[Ldsoss] Ward Website Email Broadcasting

[Greg Hart]

Thanks Tom, for forwarding comments on.  All these suggestions and  
more have been summarized on the ldsoss.org wiki:

http://ldsoss.org/index.php/ 
Suggestions_for_Ward_Websites#Email_Broadcasts

I believe many of us are anxious for the more serious issues to be  
addressed and we'll be grateful when they happen.  For now, we're  
practicing patience like many Church-employed developers have asked  
us to have.  It's been almost three years since my ward and stake  
first started submitting these same bug reports and suggestions to  
the email address found under "Technical Support" on the LUWS admin  
page, but to be honest, that felt like a black hole.

Thanks for any fixes you can squeeze in.

-Greg




On Dec 14, 2006, at 2:45 PM, Tom Welch wrote:

> I've forwarded all comments on this thread to the department in  
> charge of this.  Keep the input coming and I'll keep forwarding.
>
> Tom
>
> Greg Hart wrote:
>> Hi All-
>>
>> I apologize in advance if this is beating a dead horse for some of  
>> you. This list is just one avenue I'm hoping the message can reach  
>> someone of
>> influence at HQ.  Thanks for any fixes/enhancements you can make.
>>
>> Below is a forward from my last ward's ward webmaster and while not
>> intended to be broadcast like this (I received his permission),
>> illustrates very frankly the frustrations wards have with using  
>> the Email
>> Broadcast functionality on the ward websites.  It is my understanding
>> based on past memos from SLC, that the Church does not approve of
>> non-lds.org email groups for official ward/stake business.  Yet it  
>> is my
>> observation that many feel like there is no good alternative.  It  
>> would be
>> interesting to know... Out of all the wards that regularly use  
>> email as an
>> effective form of communication, which percentage are actually  
>> using the
>> ward websites and which percentage still maintain contraband
>> yahoogroups/googlegroups or other mailing lists?  Then there are  
>> the wards
>> that abide by Church policy, decommission their seemingly effective,
>> external ward email list, but because of restrictive  
>> functionality, never
>> quite make the transition to using the ward website's Email  
>> Broadcasts,
>> crippling what was once useful communication.  The later is my  
>> current
>> ward's situation.
>>
>> -Greg
>>
>> Forward below:
>>
>> *************************************
>>
>> *Issues with LDS.org's email system (in no particular order):*
>>
>> In our experience drops 10% of emails (this was a huge headache, and
>> unfortunately our GNU Mailman system had similar reliability  
>> issues later
>> as well).
>>
>> Is frequently having technical difficulties (can't login during busy
>> periods, etc). Also quite frustrating.
>>
>> Requires full admin access to send emails (this means these admins  
>> will
>> also have full access to all of the ward administration functions as
>> well).
>>
>> No moderator functions - so you must give a few users full admin  
>> access
>> and then have other users send those admins the emails in order  
>> for them
>> to then send the message to the ward. This may not seem like a huge
>> bottle-neck to someone who has never had this responsibility, but  
>> it slows
>> things down substantially, especially if the admin isn't as  
>> responsive as
>> the users would like (sometimes it would take me a full day to get to
>> requests and users would be very frustrated). Submitting an email  
>> through
>> LDS.org requires the admin to: 1) go to lds.org 2) type in  
>> username and
>> password 3) open the admin section 3) navigate to the email  
>> submission
>> form 4) copy the subject of the email 5) paste the subject of the  
>> email 6)
>> copy the body of the email 7) paste the body of the email 8)  
>> reformat the
>> body of the email so it looks presentable 9) submit the message  
>> content
>> [if something goes wrong here, then you lose all your work] 10)  
>> Choose an
>> email list to send the message to 11) submit the message 12) check  
>> your
>> email 13) email still hasn't arrived an hour later, so check email  
>> again
>> 14) several hours later you check your email and it went out -  
>> hooray!
>> Compare this with the admin receiving an email with a link that  
>> they click
>> to approve the and it goes out immediately. It's the difference of  
>> several
>> minutes-to-hours versus a few seconds. And when you're confronted  
>> with a
>> several-minute (or more) task like that, then you say "I don't  
>> have a few
>> minutes to do that right now" and put it off till the evening or  
>> the next
>> day when you may have time to go through the whole process - and hope
>> during that time that any other emails that need to be sent will be
>> requested soon so you can do them all at once. Alternately, if the  
>> process
>> only takes a few seconds, you do it right away - since "Hey, this  
>> will
>> take less than 10 seconds and will be done!"
>>
>> Due to the effort required and unreliability involved in the lds.org
>> system, some users would either not send the message at all or just
>> circumvent the system (ask for the full official email list and  
>> then do an
>> evite so they could control the system, even when an actual evite was
>> unnecessary). This would cause problems because, there would then  
>> be an
>> old 'official' ward email list being passed around and used that  
>> would
>> obviously not include new members - and so announcements would go out
>> inviting everyone from the old list, including people who had  
>> left, and
>> leaving out the most important new members.
>>
>> Usually, since the admins send the message and not the actual  
>> sender - the
>> responses end up getting received by the admin who then has to  
>> forward all
>> of them to the actual sender (usually because users will just hit  
>> 'reply'
>> to the message rather than read the instructions in the message to  
>> email
>> someone else, then have to copy and paste that email address of  
>> the actual
>> sender and send it that way).
>>
>> Does not allow attachments.
>>
>> Doesn't support emailing members outside the ward (involved non- 
>> members).
>>
>> Doesn't archive the messages.
>>
>> Allows only plain-text formatting.
>>
>> Only supports very restricted and buggy file-sharing on the site (I
>> believe the file has to be either pdf, doc, or xls and under 50K).
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Ldsoss at lists.ldsoss.org
>> http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss
>>
>
> -- 
> Tom Welch
> welchtc at ldschurch.org
> (801) 240-1609
> (858) 829-4614 - Cell
>
>
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