Broadcast Email Is Unreliable

[gregneg]

Alan_Brown,
Your explanation is very helpful. Our stake has isolated communities well over 400 miles apart (as the crow flies), so we really rely on technology for meetings and other communications. It's really frustrating when we are left wondering if it is working.

Your reply has given me a way to "see" better ---

[doughy]

Wow. I just tried to send an email using the ward system, and AGAIN I got a receipt saying it was sent, but it was not sent.

I'm very tempted to bag the church website system and resort to using google groups or something for our ward. I know it's not too great for policy compliance, but if the church expects us to do it the right way, they need to provide tools that actually work.

So frustrated...

[techgy]

Wow. I just tried to send an email using the ward system, and AGAIN I got a receipt saying it was sent, but it was not sent.

I'm very tempted to bag the church website system and resort to using google groups or something for our ward. I know it's not too great for policy compliance, but if the church expects us to do it the right way, they need to provide tools that actually work.

So frustrated...

While discussing your problem here is certainly permitted, and it's possible that someone else may have experienced the same problem, I would also suggest that you take some more direct steps.

The normal procedure would be to contact your STS (Stake Technology Specialist) for some help. Although this might help, depending upon the abilities of your STS, you might be better off contacting the clerk's support desk directly as the problem might be related to your personal Email domain or something that the STS wouldn't have knowledge of.

The contact number for the Clerk's Support Desk is (801-240-3500 or 1-800-453-3860 ext 23500).

As this problem has occured more than once it would be helpful if, once a resolution were discovered, that you return to this thread and post your information for all to benefit from.

If anyone else has any suggestions I'm sure they'll follow up.

[mkmurray]

I would also like to say that there is a new version of the Local Unit Web Sites (kind of like a version 2.0) that the Church has been working on for a while now. We had heard from one Church employee that it may be released sometime around the end of this year; however, I have since been told that this timetable is a bit premature.

If I were a betting man, I would still bet on it coming out relatively soon (on the magnitude of months and not years).

[doughy]

While discussing your problem here is certainly permitted, and it's possible that someone else may have experienced the same problem, I would also suggest that you take some more direct steps.

The normal procedure would be to contact your STS (Stake Technology Specialist) for some help. Although this might help, depending upon the abilities of your STS, you might be better off contacting the clerk's support desk directly as the problem might be related to your personal Email domain or something that the STS wouldn't have knowledge of.

The contact number for the Clerk's Support Desk is (801-240-3500 or 1-800-453-3860 ext 23500).

As this problem has occured more than once it would be helpful if, once a resolution were discovered, that you return to this thread and post your information for all to benefit from.

If anyone else has any suggestions I'm sure they'll follow up.

I tried sending again tonight, and now it magically works. I did the exact same thing to send the email tonight as I did before. It's totally intermittent.

I will call the clerk's support desk and report the problem.

[techgy]

I tried sending again tonight, and now it magically works. I did the exact same thing to send the email tonight as I did before. It's totally intermittent.

I will call the clerk's support desk and report the problem.

Recently I obtained the following response from Church HQ regarding the Intermittent Email Broadcast Issue. I offer it here FYI.

"We get intermittent reports of mass email broadcasts not working at all, and unfortunately are not able to duplicate them. The issue we ARE aware of is that many email servers treat emails through the website as junk mail and so members don't get them at all, or don't see them in their inbox.

It's something the programmers recognize as a big problem and are working to address, but there's not a quick fix. "

[russellhltn]

Is there any pattern to when you place the email request? One thing I've noticed about LUWS is to doesn't seem to handle being down for maintenance in a graceful way. I tend to work on it very late at night and some times run into trouble. Perhaps something is down when you send the email and it gets messed up. That would explain why the staff never finds a problem since it's always up during working hours. :rolleyes:

[lajackson]

Is there any pattern to when you place the email request? One thing I've noticed about LUWS is to doesn't seem to handle being down for maintenance in a graceful way. I tend to work on it very late at night and some times run into trouble. Perhaps something is down when you send the email and it gets messed up. That would explain why the staff never finds a problem since it's always up during working hours. :rolleyes:

I have found that the spam/junk mail issue with different ISPs is a real problem. As an Admin, I have used two different e-mail accounts with LUWS.

When I send to small groups with either account, most messages go through. When I send to everyone, usually exceeding the ISP limit of 10 or 20 or 50 whatever, I run into problems.

One e-mail account will challenge me when it thinks I am spamming. I can get large files through with a proper response. The other e-mail account will not allow me to send to more than 20 recipients at a time, no matter what.

I suspect this is the problem most folks have when large broadcast messages will not go out. The reason is seems random is that, even when my ISP lets a large broadcast go, it is flagged in such a way that the receiving ISPs know that, and some of them will accept the message without fussing, others will not.

If there were someway in LUWS to designate the e-mail account of the sender as the Church, rather than the personal e-mail account of the Admin, there might be a more reliable way to address this issue.

In the meantime, this is just one more reason why I do not use the broadcast e-mail function.

[russellhltn]

I have found that the spam/junk mail issue with different ISPs is a real problem. As an Admin, I have used two different e-mail accounts with LUWS.

Apple and Oranges - I think. When you use the Church website to send an email, I would expect that it's actually being sent though the church's ISP with your return address. It's not being send via your own ISP.

One would hope that the church has talked their their ISP and let them know they do send a lot of emails. <g> Of course the Church IT department is large enough they may be their own ISP.

[aebrown]

Apple and Oranges - I think. When you use the Church website to send an email, I would expect that it's actually being sent though the church's ISP with your return address. It's not being send via your own ISP.

One would hope that the church has talked their their ISP and let them know they do send a lot of emails. <g> Of course the Church IT department is large enough they may be their own ISP.

The mail may be sent by the Church's mail server, but there is something about it that makes it look like spam to some spam filters. The Church sends it as if it comes from my e-mail address (replaced below by MYEMAIL@SAMPLE.ORG) but it doesn't actually come from me. This kind of misdirection is entirely valid for all sorts of reasons, but because it is a technique often used by spammers, it is caught by some spam filters.

Below is an excerpt from the Internet Headers on a message sent to me from the LUWS (the reference to byu.edu comes because my actual e-mail address is a byu.net forwarding address). The ghmwh.org mail servers seem to be used by the Church to send mail. I'm not a mail expert, but perhaps someone can learn from these headers.

Code: Select all

Received: from mail2.gmhwh.org (mail2.gmhwh.org [216.49.178.92])
 by gatling.byu.edu (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id mB206cQi005112
 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO)
 for <[email=MYEMAIL@SAMPLE.ORG]MYEMAIL@SAMPLE.ORG[/email]>; Mon, 1 Dec 2008 17:06:43 -0700
Received: from chqpvua1284.ldschurch.org ([10.97.1.84])
 by mail2.gmhwh.org (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id mB206bix030407
 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT)
 for <[email=MYEMAIL@SAMPLE.ORG]MYEMAIL@SAMPLE.ORG[/email]>; Mon, 1 Dec 2008 17:06:37 -0700
Received: from 10.98.40.114 ([10.97.246.15])
 by chqpvua1284.ldschurch.org (8.14.1/8.14.1) with SMTP id mB206aEp012426
 for <[email=MYEMAIL@SAMPLE.ORG]MYEMAIL@SAMPLE.ORG[/email]>; Mon, 1 Dec 2008 17:06:36 -0700
Message-Id: <[email=200812020006.mB206aEp012426@chqpvua1284.ldschurch.org]200812020006.mB206aEp012426@chqpvua1284.ldschurch.org[/email]>
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