CUNY Academic Commons

We currently have a do-not-reply inbox that can be used as Reply-To for these sorts of messages: commons-do-not-reply@gc.cuny.edu See #3468.

However, we don't currently have this set up in such a way that a plugin like Newsletters can log in and automatically handle bounces. Access to the commons-do-not-reply inbox is not handled via password authentication, but through IT's internal mapping of one mailbox to another.

My recollection of the earlier discussion is that it's not worth the effort (technical or bureaucratic) to try to set up automated bounce unsubscriptions. I think we settled on just allowing that inbox to fill up, on the assumption that it wouldn't happen very fast for regular Commons emails. But the situation is a bit different with newsletters, since email churn is probably greater for non-CAC people.

Matt, the thread in #3468 says that you received the password for the account under separate cover. Can you send it to me? I can probably write something that will allow the credentials to be supplied automatically (ie, no need to share with users) when the commons-do-not-reply email address is used as Reply-To.

Hmm - she thought, as did I, that it must be free if it shows as a choice for a Commons site plugin. But I see here - https://tribulant.com/plugins/view/1/wordpress-newsletter-plugin - that it isn't. Is this a change?

I had recommended this to her after Mailpoet was experiencing some problems - https://redmine.gc.cuny.edu/issues/6794

We run the "lite" version, which is free. https://wordpress.org/plugins/newsletters-lite/

The "expired" notice (which I didn't see, but maybe I'm not looking in the right place) is misleading. I think it can be ignored.

The reason that she just started receiving those notices is that Keith just switched the Reply-To address to pcp@. Previously, they had been going to Keith's email inbox.

I've just switched the Reply-To email address to commons-do-not-reply@gc.cuny.edu so that the admin should no longer see them. See attached screenshot. (Note that you have to toggle Advanced settings to see it.)

The question about automated bounce cleanup remains, so I'm leaving this ticket open.

Bump - Matt, could you please look over the thread above? Check your email history for bounce-account email credentials.

Ah, thanks, Matt. My reading of the email thread was that we'd be granted actual credentials to access this account, but my memory is closer to what you've described - that they'd only grant access via delegation. Unfortunately, delegated access won't work for the purposes of automated bounce handling, since the WP plugin needs to be able to log into the account to check for bounced emails.

Given that the immediate problem described in this ticket is resolved, I'd suggest we not sink any more time into automated bounce handling for the time being. If we get another round of requests from IT on the subject, we can revisit the possible strategies at that time.