Forums Newsletter Ideas

[roddy]

Back when I first started the forums, I used to run a semi-regular email newsletter. It was nothing spectacular, just a quick rundown on the most popular / interesting topics that had appeared since the last email. I stopped running it after a while.

Lately I've been thinking about starting it back up again, and have just purchased some software to manage it with (downloading as we speak). Basically what I'm planning is:

No more than weekly mailings. Probably fortnightly.

Text only, no HTML

Content will be as it was, a run-down on recent notable topics.

Potentially if there's interest there might be messages from sponsors / other websites.

Edit: Will certainly have the option to opt-in / opt-out

Keen to hear any thoughts on this. I want to reach people who are registered users, but don't have the time / inclination to follow the site regularly - so appreciate an edited highlights every now and then. Things I'm curious about are preferred frequency, any preference for text vs html format (from my point of view text is much easier, and I don't see any need for html), and ideas for extra content, and indeed anything else.

Roddy

[venture160]

I think this is a good idea, maybe a weekly highlight of the top ten forum posts or whatever you deem to be most interesting. It could get alot of the members we have to come out of the woodwork and looking around.

I submit my vote!

[anonymoose]

My opinion is that it's not a good idea. My mailbox gets filled with enough of this kind of thing as it is. I never read it, but it's annoying having to dispose of it all the time.

If I'm interested in the forum, then I'll come and visit and read it. If I'm not interested, then the last thing I want is to be bothered by emails about it anyway.

Sorry. My opinion.

[ironfrost]

From a personal point of view, it's annoying to get automated emails I didn't specifically sign up for, even if it's from a forum I'm a member of. It would probably be best to make it an opt-in choice and let users tick some box on the options screen, rather than adding all members to a mailing list en masse.

[trevelyan]

Roddy --> I trust your judgment as long the email is (1) hand-written and (2) opt-out. Please don't set up something that simply spams people with lists of the most commonly replied to messages however. There are some topics that come up here (such as the antiwave group) that someone who can't visit every day might not catch, and that would be worth hearing about as long as it is a human making the call and writing the copy.

I'm happy to get advertising if it supports the site and imagine the sponsors would be the same as with the site normally.

[billiardsmike]

I think the opt-out is the key. As you said, your target is people that don't check in often. Regular users may not appreciate it. Unfortunately, almost all of the feedback on this post is going to be from your non-target group, since they're obviously active readers.

[roddy]

Thanks for the responses. Should have made clear, users will definitely be able to opt out - in fact you're all going to need to opt-in in the first place. The forums software itself doesn't really allow a proper mailing list with confirmation of subscription emails, automated opt-out, etc, hence I've bought a desktop app to handle it. What I'll probably do initially is send the first one out to all members who haven't visited in the last x number of weeks / months (I'm assuming that recent visitors haven't forgotten the forums yet, plus will see announcements like this), that first one will include opt-in instructions, and after that it's only those who opt-in will get it. I do need to be cautious as the chances of being tagged as spam email are much higher than they used to be.

It will also be done manually, and I'll be exercising judgment. If the most popular topic one month happens to be 'Pictures of My Kittens' from the Chat forum, that won't make it in, but a long and detailed review of a good new textbook, even if nobody noticed it on the forum, would definitely get a mention. I'll probably have a 'suggest a topic for the newsletter' topic running.

For anyone who's not aware, there are already automated email alerts available on a forum by forum basis - eg See here and look under Forum Tools > Subscribe

As Mike says, anyone who's already seen this is probably not the target user. However, ideas are welcome.

[kudra]

My problem is that when I come back after not checking in for a while there is a huge backlog of new posts that I have to sift through to find what I'm interested in. This is even with subscribing to threads I post to, since this will not pick up related stuff.

I tried to auto-alert myself to topics I would be interested in by using pubsub but it never worked for me on chinese-forums for some reason. pubsub is closed so it's moot.

Pubsub was going to use search engine-like technology; you put in a bunch of key words. What would be more focused would be a tool that could learn what kinds of topics you were interested in, and alert you when something interesting was posted. It could use an open source text classifier like rainbow which you could either train on posts you find interesting, or perhaps just train it automatically on threads one has contributed posts to. Seems with all the machine language expertise among the membership this might be possible to build a tool from open source parts. Probably google is already working on it.

Unfortunately I don't have time to do this, or I would have done it already.

[Ninja]

How about also posting the newsletter to the forum and creating a dedicated RSS feed for it? That way we would have an easily accessible archive and (those of us with RSS readers) would be able to read the newsletter without getting anything in our inboxes.

