End of year email...

[Andy R]

I think it would be good if we sent out an email in December wishing our fellow members a happy holiday season and maybe a few other tidbits highlighting discussions in our community. It would be great to let them know about the new FAQ section and even congratulate our members who reach ER or FI in 2007. Do we have any writers that would like to help with this project?

Regards,

Andy R

 

[Nords]

Andy, lemme make sure we understand this from the recipient's perspective:

Are you proposing to use E-R.org to generate spam?!?

 

[Goonie]

I think those who show up here on the E-R forum have a fairly good idea of what's going on, and those that haven't been showing up here are probably indifferent to what's been going on. If individual members want to email or PM other members that they've become endeared to, and give them holiday greetings that's fine. However, I currently get enough unsolicated email, and don't really need a 'forum' generated mailing.

If thye 'powers that be' feel a holiday newsletter is necessary, just post it in this "Forum Admin" section. Otherwise, just 'opt' me out of the mass emailing.

The above is just my personal opinion.

Goon

 

[Meadbh]

No. NO. NOOOO!

It's a FORUM. Let it alone!

 

[retire@40]

Since I wish a slow painful death to all those who send me the hundred or so spam emails every day, I do not want to put you in that category. So I kindly vote no to this idea.

 

[brewer12345]

Bad idea.

 

[JDARNELL]

I kind of agree. No email. However you might could put some type of banner/message on the top of the site for a couple of days with some type of Holiday greeting/message if you wanted? Or not?

Tomcat98

 

[CybrMike]

I for one, would love an email. Man you guys are so Bah Humbug.

 

[packrat44]

Negative!!!!

 

[Andy R]

The idea is not to SPAM our members. An opt out option is available to everyone in your UserCP >> Options (link) and uncheck "Receive Email from Administrators". I will need to send an email to everyone when I post the Privacy Statement (should be ready soon) and would like to include an update including the new FAQs, other active threads, etc. This has been very effective on other forums because sometimes a quality member who joined a couple years ago forgot about our community and often a nice community email will give them a friendly reminder to come back and join in the discussions. There will be an opt out in all the emails and we will always comply with SPAM laws.

 

[haha]

Be sure to send one to John Galt

he may be waiting for just this sort of personal invitation to return.

Ha

 

[clifp]

I am with Andy on this. Honestly, a yearly email for an organization that you signed up for an opted into recieve admin emails is far cry from SPAM.

I know I've signed up for various forums and forget about them, I can't imagine being upset about one time email, saying hello and oh by the way we've added XYZ, and a bit of a status update is fine.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

When I left the admin messages box checked, I didnt think it was so I could receive marketing messages but rather important messages about forum administration related issues.

How about we add a nice opt-in "Would you like to get informational and promotional emails from e-r.org" email check box?

I'm getting about 50 unsolicited emails per day, and up to 50 spam messages. Thats enough.

 

[Nords]

The idea is not to SPAM our members. An opt out option is available to everyone in your UserCP >> Options (link) and uncheck "Receive Email from Administrators".

I think there's a semantic and a content difference between:
"Receive official e-mail from administrators telling you about server/software problems or policy changes or other major issues of importance to your discussion-board experience."

and

"Sign up for our free newsletter!!"

So, if you're going to forge ahead on this project, I'd appreciate the extra button allowing us to opt out of all but official notifications. But if you're only going to leave one button to turn off everything then I'll check that one.

This has been very effective on other forums...

I'm still confused by what E-R.org has in common with the other SocialKnowledge communities, with the possible exception of the Airstream forums. I wouldn't expect that what works on the fashion or the royals forum would have the same appeal to this crowd.

 

[SC]

I think there's a semantic and a content difference between:
"Receive official e-mail from administrators telling you about server/software problems or policy changes or other major issues of importance to your discussion-board experience."

and

"Sign up for our free newsletter!!"

What Nords said. My interpretation of the opt-in was for the former, and what Andy wants to do sounds like the latter. Okay, a yearly newsletter is a drop in the bucket compared to the other email I have to process, but IMHO it would be a lot better if it were simply posted on the site.

 

[Andy R]

I'm still confused by what E-R.org has in common with the other SocialKnowledge communities, with the possible exception of the Airstream forums. I wouldn't expect that what works on the fashion or the royals forum would have the same appeal to this crowd.

