Problem with Notification Emails for Members with a GMail Address

[Cearna]

Another follow-up... It has been 11 hours now since I've amended our DNS records for compliance with Google's new policy, but upon trying to get our domain verified through Google's Postmaster page, I keep getting the following error message... :

	Your verification DNS TXT record was not found. You might need to wait a few minutes before Google sees your changes to the TXT records.

Those "few minutes" do appear to last an eternity over at Google's headquarters. Maybe they're caught in a gravitational time dilation field or something.

Now, I am certain that I've done everything right ─ there's not much you can do wrong with regard to those settings anyway ─ and I'm afraid there's nothing else I can do anymore at this point. But then again, the Google developers and management appear to be living in a different universe, where tech companies now make up the law. And of course, by forcing us to include Google-specific authorization strings in our DNS records, they are now better able to monitor us and track us ─ and you! This is not just arrogance, this is corporate fascism right there, folks. And sadly enough, they're not the only corporation that demands that everyone would comply with their rules. Microsoft is also doing this ─ cfr. our problems with Hotmail, as you can read here.

Anyway, I'm not seeing any new bounce messages in the server's inbox anymore, but the above error message suggests that the problem still persists. It would therefore be helpful ─ even if only as a follow-up ─ if those members who have put a GMail address in their profile and who are supposed to be receiving notification emails for thread subscriptions and/or private messages were to report here on the thread whether they are, in effect, now receiving their notifications again.

Maggie? Chris? You two are the ones I got bounce messages in the server's inbox for yesterday.

Me too. I couldnt log on.

[Aragorn]

Me too. I couldnt log on.

Hmm... I'm afraid that would be an entirely different matter, Colleen. The problem with the bouncing emails couldn't have had anything to do with that.

[Dreamtimer]

I'm glad you were finally able to log on, Cearna.

Google doesn't affect our log ins, but it does affect communication. In a big way.

[Kathy]

I'm glad you were finally able to log on, Cearna.

Google doesn't affect our log ins, but it does affect communication. In a big way.

I call such activity an invasion of privacy.

[Aragorn]

I call such activity an invasion of privacy.

It is. I've said this a hundred times before, but people should be more paranoid about the invasion of their privacy by the tech industry than by the governments, because data harvesting is both power and the most prized commodity nowadays.

[palooka's revenge]

It is. I've said this a hundred times before, but people should be more paranoid about the invasion of their privacy by the tech industry than by the governments, because data harvesting is both power and the most prized commodity nowadays.

it's the new gold...

[Dreamtimer]

They will work in concert with the governments.

We've been signing away our privacy with every agreement we sign when we register, buy a product, especially online. How much precedent have we set with all of these signatures?

I'd like to talk to a lawyer or two who has looked into this.

[Aragorn]

Greetings Everyone,


I'm afraid I have bad news for all of our members who use a GMail account for receiving notification emails from the forum. In its arrogance, Google has decided that anything being sent out from our mail server is — quote — "unsolicited bulk mail and/or spam". This has happened several times before, and up until now, I was able to get the situation rectified each and every time.

At present time however, Google has assumed the arrogance to believe that their FAQ offers an adequate answer to all potential problems with GMail, and that it is therefore no longer required for them to leave a link to a contact form in which you can explain what the problem is. Emailing them directly is also futile, because then you simply get an automated email back, informing you of the fact that the email address you've sent your complaint to is no longer being monitored, added with a link to their useless FAQ.

The FAQ itself does allow you to comment on its usability by way of a feedback box, and so as a last resort, I've used that to tell them — in no uncertain terms, because I was seething — how defective their spam filter is if it marks our notification emails as "unsolicited bulk email" again only one or two months since I last contacted them about the same thing. So there's a 0.01% chance that an actual human being who's not afflicted with the perverse and psychopathic mindset of Google would actually bother to investigate the issue, but quite frankly, I think your chances at winning the lottery would be significantly higher.

The bottom line is that there's nothing I can do to remedy the problem, and that Google does not even allow anyone to contact them anymore for reporting whatever problem. If it's not in the FAQ, then it either doesn't exist or then it's your fault, period. Well, our domain information is completely in agreement with Google's guidelines — I have even added two records to our DNS information a couple of years ago specifically for compliance with Google's demands — and according to a check yesterday, we are currently also not on any blacklist. That could of course also have been the case — and it has already been in the past, and several times even — but it's not applicable to our current situation.

The only thing I can advise you to do if you wish to continue receiving notification emails regarding thread updates, private messages, et al, is to switch to a different mail provider and set the new email address in your account. If you cannot do this yourself, then I can help you with that if you give me your new email address — you can do this by way of a PM, of course.

Now, I don't know how things are in the USA and Canada, but over here in Belgium concretely, every internet provider by default offers one or several email accounts to their customers under the domain of the provider itself, and each email account can have a given number of aliases. I have however been told that the North American internet providers do not offer such service to their customers, but surely there will be other alternatives besides GMail and HotMail (which belongs to Microsoft). Just don't pick one that's hosted in Russia, because we're blocking those due to the incessant attempts from Russian hackers and spammers to sign up for an account here at the forum (and any other forum they have access to).

Sorry people; I've done the best I could, but this is out of my hands.


With respect,
Frank (Aragorn).

[The One]

This is now fixed