Feedback / Suggestion: Ability to Send Email Notice

[marmat]

Just signed in and tested the beta release of Newsletter app and I can tell it is going to be great.

Early feedback:

The ability to check a field to send an email notice to subscribers, or those in the unit or stake, when new content is published would be fantastic.

Picture a regularly scheduled monthly post in a true 'newsletter' type fashion that is posted on the blog, but then lands in peoples' inboxes after published.

[AileneRHerrick]

Or to those subscribed to certain categories to let them know if a new article is published within their subscribed category. They can also choose how often they want emails: Immediately, Daily Digest or Weekly Digest.

[aebrown]

There's currently no concept of "subscriber" in the Newsletter application, so this is a big change. Personally, I like the suggestions made in the thread Feature: Subscribing to Newsletter for adding RSS feeds so that people can control their subscriptions through an existing industry standard.

[AileneRHerrick]

There's currently no concept of "subscriber" in the Newsletter application, so this is a big change. Personally, I like the suggestions made in the thread Feature: Subscribing to Newsletter for adding RSS feeds so that people can control their subscriptions through an existing industry standard.

There are privacy issues with using an RSS feed, in that all RSS feeds are public. (I mentioned that in the thread you linked above). And of course, the task of subscribing to an RSS feed may be complex to some people, so it would be nice to have at least the option of receiving email notifications for "subscribed categories."

[failproof]

Perhaps subscriptions should be considered a user preferences option that spans the LDS Tools more globally... users would be able to update their account preferences for subscription emails that apply to Calendars, Lesson Schedule changes, Newsletter category updates, etc. all in one place or individually at each of those tools.

[jdlessley]

Perhaps subscriptions should be considered a user preferences option that spans the LDS Tools more globally...

Just to be clear LDS Tools is a mobile application. To avoid confusion the applications currently available through the LDS.org Tools menu should not be referred to as LDS Tools.

users would be able to update their account preferences for subscription emails that apply to Calendars, Lesson Schedule changes, Newsletter category updates, etc. all in one place or individually at each of those tools.

If subscriptions were to be applied to the groups in the Newsletter I would want those subscriptions to remain separate from my preferences for the Calendar or any other program that would eventually incorporate anything related to notices being sent for changes or additions.

[marmat]

There's currently no concept of "subscriber" in the Newsletter application, so this is a big change. Personally, I like the suggestions made in the thread Feature: Subscribing to Newsletter for adding RSS feeds so that people can control their subscriptions through an existing industry standard.

While I agree the RSS subscription option would be great for those that understand how to use RSS, but for the majority of individuals they have no clue what it means or how to even use it. And AileneRHerrick brings up a good point below that RSS feeds generally have to be public to work simply as private feeds are cumbersome.

[jeffvand]

I'd just like to echo what was said above. Only the most geeky know RSS anyway. LDS.org is woefully missing the ability to email the ward members by a member of the bishopric. At least that I an see. We had a huge storm here last night and I want to email everyone in our ward (I'm the bishop), but I can't seem to find a way to do that. The newsletter app seems like a likely way we can create this capability that would allow folks to unregister themselves from everything, or just certain categories.

I'd love to be able to add my whole ward as subscribers and send them a custom welcome email that explains how they can unsubscribe themselves from certain categories, or subscribe to others to get news from the ward. This would help us communicate much better, and more focused as well. I could send out a note from the bishopric in the bishopric category. Young Men could post to the young men category and those subscribed to that would get that update. You get the idea.

Perhaps there is a listserv in progress somewhere else. That would be awesome too!

[eblood66]

LDS.org is woefully missing the ability to email the ward members by a member of the bishopric. At least that I an see. We had a huge storm here last night and I want to email everyone in our ward (I'm the bishop), but I can't seem to find a way to do that.

As bishop you can send email to various groups of ward members by using the Send a Message button in the toolbar of the Leader Resources page (http://lds.org/leader) or by going directly to http://lds.org/messaging. Ward clerks also have this ability. I don't think that assistant clerks do (but I'm not sure about that).

Although email notification for the newsletter would be a good thing, the messaging app is better for general emails. It doesn't require members to do anything other than include their email address on church records.

[jeffvand]

As bishop you can send email to various groups of ward members by using the Send a Message button in the toolbar of the Leader Resources page (http://lds.org/leader) or by going directly to http://lds.org/messaging. Ward clerks also have this ability. I don't think that assistant clerks do (but I'm not sure about that).

Holy cow! That's awesome! Thank you so much for pointing me to this! I really appreciate it! This is just what I needed!