How to unsubscribe user automatically?

    • 183 posts
    January 30, 2018 9:46 AM EST

    Hello,

     

    We faced a problem with our hosting recently concerning notification and mass mails from community. They blocked our SMTP and php() mail because emails does not contain automatic unsubscription option for user. And I do not know how to organize this unsubscription and especially immediate unsubscription which they insist should be provided according international laws. 

    Any ideas?

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    January 30, 2018 10:21 AM EST

    Use something like Sendgrid which allows you to automatically add an unsubscribe and your users can unsubscribe from all emails from the site that way. I use sendgrid.

    • 183 posts
    January 30, 2018 10:27 AM EST

    Hello, Donna!

    Thank you for a quick response!

    Yes, we use email services for mass mails. But there is still a problem with notifications. Because I can not add immediate unsubscription and tag list-unsibscribe in the header. How do you use this email services for notifications then?

     

     

     

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    January 30, 2018 12:31 PM EST

    Sendgrid adds it to every mail that goes out. https://sendgrid.com/docs/Classroom/Track/Unsubscribes/unsubscribe_via_subscription_tracking.html try that tut

    • 183 posts
    January 30, 2018 1:56 PM EST

    Ah, it seems now I got it. You simply use there SMTP in Admin Panel settings instead of SMTP of your provider, right?

    Thank you very much!

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    January 30, 2018 3:01 PM EST

    ==>'Sendgrid adds it to every mail that goes out'

    How/where is this then integrated back into SE (please provide screenshots and/or URLs since I can't seem to find it)?  Does this actually do anything within SE or does Sendgrid (or whatever provider) simply act as a filter to prevent emails going to Unsubscribed Users?  Thx.

     

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    January 30, 2018 5:04 PM EST
    Katya said:

    Ah, it seems now I got it. You simply use there SMTP in Admin Panel settings instead of SMTP of your provider, right?

    Thank you very much!

    Yesyou use them as your smtp email provider which helps keep your server IP from being blacklisted in case someone marks stuff as spam. 

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    January 30, 2018 5:06 PM EST
    gs said:

    ==>'Sendgrid adds it to every mail that goes out'

    How/where is this then integrated back into SE (please provide screenshots and/or URLs since I can't seem to find it)?  Does this actually do anything within SE or does Sendgrid (or whatever provider) simply act as a filter to prevent emails going to Unsubscribed Users?  Thx.

     

    You just set them as the smtp provider and use them as the transactional mail. This helps protect your server IP from being blacklisted in case anyone reports something as spam. It also allows you to add an unsubscribe link that sendgrid keeps track of. Anyone that unsubscribes no longer gets emails from your site at all. You can also view mail stats in their dashboard. It's very handy. 

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    January 30, 2018 6:46 PM EST

    ==> 'Anyone that unsubscribes no longer gets emails from your site at all.'

    but how is this accomplished - through them filtering out emails for unsubscribed addresses or does it somehow actually prevent SE from creating/sending the emails?  I'm trying to find out where/how this is done. 

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    January 31, 2018 5:39 AM EST
    gs said:

    ==> 'Anyone that unsubscribes no longer gets emails from your site at all.'

    but how is this accomplished - through them filtering out emails for unsubscribed addresses or does it somehow actually prevent SE from creating/sending the emails?  I'm trying to find out where/how this is done. 

    It is filtered at their end. You can see all unsubscribes via their dashboard. Best thing to do is set up a free account to try it. 

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    January 31, 2018 1:54 PM EST

    ==> 'It is filtered at their end.'

    That's what I was afraid of, which means there's no integration into SE (which is probably why there's no way to simply turn off/on emails - which is discussed in some FRs).  This leads me to believe that there is then outgoing email overhead on your site/server for unsubscribers.

     

    ==> 'You can see all unsubscribes via their dashboard. '

    But can you do anything useful with this in SE (i.e. manually turn off emails to a User)?

     

    • Moderator
    • 6923 posts
    January 31, 2018 4:08 PM EST
    gs said:

    ==> 'It is filtered at their end.'

    That's what I was afraid of, which means there's no integration into SE (which is probably why there's no way to simply turn off/on emails - which is discussed in some FRs).  This leads me to believe that there is then outgoing email overhead on your site/server for unsubscribers.

     

    ==> 'You can see all unsubscribes via their dashboard. '

    But can you do anything useful with this in SE (i.e. manually turn off emails to a User)?

     

    This is actually the recommended thing to do - use a transactional mail service. Many do it. This takes the risks to your entire server's IP in case of spam reports, and removes that. It is better to let a mail service handle mail than risking so much to do it on your website's server. It's also more reliable than server mail.

    You can block email addresses in the sendgrid dashboard if that's what you need to do. You can view stats about how many emails are opened, bounced, etc. This helps a LOT. Not using a service such as this, or a separate mail service, is setting your site up for issues right from the start. 

    I had this happen to me:

    Client got mad (in a different script I worked for) because I wouldn't provide free support from my site. So, he signed up and then responded to a bunch of forum threads and did pm messages. Once he got notifications of responses, he reported all of them as spam on purpose. Luckily, I was with sendgrid. They initially reduced my mail rate per hour. Once I saw that notice, I checked and saw that the user had marked all of those as spam. I contacted Sendgrid and showed them my terms, how the notifications work, the threads he had subscribed to and asked for them to restore my reputation and site sending allowance. They ruled in my favor.

    Had that been my server IP, my entire server IP would have been blacklisted by various ISPs and blacklist websites, and I would have had to try to contact all of them in order to hope to get the server IP removed from the blacklist.  It just isn't worth the risk.

     

  • gs
    • 857 posts
    January 31, 2018 7:15 PM EST

    I realize the purpose and benefit to Sendgrid and similar.

     

    What I was hoping for but figured it didn't exist (and actually doesn't) was the ability to disable email for a User as well as it occurring automatically from data received from Sendgrid.  I am not live yet, but since the potential for outgoing email volume is ridiculously high, it would be helpful to not even process any email for those Unsubscribed.