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stcr / subscribe-to-comments-reloaded

Subscribe to Comments Reloaded allows commenters to sign up for e-mail notifications of subsequent replies.
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STCR Being Mutated Into A Spammer #125

Open javad2625 opened 8 years ago

javad2625 commented 8 years ago

Hello I like STCR very much, but unfortunately, I agree with the 43 persons who discuss here: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/why-i-am-removing-the-subscribe-to-comments-plugin/

about the fact that STCR turns into a spammer after a while. It keeps bombarding the inboxes of subscribers. Many subscribers do not have the patience to click on "unsubscribe" button. They click on "report spam" right away. This might cause the domain or the whole server to become blocked as a spammer. Many servers ask the blog owners to deactivate this plugin, because it imposes big loads of emailing process on the server. It has no throttle feature for sending a limited number of emails per hour. If a hot topic receives 300 responses for instance, the poor subscriber will see the next day, their inbox has been filled with 300 emails from the same resource, most of which including only junk replies such as "Thank you for the nice article". What if the subscriber subscribes to more than one hot topic simultaneously? Then the subscriber might sue the website owner for abuse and violation. This plugin does not have "after-visit one-time notification" feature. By AVOTN, I mean sending the visitor only one email after each visit. This plugin, Instead of sending one email after each visit, which indicates: Hello There has been one or more comments after your visit....

sends one email after each comment; therefore, many website owners deactivate the plugin because it reduces their website visits. Website owners usually like the plugins to absorb more visitors to their website, not to prevent the visitor from coming back again. I hope I could explain the problem clearly. I have installed this lovely plugin recently on my website, but I am not sure whether or not I am able to keep it in the long run. I hope I can.

Thank you

Reedyseth commented 8 years ago

Hello @javad2625

Thank you for reporting this. I just want to make sure that we are on the same page, on the article they mentioned Subscribe to Comments but I did not see a Reloaded been mentioned. Either way, I see the problem that might come with this, I am working in some big chances that will allow StCR to evolve into something more, for example the feature that you asked about a daily digest, connections with mailchimp and other email services.

I deeply sorry that so many users had to suffer this behavior, and I will be working to use the best choices available or create them.

Best Regards.!!

IvanRF commented 8 years ago

I was thinking on add this issue too. For every comment that I approve or every new comment, one mail is sent to everyone. I would prefer to have an option to send a group of new comments every X hours.

Something like Postmatic, see screenshots.

For example, Wordfence uses cron jobs for the summary mails and you can select the time schedule.

Reedyseth commented 8 years ago

I was thinking on add this issue too. For every comment that I approve or every new comment, one mail is sent to everyone. I would prefer to have an option to send a group of new comments every X hours.

OK so definitely this had to be a new feature on the upcoming releases. I just have to hustle with all the development.

IvanRF commented 8 years ago

It will be awesome if you add this feature. I said hours, but even delaying X minutes will be an improvement. For example, if I have 10 comments to approve, and the first call to notify_user is delayed for 5 or 10 minutes, then all comments will be grouped in only one mail.

Reedyseth commented 8 years ago

I said hours, but even delaying X minutes will be an improvement. For example, if I have 10 comments to approve, and the first call to notify_user is delayed for 5 or 10 minutes, then all comments will be grouped in only one mail.

The time lapses will not be an issue, since I can create a custom cron time or use the built in by wordpress, gathering the comments will be the cool stuff.

IvanRF commented 8 years ago

gathering the comments will be the cool stuff.

You just need to maintain the ID of the last comment that was notified by mail. I think it is the easiest way 😃

javad2625 commented 8 years ago

Quote:

I just want to make sure that we are on the same page, on the article they mentioned Subscribe to Comments but I did not see a Reloaded been mentioned.

Answer: Thanks for your attention. Yes, they are talking about STC, because that discussion dates from the time before creation of STCR. Of course STCR has jumped a big step forward by introducing "My Own Replies" (advanced subscription) feature, but the same problem still exists. This plugin is very likely to turn into a spamming machine.

IvanRF commented 8 years ago

I don't know how the development on delayed notifications is going, but I would like to add that replies should be notified right away.

In other words, all subscribers' notifications should be grouped in mails and sent every X minutes. However, if someone replies a comment, that reply notification should be sent as normal (immediately) only to the person whose comment was replied. This way, the flow of a conversation is maintained between two people, for example, but the rest of the subscribers will receive only one notification with the complete conversation.