Actually I have not sent emails like the one stated on the fashion or royal site. The sites that have sent them are Discuss Cooking, Mountain Buzz (link to example) & Cruisers Forum (sailing). The most frequent was like 4 times per year on the cooking site and the least frequent was once in 2 years on Cruisers Forum. The idea is simply to reach out and update our members in an effort to see if we can engage some of them to participate again. There will be no ads, just info about our community.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I think the "disenaged members" fall into three distinct categories.

1. People who came by and after a brief look-see forgot about it. They might come back for another look-see and probably forget about it again.

2. People who left because they were sick of the political threads or some other horsepuckey and decided to take their posting energies elsewhere. Unrooting them from where they've roosted is probably not going to happen. Thats a bummer.

3. A bunch of former trolls, miscreants and other thrilling types who had 3-30 separate accounts set up to harass people and finally got run out of town. They'll enjoy the reminder(s) that they havent been by to be bothersome in a long time and should stop by to share some of their holiday cheer. One of them killed a pair of forums and a separate duo killed a third forum.

So...good luck with that. I already unchecked the box on my profile. I've already enjoyed throwing away 26 pieces of spam today.

 

[Goonie]

I think there's a semantic and a content difference between:
"Receive official e-mail from administrators telling you about server/software problems or policy changes or other major issues of importance to your discussion-board experience."

and

"Sign up for our free newsletter!!"

So, if you're going to forge ahead on this project, I'd appreciate the extra button allowing us to opt out of all but official notifications. But if you're only going to leave one button to turn off everything then I'll check that one.

DITTO!

 

[Goonie]

An opt out option is available to everyone in your UserCP >> Options (link) and uncheck "Receive Email from Administrators".

Thanks for the reminder of the [-]SPAM[/-] email opt-out option.

I will need to send an email to everyone when I post the Privacy Statement........

Again, couldn't that just be posted here in the "Forum Admin" section? Does it really NEED to be in email form?

 

[pfpelican]

Thanks for the reminder of the [-]SPAM[/-] email opt-out option.

DITTO

 

[Nords]

The idea is simply to reach out and update our members in an effort to see if we can engage some of them to participate again.

Among the relentless quest for eyeballs & subsequent clicks, consider this: a number of rabble-rousing posters have elected to leave E-R.org before they were banned, or have at least agreed to be silent. What possible benefit, especially to the moderators, is served by reminding them that we're still here and that we'd like to engage them in some exchanges of holiday spirit?

I think the E-R.org membership has demonstrated time and again that we prefer to not be marketed to and that we would like to exert a modicum of control over the amount of attention we attract to ourselves. Discussing early-retirement goals and financial management is not the same as swapping recipes and outdoor recreation stories.

How about this compromise: use those admin/tech powers to uncheck all the "Receive Email from Administrators" boxes in all the E-R.org user accounts. Everyone here who's really interested in getting E-R.org mail (and I think that's a small minority of the total members) will have to opt in again to receive admin e-mail. Better yet, the people who we no longer wish to talk to will be allowed to remain blissfully ignorant.

 

[SteveR]

I would rather see a forum-wide stickie than receive yet another notification that my SPAM net caught yet another one. I also agree with NORDS on the concern about dredging up some former muck we all had to endure for months or years before they finally left the board. I would hate to see the board subjected to these types again and a APB email would do just that.

If a Holiday (aka Christmas and New Years) email is desired by management then I would request it be posted on the board and not emailed.

 

[Khan]

I would rather see a forum-wide stickie than receive yet another notification that my SPAM net caught yet another one. I also agree with NORDS on the concern about dredging up some former muck we all had to endure for months or years before they finally left the board. I would hate to see the board subjected to these types again and a APB email would do just that.

If a Holiday (aka Christmas and New Years) email is desired by management then I would request it be posted on the board and not emailed.

I'll vote with the post option.

 

[haha]

I'll vote with the post option.

Whatchu mean option? We ain't heard about no stinkin' option.
Ha

 

[Nords]

Whatchu mean option? We ain't heard about no stinkin' option.
Ha

That's because neither of our IP addresses have been clicking on ads.