[wp-hackers] Email system revamp

[Peter Westwood]

On Mon, November 6, 2006 1:41 pm, Andy Beard wrote:
> Someone commenting on a blog has to leave an email address, and using some
> plugins also has an option to have followup emails sent to them.
>
> This isn't an ideal system - it is actually very dangerous
>

I don't see why it is so bad.

> Here is a better way for it all to be integrated
>
> When you place a comment you have exactly the same interface as it is now.
> (with the plugin for followups)
>
> When you post a comment, a copy of what you posted is sent back to you by
> email

I don't want an email sent to me for every comment I leave on someones
blogs - that is useless info.

> If you reqested followups to the message, you will be provided with a link
> to click to confirm the subscription to the comments.
>
> Comments are only sent to you if you have confirmed it

This only serves to validate that the commenter owns the email address -
it's a nicety rather than a necessity.

> The current system works, but is liable to spam complaints. Lots of people
> using email services like AOL tend to hit the "this is spam" button
> instead
> of the delete button.
>

This can only be solved by educating the user - they requested the emails
by checking the check box.

> This would be especially true if you posted a comment to a post,
> subscribed,
> and then the comments exploded with 500 comments in a few hours (it
> happens).
>
> Every implementation of the subscribe to thread I have seen so far doesn't
> provide you with a link to remove your subscription.
>

Well as far as I recall Mark's excellent subscribe-to-comments has a link
to manage your subscriptions in the emails it send.

> I am not sure how complex it will be to do this correctly, or whether my
> current programmers are up to the task based on experience to date. In a
> few
> months they will have more familiarity with the core, and it would be a
> more
> realistic undertaking.
>
> The plugins currently available are a liability. Spam complaints can
> affect
> email deliverability, or at worst people's domain names can be frozen,
> especially using popular registrars such as Go Daddy.
>
> Go Daddy have every right to protect against spam complaints, but it
> shouldn't be caused by Wordpress, or the poor design of existing plugins.

I don't see any of these as being the type of complexity that needs adding
to the core.

westi
-- 
Peter Westwood <peter.westwood at ftwr.co.uk>
http://blog.ftwr.co.uk