Did somebody turn off email notifications?
I’m still getting them.
That’s odd. I’m subscribed to threads, have my profile options set for immediate notification, haven’t changed my email address, and the notifications have completely dried up.
Just checked my spam filter, and nothing there either. It’s as if the board decided I no longer need them. Anybody have any ideas?
I was not getting any email notifications of threads I was subscribing to for a period of one whole afternoon one day last week. One of the threads, I had a very strong suspicion, was getting posted to regularly. I went and checked the thread, and, sure enough, it had a few new posts that afternoon. After that the problem cleared up. It has not reoccurred, I’m sure, because I have been doubly wary of it since then, checking up often.
But you’re right – there has indeed been some abnormality in email notification lately.
Don’t know what’s happening here.
I do note that if the server is overly tasked the very first thing it drops is email, with the greater weight given to handling posts. That being said I have not heard of any problems with the board so I cannot tell if there’s actually something going on or not.
It is possible that the problem is on your side – occasionally ISPs decide that “webmaster@straightdope.com” is spam and filter out all email before it gets to you. You can check with your provider to see if that’s the situation. If that’s the case we have no control over it; we didn’t start it and cannot resolve it for you.
Either of those could explain mine. The one time I didn’t receive any email notifications I was on a college computer that whole afternoon. On the other hand, I’m often on college computers and it is the first time I am ever aware of it having happened so maybe the SDMB server was stressed that day. Thanks.
Still no resolution. I’d like permission from the admins to create a temporary sock account in order to identify where the problem is.
If I get approval, I’ll create a user named “Ellis Dee’s Sock” pointing to a secondary hotmail address, verify the email notification is on, create a new thread here in ATMB and then post here asking for people to reply to it. After a few days and a few replies – or until I get an email notification – I’ll ask the mods to terminate the sock account.
Using this approach I should be able to identify whether the problem is on my end or if it’s a problem with my SDMB account.
Why can’t you just simply change your email in your current account and try it that way?
I see no need to create a sock account and an artificial situation when what you’re wanting to test is part of the normal course of events.
I’ll give it a shot.
I’ve been getting my notifications, but a bit sporadically. Maybe one notification out of three or four posts. Still enough to cause me to open the thread and see the rest. No biggie.
I’m getting the notifications now, at least to the secondary email address. Hopefully when I switch it back to the hotmail account it’ll start working again.
Either way, I’m all set. Thanks for the suggestion.
So I finally identified the problem. I’m an idiot. More specifically, hotmail has two separate and distinct lists for dealing with spam. One is a junk list, whereby stuff coming in can get rerouted to the junk folder. That’s all I thought there was.
There is also a blocked list. Any IDs on that list never get to hotmail at all. Apparently there is a button very near “delete this message” that will add the sender to the blocked list, which I accidentally hit during the course of going through my email subscription notices.
Anyway, just a heads up for anybody else: if you change your email address on the dope, be sure that your new email address can receive an email from the dope. That’s because changing your email generates a security confirmation, which sends you an email where you have to click an activation link.
Until you click that link, you can’t post or do anything on the dope except read. I learned the hard way that it’s no fun being stuck in “activation limbo.”
Thanks for the help, Tuba.