Mail dead, user lost password

[Robert9]

A typical scenario: A user registers on the forum in 2018. At some point in 2020, they buy a new computer, and the forum continues to work as they know their password. In 2022, their email provider deletes the email account due to inactivity. In 2024, the user buys a new computer and has no idea what their password is.

Wouldn't it be great if users were notified when their email address appears to be non-functional (bounced), and were advised to update their email address to a working one? This would be useful not only to help users keep their accounts accessible but also to save me time managing these issues.

Do we have a solution for this?

 

[Old Nick]

How many users could be concerned by this scenario for 1,000 users?

Losing access to your email due to inactivity is not common. Not having your password saved in your browser is quite rare. Not being able to find a password in 2024 when everything is stored in the cloud is not common either.

 

[Paul B]

Do we have a solution for this?

Yes.

A notice.

What's more, it's automatically displayed for members who have email addresses which are bouncing.

 

[Robert9]

in 2024 when everything is stored in the cloud is not common either

What is the cloud? I’ve never heard of it. In my world, we stay away from things like that.

What's more, it's automatically displayed for members who have email addresses which are bouncing.

I just had a hard bounce in the log and checked the user’s account, but there was no notice. Could it be that the notification will come later with a cron job?

 

[Mr Lucky]

What is the cloud? I’ve never heard of it

It just means servers networked on the internet basically. People may store their logins, passwords and preferences securely on the cloud and so even when they get a new computer, they can still use them.

It’s almost like magic, you buy a new iPhone and all your stuff gets restored onto it from the cloud. It solves all the problems you have referred to above.

 

[Old Nick]

What is the cloud? I’ve never heard of it. In my world, we stay away from things like that.

Were you talking about yourself or your users?

I just had a hard bounce in the log and checked the user’s account, but there was no notice. Could it be that the notification will come later with a cron job?

He was talking about configuring a notice that is displayed according to the criterion "email addresses is bouncing"

 

[Paul B]

It’s almost like magic, you buy a new iPhone and all your stuff gets hacked and put onto 8chan ...

 

[Paul B]

He was talking about configuring a notice that is displayed according to the criterion "email addresses is bouncing"

It is displayed automatically for accounts with the bounced email status.

 

[Suzanne O]

I usually pm the user to let them know that their email address is bouncing.

 

[Old Nick]

I didn't know. Thanks.

 

[Robert9]

I have sent 268 private messages to 268 users with bounced emails. I’m concerned that 99.99% of these individuals may never have seen the notice about their mail status.

This seems like a situation where a skilled programmer could add some useful features, such as:

• The ability to write a private message and/or
• an alert for the user automatically and/or
• setting the account status to {whatever} until the user provides a working email address and/or
• displaying an on-screen message that says: "Please provide a working email address!"

I understand that those working with cloud services might not fully grasp this issue, but the only clouds we really care about are the ones that bring rain.

That’s why I believe a small, useful add-on like this could be very beneficial and would be greatly appreciated by many. In one to two years, I will have it ready to match XenForo 3.0.

We go through a lot of trouble to get people to register, and once they’re in the forum, we just let them lose email contact? No way!

 

[Paul B]

• setting the account status to {whatever} until the user provides a working email address and/or
• displaying an on-screen message that says: "Please provide a working email address!"

XF already does this.

 

[Alpha1]

The ability to write a private message and/or

A ticket system is much more useful for support IMHO and can be found here:

Tickets

Oct 16, 2019

Full-fledged support system solution for XenForo 2.

• Naz
• Add-ons [2.x]

It will also allow you to reply to such cases with a template reply that has all bases covered.

an alert for the user automatically and/or

Setting a notice is better IMHO. Its much more visible.

That’s why I believe a small, useful add-on like this could be very beneficial and would be greatly appreciated by many.

The functionality you ask for is already available. But you may find the following addon useful. It adds very useful mail functionality and mail validation, bounce / complain management, etc:

[DBTech] DragonByte Mail

Nov 29, 2017

Create newsletter emails to your members.

• DragonByte Tech
• mail mailing list newsletter vbmail
• Add-ons [2.x]

 

[Digital Doctor]

I usually pm the user to let them know that their email address is bouncing.

Sounds like a good idea for xenforo or an addon maker.

If emails = bouncing, and last PM for emails = bouncing > 90 days, PM user

Or same criteria above but send the notice to the admin when the user and admin are online at the same time.

 

[Suzanne O]

Sounds like a good idea for xenforo or an addon maker.

If emails = bouncing, and last PM for emails = bouncing > 90 days, PM user

Or same criteria above but send the notice to the admin when the user and admin are online at the same time.

Yeah maybe.
I have it in my rules that if you sign up with an invalid email you will be pm'd and asked to change it to a valid email address

 

[Robert9]

I checked, and it doesn't require a large add-on. You just need an additional option in /admin.php?notices/ to display a notice to users with bounced emails.

Alternatively, you could move them to a specific group first and then create the notice.

It really depends on how much you want to prompt the user. An alert can be easily overlooked, a message quickly forgotten, but a notice stays on the screen until the issue is resolved. So, for me, that’s the solution.

I just don’t know whether it would be more resource-efficient to work with a group or to create a new query for notices directly. Does anyone know?

 

[Paul B]

You just need an additional option in /admin.php?notices/ to display a notice to users with bounced emails.

Are you reading responses?

XF already automatically displays a notice for that.

If you want an additional notice you can create one manually using the existing criterion:

 

[Robert9]

Actually, I misunderstood you and assumed you meant an alert; because the users I tested randomly don’t have a notice on their screen.

Now that you mention it, I can see the criteria as well. It's different from a select box in the user search, which is why I didn’t notice it. I was just about to address this with an add-on and an extension for helper_criteria. Now I can skip that, great. Thanks.

 

[Robert9]

You're absolutely right; there is a notice. But if I hadn't been determined to find it, I would have barely noticed it. I suspect that many users overlook it daily as well. How can I assign a different CSS style to the notice? I want to make sure people see it without a doubt.