After posting to forums this morning, I got two autoresponders (of the type--I'm away from my email........) from a forum member. Good god, I get enough email without having to deal with that! It's also rather ironic, since I looked up this person under participants and she has her email address blocked--but now I know it!
I suppose there is no way the forum code could be set to block an autoresponder coming back after posting--is there?
In reply to Chardelle Busch
Re: Block email autoresponders from forum participants
by Robert Brenstein -
Hmm, an interesting case from point of view of logic. I doubt that anything can be really done to prevent it. User's turning on autoresponder negates her privacy setting otherwise.Properly configured autoresponders should ignore forum and mailing list posts but many vacation-responders have no such an option and even fewer users know how to configure that if they even know they should do it.
Have you checked the original mail headers if they were included in the autoresponse? I think that while the receipient has blocked her email from displaying in Moodle, you did not, so the mail was sent with your email address as sender, and probably also as reply-to, and that is what the autoresponder used.
Possibly setting reply-to to noreply@yourmoodledomain could swart such a response from reaching you but a novice email user may also try to reply to it and wonder that you never got it. Plus, some mailers may use the from address anyway (some have a switch whether use from or reply-to by default).
Have you checked the original mail headers if they were included in the autoresponse? I think that while the receipient has blocked her email from displaying in Moodle, you did not, so the mail was sent with your email address as sender, and probably also as reply-to, and that is what the autoresponder used.
Possibly setting reply-to to noreply@yourmoodledomain could swart such a response from reaching you but a novice email user may also try to reply to it and wonder that you never got it. Plus, some mailers may use the from address anyway (some have a switch whether use from or reply-to by default).
In reply to Robert Brenstein
Re: Block email autoresponders from forum participants
by Chardelle Busch -
Thanks Robert,
That helps explain it. Her mail server is most likely not setup properly. My post was sent to her email address, and then the autoresponder came to me from her mail server and her address.
Obviously if I had my email address hidden, then the autoresponder would have gone to noreply@moodle.org. Moodle is setup so that the forum posts come from the poster's email if their email address is visible and from noreply if they are hidden. What's the logic behind this?
Maybe there needs to be another option in config variables forcing all posts to come from no-reply whether the email address is hidden or visible--that makes sense to me, since you don't want anybody replying to you directly (e.g. accidentally hitting reply in your email program instead of the reply link in the post) anyway but you may still want your email address visible in your profile.
Another forum I belong to does it that way--the posts come from the site even though anyone can email me directly by going to my profile page. Anybody know how other discussion/forums do it? E.g. Yahoo groups.
That helps explain it. Her mail server is most likely not setup properly. My post was sent to her email address, and then the autoresponder came to me from her mail server and her address.
Obviously if I had my email address hidden, then the autoresponder would have gone to noreply@moodle.org. Moodle is setup so that the forum posts come from the poster's email if their email address is visible and from noreply if they are hidden. What's the logic behind this?
Maybe there needs to be another option in config variables forcing all posts to come from no-reply whether the email address is hidden or visible--that makes sense to me, since you don't want anybody replying to you directly (e.g. accidentally hitting reply in your email program instead of the reply link in the post) anyway but you may still want your email address visible in your profile.
Another forum I belong to does it that way--the posts come from the site even though anyone can email me directly by going to my profile page. Anybody know how other discussion/forums do it? E.g. Yahoo groups.
Hi Chardelle!
That sounds like a good feature request.
WP1
In reply to Chardelle Busch
Re: Block email autoresponders from forum participants
by Marc Dastous -
I apologize for the cross post but this is a problem...
Many have posted on the bounced back emails from Forum postings. I have pin pointed where my bounced back forum email problem is occurring. Using the internal settings for Moodle email (not SMTP), the forum emails are sent to the mail server, our SPAM regulator kills the messages because more than 30 messages are sent in a 5 second time span from a single address (the user).
The only way I can fix this is to have a specified email that the forum messages come from; not the user who posted the message. For example, forums@mysite.com.
How can I achieve this? I realize that copying EVERY user email address to the spam regulator, for every site I manage, is a solution but let's get real, that's just not possible. There must be a section of code to define $from as a specific email address and make it configurable. My coding skills are getting better, but not there yet.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated with the new term about to start.
Marc
In reply to Marc Dastous
Re: Block email autoresponders from forum participants
by Chardelle Busch -
Hi Marc, et al.
I just posted this in the bugtracker, if you want to add anything:
Bug #3762 - Have all forum post emails come from noreply address
I got another autoresponder yesterday from a course participant that goes like this: Thank you for your recent email. My inbox is protected by ChoiceMail One, the leader in anti-spam technology. ChoiceMail is holding the message you sent because your email address is not on my list of approved senders.
Please click on the link below. This will take you to a sender verification page. Sender verification is a one-time process which takes only a few seconds. This will let me add you to my list of approved senders and receive your original email.
One of the big problems with these autoresponders is that they come with the Moodle discussion subject, thus making it very confusing for users, I think. Another problem is for the users who are sending the autoresponders. E.g., do they even know these are going out and possibly causing problems for them receiving posts, or having their "hidden" email addresses revealed?
I just posted this in the bugtracker, if you want to add anything:
Bug #3762 - Have all forum post emails come from noreply address
I got another autoresponder yesterday from a course participant that goes like this: Thank you for your recent email. My inbox is protected by ChoiceMail One, the leader in anti-spam technology. ChoiceMail is holding the message you sent because your email address is not on my list of approved senders.
Please click on the link below. This will take you to a sender verification page. Sender verification is a one-time process which takes only a few seconds. This will let me add you to my list of approved senders and receive your original email.
One of the big problems with these autoresponders is that they come with the Moodle discussion subject, thus making it very confusing for users, I think. Another problem is for the users who are sending the autoresponders. E.g., do they even know these are going out and possibly causing problems for them receiving posts, or having their "hidden" email addresses revealed?