Subscribe2 not sending subscriber notifications

If you’re running 2.2 – the not sending emails is usually because you saved as a draft first (was a known bug).

And it allows users to pick cats IF they are registered users within WP. Just subscribers don’t get that choice. You’d have to allow them to register to your site.

Meanwhile, 2.2.1 has been released, and should fix that draft issue. (Though I haven’t had a chance to install and test that just yet.)

I installed 2.2.1 and the form was not showing up anymore. After having problems before I quit and switched to Feedblitz service.

Thanks, Fruitfly. That explains my problem. I always save posts in Draft mode before publishing. Therefore, no subscribers were receiving notices–UGH!

I will upgrade to 2.2.1 but given what herold said above it doesn’t sound too promising.

Anyone know if there are any other subscription plugins?

Herold may’ve missed the following in the plugin author’s ReadMe file. I was hoping I could get some help understanding precisely what I need to do to get the ‘subscribe to’ link to display in my sidebar. Here’s the FAQ:

Q. Can I place the subscription form in my sidebar?

A. You can place the HTML for the form manually, but you cannot place the <!–subscribe2–> token in your sidebar. Make sure your form POSTs to a WordPress Page containing the <!–subscribe2–> token.

I’m pretty confused about what specific html needs to be in the sidebar template & when I create new page for the subscribe2 token into which field should I place it?

UPDATE: I found the ReadMe text file difficult to read running across the pg. as it does. I finally perused it carefully & figured out how to get it working right. It’s not hard but does require several steps that weren’t required in earlier versions (like adding a subscribe 2 token & creating a new WP page for it.

Compared to what I had to do to get the subscribe.php page to fit with my theme in the earlier versions, creating a WP page and slapping in a the token is nothing. ??

I haven’t tested it with a post yet, but 2.2.1 is working on all other aspects thus far.

This is still one of my favorite plugins, and I wholeheartedly thank Skippy for all his hard work on it.

Fruitfly said:
And it allows users to pick cats IF they are registered users within WP. Just subscribers don’t get that choice. You’d have to allow them to register to your site.

Fruitfly: I don’t understand why the dichotomy exists. Why should subscribers who’re not registered at my site not be able to specify categories? Why do they have to register first? I’d much prefer all the various options presented in one place for everyone who seeks to subscribe.

richards: The short answer? Because that’s the way it’s made. When you code your own plugins, you get to make them however you want. If you’re using someone elses plugins, they work the way that person wanted them to. ??

The longer (and completely based on theory) answer: I can’t speak for the creator of the plugin, but I’m guessing that taking advantage of the new user roles in 2.0 is much more efficient than re-inventing the wheel just for the subscribe2 plugin.

The idea is that registering and subscribing are essentially the same thing with 2.0.

If it’s important to you that people subscribe to categories, let them register. The first level in the new user roles is subscriber – check the link above to roles for a complete description – so it’s not like you’re letting them post. As registered subscribers, they can manage their subscriptions by logging in. There’s really nothing more you have to do, other than opening registration. (And maybe direct your subscribers to manage their subscriptions.)

In fact, if you open registration, you don’t have to have a page with the subscribe2 token on it – they just register and subscribe to the categories they want. So… it’s easier actually. ??

I certainly understand that a plugin is the author’s vision for solving a problem or issue. I’m just providing some feedback & questions here in order to try to understand why a certain path was chosen. And I appreciate yr providing yr. take on some of this to me.

Have you ever subscribed to anyone’s WP blog unless it was a requirement (e.g. for posting)? I know I haven’t. Registration is a burden or obstacle for most readers which is why they don’t choose it. Plus they don’t understand what the benefits for doing so would be. The percentage of one’s readers who would register for one’s blog is infinitesimal (at least imho).

Plus, anyone who might want to subscribe to categories will never know that they first need to register in order to do so (unless I tell them & by then they’ve already created a general subscription & would prob. have to unsubscribe & then resubscribe–at least if I understand how this aspect of the plugin works).

To me registration is basically a useless feature. I’m sure it’s important to some bloggers (though I haven’t come across to many who use it)–but not me.

But I will certainly make my general subscribers aware that they can subscribe to categories via registration.

richards:

Subscription is useful for lots of people. I don’t choose to use it myself, but there are plenty others who do.

The way you make it useful (in your instance) is to make that the primary way to sign up for your email list. Basically, you don’t create the subscribe page, and change the text on your register link to read something like “Subscribe” and your users then don’t even know there’s another way to do it.

But this is all up to you.

