Subscriptions & Email Lists

Using Subscriptions
Creating Email Lists
Troubleshooting
Resources

Using Subscriptions

Web Crossing allows registered users to "subscribe" to various folders and discussions. What this means is that the software will track which messages they've read and show them only the new messages.

You can allow users to do any or none of the following:

• subscribe by web - users either go to the Message Center for a list of their new messages, or click Check Subscriptions in the toolbar on any page. Each time Check Subscriptions is clicked, the users will be taken directly to the next new message on their list without having to return to the Message Center in between.
• subscribe to email for individual posts - users receive whole posts in email
• subscribe to email notification for individual posts - users receive links back to the forum and notification that a post has been made, but must visit the forum to read the new messages. Users will not receive further notification until they have visited the forum and read the unread messages. This prevents spamming people with notification messages before they are ready to visit.
• subscribe to email digests - users receive an email digest of all new posts, arranged by discussion, emailed at the time of their choice.

To enable these various options, go to Control Panel > General Settings. The email-related settings can also be reached via the Email Services panel.

You must also enable SMTP outgoing services and set a valid URL in the Control Panel > Email Services panel if you have selected any of the email options.

Figure 1 - Subscription settings in the control panel

Users can subscribe to everything, nothing, or any combination of subscription methods.

• To subscribe to the whole site, click Subscribe to All in the top-level folder.
• To subscribe to one folder or discussion, click Subscribe within that folder or discussion.
• To cancel or change a subscription, click either Cancel all Subscriptions (to cancel all subscriptions) or Cancel Subscription/Change Subscription (to cancel a subscription to one folder or one discussion or change subscription methods).

A user's list of subscribed-to areas and subscription methods is at the bottom of his or her Preferences page. At the bottom of the preferences page the user can mark all subscribed-to folders and discussions "as read" if there are numerous messages she or he doesn't wish to read.

Figure 2 - Screenshot from a user's Preferences page > Subscriptions

Figure 3 - Email Notification Settings

Users have the choice (if you have enabled both options) to get URL notification or full posts in email.

Also, digests can be sent out whenever users choose. All times are local to the user. People can sign up for as many digests per day as they wish. The default is 2am.

Digests are sent out one per folder. Replies to posts received in a digest must always be made via the web to ensure that replies end up in the correct discussion.

Creating Email Lists

A folder creator can choose whether to allow users to send email posts back to the forum, creating a complete round-trip email list from the folder if enabled.

Any emails with a subject line matching an existing discussion title (after any "re:" or "fwd:" text is stripped), are appended to the existing discussion. Emails with nonmatching subject lines create a new discussion.

All posts received in a digest must be replied to via the web no matter what the other settings are. This is to ensure that the reply is apprended to the correct discussion.

Troubleshooting

I'm not being notified of new messages in folders or discussions I think I'm subscribed to.

• Check your subscription list on your Preferences page and resubscribe if necessary
• If you have email subscriptions selected make sure you have SMTP outgoing enabled and an email address selected in Preferences.

If users are getting errors when trying to use the Message Center or Check Subscriptions.

• This is sometimes an issue with NT servers or those behind firewalls. The fix is to fill in the "Server Name and "Host Name Alias" fields in the Control Panel > General Settings pane. See more detailed information about this issue in the Web Crossing FAQ.

Resources

Sysop Documentation

• syshelp.htm#Tracking