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Title: PA e-mail Newsletter relaunched Post by S J Birkill on Today at 10:07 I've now set up the new distribution system for Pete's occasional e-mail newsletter, as promised here (http://www.peteatkin.com/cgi-bin/mv/YaBB.cgi?board=newsletter;action=display;num=1289877900). In case anyone is still unaware of the Newsletter, I'll just say that it operates quite independently of MV, Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121229350012), and everything else, and has its own circulation list. It is an announcement-only mailing list -- there is no ability for subscribers to add their own comments -- and Pete himself decides when to create and transmit each message. There is no schedule: Pete isn't about to fill your mailbox with empty chatter or spam advertising; he'll initiate a message only when he has potentially interesting news to impart. So he could (if he chose) send out two editions in one day and then not release another for two years. If you want to know more, see Pete's introduction here (http://www.peteatkin.com/cgi-bin/mv/YaBB.cgi?board=newsletter;action=display;num=1107800419) or browse the Newsletter archive (http://www.peteatkin.com/mv/newsletter.php). The subscription procedure has changed. Previously, you were asked to send an e-mail to a subscription address, <newsletter@peteatkin.com>, whereupon your address was added manually. That address is no longer valid. Instead, you simply complete a Web form (on the newly updated Smash Flops page, here (http://www.peteatkin.com/pa.htm#newsletter)) with your name and e-mail address, then click a link in the ensuing verification e-mail. If you haven't subscribed before, the list is now open. If you're a current newsletter subscriber, you will, because of anti-spam rules, be asked to reconfirm your wish to receive mailings from Pete. This request will be sent by automated e-mail to all previous subscribers in the next few days. Please await this message -- I'll announce it here -- rather than completing the Web form, or you may end up with two subscriptions. If you don't receive the request and think you should have done, or perhaps you're unsure whether you originally signed up with an address that's still valid, I will only then (in my next message) ask you to resubscribe. Got it? That's about it, I think. Steve |
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Title: Re: PA e-mail Newsletter relaunched Post by S J Birkill on 02.02.11 at 01:00 So... 425 addresses from Pete's old newsletter list have been entered to the new system, and an "invitation to resubscribe by clicking this link" message has gone out to each of those addresses. To this moment, 257 people have confirmed their wish to continue receiving the newsletter. 22 of the invitation e-mails have bounced -- undeliverable for one reason or another. The remaining 146 have not yet responded. Three subscribers have already used the Web form: two to update their e-mail addresses and one to subscribe for the first time. "No response" could mean the recipient has decided not to continue receiving the newsletter: in this case the correct response is no response. Or it could mean that the message has not reached him or her. Not all undelivered messages bounce: often a user will change ISPs or mail providers, advise his contacts (or at least the important ones) of the change, and simply cease to collect mail from the old mailbox. The ISP doesn't always delete the user immediately. The mailbox then continues to fill up with spam, and only when it eventually reaches its preset limit will bounce messages be returned. Apparent nondelivery may also result from spam filters, either server- or client-side. Those adopting the strictest anti-spam policies, such as "only allow messages from existing ('address book') contacts" may well find (or usually not) mails from addresses such as <news(at)peteatkin(dot)com> directed into their 'Trash' folders, with no notification to the sender. All leading to this: if you've been receiving Pete's newsletter in the past but haven't over the last 48 hours had an invitation to resubscribe, now is the time to wander over to the "Smash Flops" Website, front page, http://www.peteatkin.com/pa.htm (http://www.peteatkin.com/pa.htm), scroll about three-quarters of the way down, to the heading "Relaunch of the Pete Atkin e-mail newsletter", enter your name and address on the two lines provided, and hit "SUBSCRIBE". And if you operate a spam filter, please check that it will pass messages from <news(at)peteatkin(dot)com>. A special note for those 'bouncers': the e-mail addresses we have for you, both from Pete's old list and (if you're a member -- many are not current 'MV's) from your MV registration, don't seem to work. The following should use the Web form if wishing to resubscribe: Andy Richardson, Barry Wilkes, Brian Shorthouse, Bryan Howorth, David Jones (Sweden), David Read, David S Baillie, Elaine Blackman, Ghislaine C Bradley, Grahame Pearson, Keith Watkins, Kprenty, Michael Millar, Mick Fitzsimmons, Mike Wheeler, Oliver Bolland, Peter Summersgill, Richard Moxham, Ronald MacRae, Sara Gerbi, Steve Grantham, Terry Kelly. I'll advise Pete he can resume Newsletter operations, though he may choose to wait a while to allow more stragglers to renew. Steve |
