though I would mail all ingame accounts instead of forum accounts only). (Disabling the admin mail settings by default for new users makes sense to me anyway). Though I do not agree to do this as response to Platynas last mail (even if it is kind of misleading). I would trust that people are not silly. (And I am fine to loose the silly people to that server).

Regards,
Ablu

[meway]

Stuff the message should include:

• An apology for the spam
• , and the statement that we will be disabling the feature
• , and an acknowledgment that we replying to the email will fail, because we never intended for it to be used.
• A strongly-worded statement that we are not associated with themanaworld.net. Should we mention that The Mana World has been around for about 9 years (depending on how you count it), but .net has only been around for 2 months?
• A way to get in contact with us - IRC or the forums.

Obviously, the "strongly-worded statement" is the tough one. How much information should be provided there? My instinct is always for completeness, but brevity might serve us better.

Include an alert to change all passwords for security reasons as that information may have been compromised during the move.

[WildX]

You can fight all you want here, in game and on IRC, just please don't do that in my mailbox, voted no.

[Chicka-Maria]

also voted no, wars are bad enough on the forum and game we don't need it through email as well even if its just 1 email it takes two parties to argue.

regards,