ADMIN: IMPORTANT: Check your Email Address Works!

[BlakJak]

G'day,

For a long time now Toyspeed has been 'turning a blind eye' to the fact that for a number of forum users, the email address recorded in your account is invalid.

This will obviously not only be a problem should you need to reset your password, but it also means you're missing out on thread-watching and PM notifications. (or to put it another way, it means I'm receiving errors for each time this occurs..)

So beginning this week I am going to start taking an aggressive position on bounces received for this reason; we require a valid email address for each forum user so I will send PM's to accounts noted to have invalid ones; if after a period of time (say a week or so) the account is still generating bounces it'll be suspended until one is supplied.

A reminder of our policy on free email addresses: viewtopic.php?t=42877

If you end up in difficulty around this or have any questions please post here or email admins@toyspeed.org.nz.

Cheers
BlakJak

[Boosted_162]

Hrmmm. My email is technically invalid - ive asked about it before (vodafone) yet i do recieve my PM notifications. Do i need to change it?

[BlakJak]

define invalid. If you're receiving PM notifications (via email) then you're receiving email from us, one presumes.

If you're not receiving email then either fix your email address or change it using the 'profile' link in the main forum menu above...

[Urban-Cruiser]

I use hotmail for all my email. And the account is no longer valid. So I cant change that. And the laptop i use isnt mine, so using a @paradise address is not an option for me.

Any ideas?

Maybe, for a yearly members fee (nothing too expensive ), a @toyspeed email?

[Boosted_162]

define invalid. If you're receiving PM notifications (via email) then you're receiving email from us, one presumes.

If you're not receiving email then either fix your email address or change it using the 'profile' link in the main forum menu above...

Whoops, by invalid more or less i mean a free/banned account. I remember the discussion saying vodafone addresses are classed as free?

[Stott69]

i have same problem^^ .Im currently useing my mothers xtra email, but use hotmail as my normal. A @toyspeed would be awsome

[BlakJak]

I use hotmail for all my email. And the account is no longer valid. So I cant change that. And the laptop i use isnt mine, so using a @paradise address is not an option for me.

Any ideas?

Maybe, for a yearly members fee (nothing too expensive ), a @toyspeed email?

As TS is not rigged up for 'business transactions' @toyspeed email addresses (for cost) get awkward to manage.

Heck. Even for free, there's the overhead of maintaining them. Not even the admins have @toyspeed email addresses. :p And it doesnt solve the problem for people just signing up regardless.

I don't see the relevance regarding the laptop, paradise offer webmail....

[BlakJak]

define invalid. If you're receiving PM notifications (via email) then you're receiving email from us, one presumes.

If you're not receiving email then either fix your email address or change it using the 'profile' link in the main forum menu above...

Whoops, by invalid more or less i mean a free/banned account. I remember the discussion saying vodafone addresses are classed as free?

People who signed up before the policy was implemented can carry on. There's a fairly obvious line in the sand; all signups and all email address changes post the day of implementation are subject to the policy.

(The Policy has quite successfully blocked a goodly number of abusers and spammers, so i'd say its working nicely.)

The catch is, of course, if your free email address ceases to be useful/functional, you're going to have to supply a 'non-free' alternative or risk your account being suspended.

Most people have access to either an ISP based address or one provided by their school/Uni/Employer so it's only a relative few who've reported problems.

[BlakJak]

Should also note, Hotmail users and their Brethren take note: Hotmail.* and live.* addresses regularly seem to bounce with 'mailbox unavailable'. This doesn't appear to be due to them being 'dead' as they seem to come right again, I can only assume it's coz Hotmail is buggered and the mailbox was full or they had some other transient problem.

[Edit: Appears this happens when the email address expires (usually due to inactivity on the part of the account holder). So there you go.]

However accounts bouncing mail in this manner are definately likely to see them suspended as well. If you're using a free MSN/Hotmail/Live address please be on notice.

[Urban-Cruiser]

I have another problem. I dont even kno my password that i use on here. I automatic log-in.

[BlakJak]

bugger. if you ping admins@toyspeed an email we can sort that for you.

[solitaire]

However accounts bouncing mail in this manner are definately likely to see them suspended as well. If you're using a free MSN/Hotmail/Live address please be on notice.

Can you let us know who is bouncing? impossible to tell from this end unless it was bouncing every email.

[mr30%jr]

if post something it comes up with annoying debug message, you can find out who buy clicking the debug

[BlakJak]

However accounts bouncing mail in this manner are definately likely to see them suspended as well. If you're using a free MSN/Hotmail/Live address please be on notice.

Can you let us know who is bouncing? impossible to tell from this end unless it was bouncing every email.

With several thousand users to check, i'm not going to start a name-and-shame.
People should know if the email address they have attached to their forum profile doesn't work! Why would you only be bouncing _some_ emails?

[BlakJak]

if post something it comes up with annoying debug message, you can find out who buy clicking the debug

The debug error only comes up if the forum software gets a hard response back from its mail server, which in turn will only be useful if the problem recipient is on the same server. For 99% of the recipients this likely wont be the case.

[solitaire]

People should know if the email address they have attached to their forum profile doesn't work! Why would you only be bouncing _some_ emails?

Hotmail.* and live.* addresses regularly seem to bounce with 'mailbox unavailable'.

The use of the word "regularly" implied "often, but not always" to me, but ill take it from your reply that a hotmail account either has constant issues or not at all.

[BlakJak]

People should know if the email address they have attached to their forum profile doesn't work! Why would you only be bouncing _some_ emails?

Hotmail.* and live.* addresses regularly seem to bounce with 'mailbox unavailable'.

The use of the word "regularly" implied "often, but not always" to me, but ill take it from your reply that a hotmail account either has constant issues or not at all.

See also my earlier edit:

[Edit: Appears this happens when the email address expires (usually due to inactivity on the part of the account holder). So there you go.]

For 6 months post 'deactivation' the account can be reactivated by the original 'passport' holder. I presume this is why addresses are seen to die then come back to life. On the whole however when theyre dead, they stay dead for long enough that i'd look at disabling forum accounts for those that come to my attention.

[solitaire]

...On the whole however when theyre dead...

Ah right, understood. Cheers for that.

[BlakJak]

Updated Policy

Due to ever-increasing volume of bounces due to email addresses becoming invalid, I'm going to start adopting a take-no-prisoners stance here.
If your forum account becomes suspended or inactive, email admins@toyspeed with a query... because I'm going to start suspending accounts with invalid email addresses.

The number of bounces I'm receiving per day is staggering.

[fuel]

So just to clarify, people who signed up with free accounts yonks ago, and are receiving notification e-mails and not bouncing back stuff is fine right?