If you want to keep both ways open, you can explain on the page where you have people subscribe that registering on the site allows category selection, and provide them a link to registration on that page.

Then if you have a public subscriber who wants to register, according to Skippy, they are simply moved over. (They don’t have to unsub and then register.)

Directly from the subscribe2 page on his blog:

If a public subscriber signs up for an account on your blog, that user will be moved from the list of public subscribers to the list of registered subscribers. They will be subscribed to all categories by default.

When a new user registers for an account who was not previously a subscriber, they will not be subscribed to any categories. subscribe2 is strictly opt-in.

Hey, thanks for providing all that great info about how the plugin works. I was worried that someone who previously subscribed (but wasn’t registered) & then did register & subscribed to categories would be subscribed twice. I’m glad that doesn’t happen.

But I wonder if you could explain to me what this sentence you quoted means:

They will be subscribed to all categories by default.

Can a public subscriber who becomes a registered subscriber subscribe to specific categories? In other words, why are they subscribed to all categories & how do they undo this default behavior if they want to be subscribed to a limited number of categories?

You’ve also explained registration to me in a way that makes much more sense though like you I don’t choose to use it.

I’m hoping you also might have some ideas about why this buggy behavior occurred with the plugin. After upgrading to v. 2.0.1, my subscriber e mail notifications don’t provide the post permalink. This is what the actual notification says:

‘Tikun Olam’ has a new blog post, ‘Muslim Hate Alive and Well on Los Angeles Radio’
“Lest anyone think that the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten…”

In other words, this part of the e mail template is missing:

You may view it at
PERMALINK

When a public subscriber becomes a registered one, he or she has the same options as any registered user. When that person logs in, the option to pick categories is available, just like any other registered user. (I’d suggest testing it out yourself to get familiar with how it all works. Register as a new user and play with it.) Again, I didn’t write the plugin, so I can’t definitively say, but I think a public subscriber is subscribed to all by default because that ensures there’s some value to subscribing. If it defaulted to none, as a public subscriber that person can’t choose any categories, so there would be no value at all. (Meaning, no email would be sent.)

As far as the email being sent out — go to Options > Subscribe2 in your admin. On that screen you can make the email look like whatever you’d like it to. I think (if I’m remembering correctly) the PERMALINK by default was just after the POST, so in the resulting email it would be after the portion you’ve quoted here. (It’s hard for me to say, as the first thing I did was edit the template to remove POST from it completely.)

If you have “You may view it at PERMALINK” in your template, but it’s not coming through, I don’t know. That might be a bug or you might have some error in the template… in either case I couldn’t tell you what’s wrong without poking around in your site myself. ??

Fruitfly: The Post permalink DOES appear in the email template yet it didn’t display in the actual e mail notice. Appears to be bugginess of some sort.

I wonder whether you think the Cat2email plugin (same author) might work for me? It’s supposed to allow a blog author to subscribe an individual to specific categories (if I understand it correctly). That would enable me to subscribe a reader who e mailed me expressing a wish to subscribe to a category.

My only problem is that I have the plugin installed but can’t find any instructions for it and I see no links to it in the WP admin interface. So I don’t know how you subscribe someone.

Would you have any familiarity w. how it’s supposed to operate?

I’ve never used it, but just to answer this for you, I installed it to see how it works. Once it’s activated, go to Manage > cat2email and there’s a management screen where you can add email addresses to be notified on each category.

Past that though, I know nothing about how it works, so you’ll want to test it out some and learn it.

Good luck. ??

Thanks for taking that trouble on my behalf. OK, now I do see what you suggest. But in the Cat2email screen I see “Defined Notifications” and “Add New Notification.” But I don’t see any list of my categories. Shouldn’t there be a way to specify which categories a subscriber wishes to select?

I just tried to add my own e mail address under “Add New Notification” & nothing happened. I’m also seeing this error msg. when I open the Cat2email pg:

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/richard2/domains/richardsilverstein.com/public_html/tikun_olam/wp-content/plugins/cat2email.php on line 98

I’m using wp 2.0.1.

richards: In my installation, under Add New Notification, there’s a drop down box with the categories to choose from just before the email address box.

If you’re not seeing that, I honestly don’t know what to tell you. As well, I can’t help much with the error. Make sure you have the latest version of cat2email — Skippy just recently updated for WP 2.0.

https://www.skippy.net/blog/2006/01/28/cat2email-20/

Beyond that, if you’re still having problems, you’d probably be much better off starting a new thread specifically for cat2email or commenting on Skippy’s blog. I don’t know much about it. Good luck. ??