[Email] Prevent emails getting put into Gmail spam folders

[richardwestenra]

Our emails are getting sent to user's spam folders in Gmail:

Here are some guides with info on how to prevent this:

• https://fulcrumtech.net/resources/avoiding-gmail-spam-filter/
• https://mailchimp.com/resources/guides/avoid-spam-filters/

Recommendations:

• Provide an unsubscribe link. The unsubscribe link must work for at least 30 days after sending. (Maybe we can just use the "Cancel this request" functionality as a sort of unsubscribe link?)
• Include a physical mailing address (do we have one?)
• Spam filters want to know that you're acquainted with the person receiving the email. We recommend using merge tags to personalize the To: field of your campaign. e.g. send emails to Me <me@me.com>, not me@me.com
• Make the email subject less spammy: Remove the exclamation mark and the ride ID.
• Use just one font.
• Ensure that all links go to the same domain. Ideally I'd like to ensure that the Cancel link went to the website itself, and just opened an unsubscribe message on the self-service page (e.g. by using a query string like /self-service?unsubscribe&uuid=qwertyuiop..... I'll probably create a separate issue for this task.

[jkbits1]

@richardwestenra thanks for creating this issue and proving clear, specific, guidelines. The emails are one of the trickier parts of the system, as the html for them is generated by the postgresql scripts. This work may need to be done as a group effort. I can provide general assistance, but am reluctant to take on the full task

[jonoxia]

Hi, I would like to help contribute to this project. Is this still a live issue? (The ticket is a year old) If so, I can work on it.

[jkbits1]

@jonoxia we are focusing less on sending emails to individuals now so this is less important but your support is appreciated. You are very welcome to join the slack channel where we will be creating some new issues soon 👍

[jonoxia]

Thanks jkbits1. How do I find the slack channel? I wrote to slack@carpoolvote.com but never received a response.

[jkbits1]

@jonoxia apologies for the slow response. I’m not sure who’s accepting invites for the Slack channel. You’re very welcome to join us at the partner Slack channel, Carpool Action, although you’ll need to sign up for the Progressive Coders organisation first, at http://progco.de/join

[jkbits1]

@jonoxia I'm not sure if this suits your skills but a front-end issue voteamerica/voteamerica.github.io#406 has just been added.