[Notice] Email Fix Live

13

Comments

  • DreadGazebo
    DreadGazebo
    Posts: 218
    FWIW. Not that this is the problem, but Alex should probably know. Campaigns with subdomains that are longer than 64 characters tend to bug out. Little tidbit (among many) from having 5 years under my belt behind the scenes.
  • Unknown
    Thanks much Jerry - I have seen this come up and I was wondering about the limit on that, good to know you established it at 64.

    Tech just informed me they have instated another fix for the email, so if folks can begin testing again and report back so I can get a picture of what is still remaining (hopefully not a darn thing). I'll be posting a blog note about this and on some of our many tickets when I get back up from a little sleep.
  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998
    So how many people tested this time, or are we still in "a few people tested, lets roll it out" mode?

    Just trying to help out.

  • Unknown
    These are isolated issues on specific accounts so we had to review the logs and apply a fix. We have been unable to recreate the issues with our test accounts, so we don't really have the ability to internally test it.
  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998
    Not isolated, still not working.

    Just trying to help out.

  • andrew_engstrom
    andrew_engstrom
    Posts: 3
    For what it's worth, my users are now telling me that they are receiving emails from the site. I'll call it fixed, but on probation.

    As a software guy myself, I'm curious about what the issue was. Are you able to give a high level summary?
  • SkidAce
    SkidAce
    Posts: 830
    I would be interested in a high level summary also, it would lend substance to the way ahead. Instead of generalities.
  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998
    I would just like it to work for everyone.

    Just trying to help out.

  • twiggyleaf
    twiggyleaf
    Posts: 2,006 edited October 2015
    OP Email Notification Test 3 Oct 2015

    SECOND TEST 1 and SECOND TEST 2

    These are two tests run from my MYSTERIA Forum after the reported fix by Alex on the TECH UPDATE "Email Notification Fix" of 2 October 2015.
    (Using Google Chrome on a (new) WINDOWS 10 operating system and sending my own notifications to an Outlook account with an "@live.co.uk" address)

    The two tests differ in that SECOND TEST 1 is the normal post and send method, whereas SECOND TEST 2 is my own fix of post and send, go back into edit mode, select "Email All" and send again. (I will point out that doing this involves another workaround because the names of the players are not visible and you have to click on what seems like just a squiggly line to open up the tick boxes for the players) - IS THIS PARTICULR ISSUE ALSO BEING ADDRESSED????

    Anyway, I will add my report below and then add those of my players as they reply to me over the next couple of days.

    Report from USERNAME twiggyleaf:
    SECOND TEST 1: No Notification!
    SECOND TEST 2: Normal notification in INBOX! (Yay!)

    Report from USERNAME Morrison:
    I got SECOND TEST 1 and 2 as notifications in my normal email inbox.

    Report from USERNAME stigandr:
    SECOND TEST 2 only

    (Alex, please comment on issue of visibility of player tick boxes above)

    twiggyleaf
    CURRENT CAMPAIGN: "Mysteria":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/mysteria - set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
    Previous CotM Aug 2012: "Shimring":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shimring
    Post edited by twiggyleaf on

    "I met a traveller from an antique land....."

    CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.

    Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign

    Inner Council Member

  • bluesguy
    bluesguy
    Posts: 127
    Email notifications is working for me now at least to gmail.
  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998
    Tested again today- still not working for yahoo accounts.

    Just trying to help out.

  • SkidAce
    SkidAce
    Posts: 830
    About a year ago (or longer), email notifications stopped working for me, but everyone else seemed to have no problems. But something had changed and I wasnt receiving them any more.

    In discussion I noticed that a lot of issues had Yahoo in common (not all).

    I changed my gaming email to hotmail instead of yahoo, and I immediately started getting the notifications again.

    Of course when we all lost them recently, I lost them also, but got them back when most everyone did.

    In short, about a year or more ago I think yahoo changed something, and I have not been able to get a yahoo account working since.

    Anecdotal...but its all I got.
  • Maesenko
    Maesenko
    Posts: 325
    I do get some email notifications to my Yahoo from the Community forums I have posted in. Some, not all. It's been that way for as long as I remember.

