Request: Prevent Local Leaders from being unsubscribed to "Local Leaders" messages

[andypoulsen]

Hi All,

I just had a bit of a surprise. For the last week or two (not sure how long), I hadn't received any of our ward's "Send to All Members" messages that were supposedly being sent by our Exec Sec. I figured it must be a glitch, but when I realized my wife was getting them and I wasn't, I decided to investigate further. So I went into LCR (I'm 2nd counselor in the bishopric) and tried to send a message to just the bishopric, and saw that my name had "unsubscribed" next to it.

This was rather alarming to me, so I looked at my Account Settings page, and under "Subscriptions" I noticed that the box next to "Local Leader Email" was NOT checked! I have no idea how that happened, and when I checked the box and clicked Save, it appears things are working again, but I have no idea what messages I have missed during that time (including from the stake, for example).

I would like to request that at least one of the following be implemented:

• Prevent local leaders from being unsubscribed from the "Local Leader Email" list[ (and even if they're somehow unsubscribed, allow them to be selected as a recipient anyway!)

• When a person unsubscribes (or is unsubscribed) from a list, send a confirmation email to them letting them know, with a message something like "You've been unsubscribed from <list>. If this was done unintentionally, or if you'd like to re-subscribe in the future, click <here>." It would be ideal to include the link so they don't have to try to manage it manually.

I don't know how that change was made to my subscription, and didn't have any idea there was even a problem until I checked with my wife -- If my situation had been different, I likely would not have found out for quite a long time.

I'm hoping that this issue, in addition to the issue with LCR not sending to certain addresses (including multiple gmail addresses in our ward in addition to some Yahoo and other addresses), can be addressed quickly! (unfortunately, I realize the likelihood of that happening is, well, not overly high...)

Thanks for listening!

[eblood66]

First note that those who direct the development of church systems do not usually visit these forums. Almost everyone here are just other users like yourself. So, although we can certainly discuss suggestions like this, they will most likely not be seen by those who can make a change. The official channel for making this kind of suggestion is to use the feedback link on the associated web page. For this one the Send Feedback link at the bottom of any LCR page would probably be appropriate.

The next part is a total guess on my part, but I wonder if you were unsubscribed because your ISP refused email to your account (probably because they considered it spam). The church has been trying to get ISPs to stop blacklisting emails from the church. Part of that effort was to add the ability to unsubscribe from local leader messages. They may be taking a further approach by automatically unsubscribing if mail is repeatedly refused to avoid giving cause for blacklisting.

Arguing against this is the fact that you we're recently receiving such emails and your wife is still receiving them (assuming she has the same email provider). So that may not be the reason.

As for your suggestions (and again I'm just another user--stake finance clerk in my case--without any role in church development), preventing local leaders from unsubscribing might endanger some of the progress the church has made in getting off the blacklists. Right now they can try to convince ISPs to change their policies by reporting the new policies and features they have put in place. Making exceptions would weaken that sales pitch.

Sending an email to someone who just indicated they want to unsubscribe may also be problematic. Many people may see that as not honoring their wishes and may report it as spam.

It's tricky thing. Perhaps somewhat of a combination of the two, i.e. send an email notification just if local leaders unsubscribe but not for those without leadership callings.

Another possibility might be to put a notice up on churchofjesuschrist.org and/or LCR when someone logs in who has unsubscribed possibly with a link to remove the warning and a link to resubscribe. That would avoid spam while notifying more active members who are more likely to visit the church website.

[russellhltn]

When the "Local Leader Email" option first appeared, mine was unchecked. Not wanting to miss out, I checked it. However, the functionality may not have been fully implemented at that time.

That's just one data point and I hesitate to make a generalization from it, but it's possible that somehow that's what got defaulted. If true, that would make it a one-time problem.