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Title: Re: PA e-mail Newsletter relaunched Post by S J Birkill on 02.02.11 at 12:29 Just a note on amending your Newsletter delivery address. The correct routine is to: 1. Go to the Web form, http://www.peteatkin.com/pa.htm#newsletter (http://www.peteatkin.com/pa.htm#newsletter); 2. Enter your old e-mail address; 3. Hit 'Unsubscribe'; 4. Wait for the 'Unsubscribed' confirmation page; 5. Step back to the Web form; 6. Enter your name and your new e-mail address; 7. Wait for the 'Subscribed' confirmation page. You're done! Steve |
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Title: Re: PA e-mail Newsletter relaunched Post by Ian Ashleigh on 11.02.11 at 22:56 Hi Steve Am I being thick? If I haven't changed my e-mail address, do I have to go through the above rourine to keep recieving the newsletter? With apologies Ian |
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Title: Re: PA e-mail Newsletter relaunched Post by S J Birkill on 12.02.11 at 00:12 Hello Ian I don't think so, and no. You were on the original list, maintained by Pete, so your address was one of the 425 mentioned above that were transferred to the new mailing list database on January 30th. In keeping with the host's anti-spam policy you were sent an automated message, requiring you to click on a Web link to confirm your wish to receive (in your case to continue to receive) the newsletter. This you did, at 20:34 on the 30th -- you were among the first to do so -- and your browser was directed to a page looking something like this (http://www.peteatkin.com/newsletter/news-subscribed.php). You don't need to do any more. The 'routine' detailed above (in my previous message) is, as stated, only for those wishing to amend their e-mail addresses. Most newsletter recipients signed up in early 2005. Inevitably, since then some will have a new 'preferred' address, though they may still check the old one. If such a person receives the request to confirm via an old address, he or she may wish to use the form to update the address on file. Hence the instructions. Eight list members have already done this, though a couple of them have added a new address without deleting the old. Much more common are the addresses which have fallen into disuse -- the mailbox has not been removed by the provider so its address is still valid and doesn't generate a 'bounce' response. But the user has moved on to a new provider and no longer collects mail from the old address. So he hasn't received his invitation to confirm; unless he reads MV he probably won't realise he's off circulation. Currently, and not counting actual bounces, there are 123 addresses, of which 43 belong to current MV members, for which the invitation mail has seen no response. Some of these may have decided not to continue receiving the newsletter, but I'm guessing most have, for whatever reason, not read the invitation. I could check for correspondence between MV members' registered addresses and those in the 'no shows' of the newsletter database, and mail them at their more recent address with a reminder. But how many MVs have updated their addresses since they joined? I'm not going to lose any sleep over this -- the information is here for all to see, the form is on the Website. Let those interested sign themselves up. So, thanks to the 286 responders, including yourself Ian, who will definitely be sent Pete's next newsletter. I shall now go and do something else. Steve [Added parenthesis: clarification phrase] |
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Title: Re: PA e-mail Newsletter relaunched Post by Pete Atkin on 14.02.11 at 09:44 I must apologise to all of those who have loyally confirmed their membership of the new newsletter mailing list and who have specially taken their tenterhooks out of storage in expectation of a communication from me to verify the new system. I have been and am still a bit tied up with urgent day-job matters, viz. the all too predictable last-minute casting scramble for the recording of a new play for BBC Radio 3 (a first for me) which is due to take place early next week. I'll then be out of circulation for a few days, and then fairly intensively involved in compiling and editing and mastering the recordings as soon as possible as the transmission deadline comes up quickly. However, I shall do my cotton-pickin' best to get a message of some sort out this week. I have been building up a bit of stock in my long-term project of getting as many of the songs as possible down on virtual paper in lead sheet form, so I'll get the PDFs to that nice Mr Birkill and let you know which ones they are in a new newsletter. I know this isn't something that's of huge interest perhaps to most MVs, but if there should be any song in particular that someone's interested in seeing in this form, I'll be pleased to bring it to the top of my lead sheet to-do list. |
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