    _~Mae_

    ~Mae

    CotM Selection Committee

  • Unknown
    Hey folks, sorry for the delay reaching out here. To let people know some more as to what is going on and give some more clarity on this:

    1) There seems to be a perception that the email issue is still in full effect. This is not the case at this point. We have confirmed with many members that they have no issues since the main email fix went live (a bulk of the reports were actually on privately submitted tickets in the support system). This is why we are referring to it as isolated now. In the overall view of things, the majority of reports are resolved and the number of members still reporting the issue is small from the overall base. This does not diminish the importance of this issue for us in any way, however, as email notifications are basically the proverbial bread and butter of using this system. The main problem is the lack of consistency in the issue (some people get some emails, some get none, the areas not sending vary, the addresses being sent to are not just a single provider, etc.), and not a lot of detail coming up in the logs when the failures happen to help us root the problem out.

    2) Regarding the checkbox issue, it is on the list but is not being actively looked at right this moment. I should make it clear that the tech team is not massive for OP, so we have to focus on issues at a priority/impact type level much like it has always been here. Historically, OP has never had a massive team of programmers working on it (which makes sense as programmers cost a pretty penny and we do have a budget we have to work in based on what the site can generate). Since there is a clear and large backlog of things to get done at this point, that is why the CEO advised this was all going to take some time to get sorted out (and that it is going to take longer than any of us, members or staff, really like).

    3) On to the questions about providing additional technical details as to what the exact issue was - I am not 100% sure on this and will have to look into it some more. While I have some technical skills, I am by no means proficient at these things (I know enough to get by, but my skills are focused elsewhere). I know there are certainly details that could be divulged that could cause more issue than anything, but I will see if we can get a general report from our techs in regards to this. What I can say right now is that the email issues do not stem from just one single source. The fix that got things working for most people resolved three different issues if I recall correctly, but I don't remember the specifics of each offhand (I want to say updating the version of the RoR code used, fixing some issues with delayed jobs, and something else I just can't seem to recall right now but it is 5:30am and I have been up for over 24 hours now..bear with me). The second fix was a combination of infrastructure overhaul (meaning upgrades of some of the servers in the cluster of servers that is OP) and clearing up a socket buffer overload issue. We are still conducting investigations though since we still have members who are having issues to this very day with the notifications, so that means there will be even more steps to this fix. I hope that provides some additional perspective and insight as to the complexity that is both this issue and OP as a whole.

    4) This I am going to be touching on in a couple places, so I apologize if you read this a few times. I am deeply sorry I have not been as active recently here with communication. My role on this project has recently changed and coincides with this drop off. Rather than just acting as the Community Manager for OP, I am now taking on the role of Project Manager here which has come with new set of responsibilities and duties. This has a two fold effect that is both positive and negative depending on how you look at it. From the negative standpoint, I have a good deal less time to get to the forums and give you guys the level of communication I started off with. On the positive side, it means I have a more direct role in pushing OP forward and working with our tech team and other departments to help ensure things keep moving forward. This also means I am starting to look into how I intend to expand the role and members we have on the Inner Council (which I have still not had a chance to do a ton with since this transition came up so quickly).
  • bluesguy
    bluesguy
    Posts: 127
    I wonder if Yahoo (and other email servers) are blocking email from Obsidian Portal because email has been 'identified as spam'. If that is true then individual users of those sites would never see the email that was sent to they Yahoo email account.

    I ran a quick check at some sites that let you check to see if your domain is blacklisted (or white-listed) but I was just using the obsidianportal.com URL. If email is coming from a different server then my check wouldn't do any good.
  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998 edited October 2015
    Tried again yesterday, still not fixed. Others saying the same on help
    Post edited by GamingMegaverse on

    Just trying to help out.

  • Unknown
    Small update here, we have found yet another thing messing with the email system (a parsing error that is causing some items to be dropped without the mail actually sending). We are testing this currently, but it is looking more and more like this might be the last hangup in the mail system presently. After we have done some more testing I will confirm and let you know when we will roll out the fix to the live site.

