forum subscriptions do not honor last visit

[andrewjs18]

on my 1.8.22 board, the forum subscriptions do not seem to honor the last visit to prevent forum subscriptions from being emailed out, even if someone hasn't visited the forum in months or years.

confirmed by mybb team member, noyle.

Original thread: forum subscriptions do not honor last visit

[dvz]

may have become a feature at this point (and be used as a channel to preview content as it appears, like RSS)

[andrewjs18]

may have become a feature at this point (and be used as a channel to preview content as it appears, like RSS)

what happens if someone doesn't remove their forum subscription(s), yet 'leaves' the forum by simply changing their email address into something that doesn't exist?

that's how I came across this issue after switching to a different email solution. I started getting a ton of bounce backs for email addresses that did not exist.

[rajat315315]

Good Point.

I think we should put a check when sending emails that if a user hasn't re-visited the forum he has subscribed to in last "X" months, he should be unsubscribed.
Now, X can be 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year.

[dvz]

We also mentioned adding a feature to recognize bounce messages, but we can make it send a message with a confirmation link after a configured time has passed since last visit.

[andrewjs18]

Good Point.

I think we should put a check when sending emails that if a user hasn't re-visited the forum he has subscribed to in last "X" months, he should be unsubscribed.
Now, X can be 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year.

I'm not sure that I'd go as far as removing the subscriptions, but certainly stopping the emails after X amount of inactivity on the forums would probably suffice and be the easier solution. doesn't the PM system stop sending email alerts about new messages until you visit the forum again?

[andrewjs18]

We also mentioned adding a feature to recognize bounce messages, but we can make it send a message with a confirmation link after a configured time has passed since last visit.

I've been chatting with @yuliu a lot about the mybb mail system, he mentioned something like this, perhaps piggybacking on your thoughts here.

if the user fails to confirm their email address through the link, would it stop all future email messages from being sent out?

[dvz]

I'd imagine saving a status of no activity, rather than invalidating e-mail addresses. Non-critical messages like subscription summaries would then check that before sending mail.

[andrewjs18]

I'd imagine saving a status of no activity, rather than invalidating e-mail addresses. Non-critical messages like subscription summaries would then check that before sending mail.

I can get behind that..it'll help cut down on forum email clutter and potentially prevent an IP address from getting on a spam list.

[yuliu]

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