    @bluesguy - All the email, to my knowledge, is coming from the obsidianportal.com address (though sometimes from different "users" - there is a biz, support, and no-reply used though I don't think that should make a difference) so you should be right on the money with that.
  • twiggyleaf
    twiggyleaf
    Posts: 2,006
    I've been on holiday for a week and mainly been offline, but I can report that I seem to have received Email notifications from my players from their forum posts, although when I post, in order for me to receive it, I have to implement the fix (as described in my previous post). At least the status of things is as good as it was before things started going haywire, but I will wait until you have reported your new fix after testing and then do a third TEST to see what the results are.

    twigs

    "I met a traveller from an antique land....."

    CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.

    Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign

    Inner Council Member

  • Unknown
    Thanks twiggs, I suspect we will have to look into some other items to fix that last little bit for you on the forums as I doubt that is directly tied to the email itself, but I could be wrong on that. We shall see fairly soon here though!
  • twiggyleaf
    twiggyleaf
    Posts: 2,006
    Whatever it may be, any help will be cool, but at least things are now working to a degree where I can at least run my campaign properly, which was not the case a few weeks ago.

    twigs

    "I met a traveller from an antique land....."

    CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.

    Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign

    Inner Council Member

  • Shaun777
    Shaun777
    Posts: 2
    Trying to send campaign invites to players but nobody is receiving them. I've tried it on myself by creating a test account and received nothing. I've tried sending to email addresses and Obsidian Portal usernames, but it makes no difference. Any ideas how to sort this out?
  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998
    Please add yourself to the long list of people who it is still not working for- despite assurances that we are a "isolated group"
    Add to the ticket "here":http://help.obsidianportal.com/discussions/problems/18224-invite-and-passwort-reset-e-mails-not-sent

    Just trying to help out.

  • Shaun777
    Shaun777
    Posts: 2
    Done - needless to say I'm pretty annoyed to find that after I've told players I'm going to use this site to run a campaign from and paid for the Ascendant membership, basic functions like this don't actually work
  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998
    Did another test after the latest "fix". Still only works through already being signed up on the site- does not work on any yahoo emails tested.

    Just trying to help out.

  • SkidAce
    SkidAce
    Posts: 830
    I've been telling my newly invited players to create an account not using yahoo, and then invite them via OP account name, for years.

    After my research several years ago on yahoo, I gave up on the other way.

    Everything works under these conditions. Don't know why.
  • Belrathius
    Belrathius
    Posts: 206 edited November 2015
    So in other words, it seems to work now for every email system but Yahoo? And it's been like this for years?
    Post edited by Belrathius on
  • SkidAce
    SkidAce
    Posts: 830
    From my experience, yes. However, Yahoo was like that BEFORE the great email crash of recent times.

    So from my perspective, the recent problem was fixed back to the way it was, which had a flaw with many yahoo accounts rejecting or just not delivering.
  • GamingMegaverse
    GamingMegaverse
    Posts: 2,998
    I have not had that experience- it worked for me before with my players with yahoo- it was the recent email crash that had it stop working, and not yet come back. There were previous ones that went down for a few days, but nothing like this.

    Just trying to help out.

  • Maesenko
    Maesenko
    Posts: 325 edited November 2015
    As I said above, I do receive some emails to my Yahoo from OP forums, help tickets, and such. I always received the newsletter and ever since I signed up to receive blog posts, I get those (but not the comments from the blog). While I don't doubt that the OP side of emails could be having issues communicating to the Yahoo side, I think Yahoo is also having problems accepting them. Maybe I'll switch my email address to my Gmail and see if it's more responsive.

    EDIT: I should clarify, that I receive Community forum posts intermittently. Since I'm not currently involved in campaigns, I can't say about the campaign forum posts now. I was receiving them when I was in active campaigns (e.g. Outremer). Also, I switched my profile email over to Gmail and promptly received the verification email for that (so at least that seems to be working fine).
    Post edited by Maesenko on

    ~Mae

    CotM Selection Committee

  • Unknown
    Hey guys, thanks for the confirmation that Yahoo is still borked (at minimum intermittently, at worst completely for some). Has anyone still been having issues on any other provider at this point? Just want to have all my ducks in a row for reporting back to the tech team.
Sign In or Register to comment.

March 2024
Wrath of the Highborn

Read the feature post on the blog
Return to Obsidian Portal

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Discussions