[roddy]

@kudra: I'm looking at ways to alert people to posts they specifically might be interested in, but neither of the two ways I can see of doing it are perfect - one relies on a third-party provider, which I don't like, the other one doesn't do everything I want it to do. I may yet look at coding something myself, but am reluctant as I'm a rubbish coder, and it would almost guarantee that VBulletin would launch a major upgrade next week making my work obsolete.

@ninja: I would certainly keep an archive on site, so I guess an RSS feed for it is possible.

Got subscription and unsubscription working via both email and web interface now, hoping to tidy it up and integrate it into the forums a little more tomorrow. Once it's all up and running I'll be open to suggestions about other more specialized email lists that might be a good idea.

[Long Pan]

It is a very good idea; one every 2 weeks (隔周一次 if don't get confused with this " 隔"); but why not use also html links - for instance on item could be called "the 10 most read threads of the last 2 weeks" and you just click on the ones you are interested in; easy to do and easy to go through.

[roddy]

Here's a first draft of the first newsletter. Comments welcome. I suspect it may be too long, and now I look at it all laid out I can see why the minimal use of some HTML may be a very good idea indeed. Thoughts?

*********************************************************

Chinese-forums.com is happy to announce the launch of its regular Newsletter to keep registered members up-to-date on what's new. This first issue has been sent to all users, but to make sure the newsletter reaches only people who want it, subsequent issues will be sent exclusively to users who subscribe. To do so, reply to this email with the subject 'subscribe' or visit this link:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?page=newsletter

And instructions on activating your subscription will be sent to your inbox shortly. If you do not wish to recieve it, do nothing - this mailing list is used only for very rare admin announcement.

**************

Some Reminders

**************

Chinese-forums.com continues to grow, with user numbers and posts all increasing steadily. If you haven't visited for a while, here are some links that may come in handy:

Our home page lists the newest topics and latest replies so you can see at a glance what's happening.

http://www.chinese-forums.com

Forgotten your username or password? Visit the below link and fill in your email address (the one you recieved this Newsletter at) and we'll send you a reminder.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/login.php?do=lostpw

If you are looking for some general reading on topics that interest you, or want to search for something specific, start with the Forums listing or Search:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/forums.php

http://www.chinese-forums.com/search.php

If you want to see a listing of topics you've posted to previously (and perhaps update us on any questions you've asked in the past) click here

http://www.chinese-forums.com/subscription.php - you'll need to log in, so see the above link if you've lost your password.

Our RSS feed, for those who use online or desktop RSS readers to keep on top of the latest info, can be found at the following link:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/external.php?type=RSS

*****************************************************

Some of our more active and interesting recent topics

*****************************************************

The Chinese tones are as always a challenge for many learners. The ongoing "How can I get better at tones" discussion is the ideal place to share any frustrations with fellow students - and pick up a few tips that might come in handy.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/6539-how-could-i-get-better-at-tones

On a related issue, some of our braver members have been posting audio files of their speaking for constructive criticism and pointers. You can find a couple of the more recent ones at the links below - and there's nothing to stop you attaching a recording to a post of your own if you want.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/12179-please-criticize-my-accent-mercilessly

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/15-cctv-learn-chinese577

A number of our users will be taking the HSK Advanced exam shortly. If you'll be joining them, are interested in taking the exam in the future, or just want to come along and wish them luck, see here:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/5001-anyone-taken-the-hsk-advanced

And anyone battling with the new online registration system for the HSK will be pleased to learn they aren't alone:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/12232-hsk-registration-how-did-you-do-it

User suggestions and the tireless efforts of Doumeizhen have brought us the Best of Chinese Study Tools - More a selection of what's been found to work than an exhaustive list of everything available. Take a look and see if there's anything you can make use of, and perhaps suggest some of your own favourites.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/8195-best-of-chinese-study-tools-studying-chinese-online-and-off

Podcasts have become a choice source of listening material for many, with Chinesepod being the best known. Relevant discussions include:

Chinesepod - does it work? http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/11192-chinesepodcom-does-it-really-work

Other sources of podcasts: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/10639-chinese-podcasts-w-transcripts

Antiwave - China's best podcast? http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/11268-antiwave-back-online

Anyone suffering from an overdose of 'de's, 'le's and 'ba's might want to check out the following list of discussions on China's trickiest grammar points:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/3034-all-simple-yet-confusing-grammar-rules

Ever promised to speak Chinese and nothing but Chinese? Our discussion on Language Pledges looks at the problems and benefits.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/12202-language-pledges

Chinese-forums.com now features a Chinese Corner, specifically for learners to practice their Chinese alongside a number of friendly native speakers. If you want to give it shot, log in and click the below link

http://www.chinese-forums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=42

Ever want to type Pinyin, but find it's just too much hassle to run that Word macro / go to that web page / open that bit of software you downloaded? No longer, thanks to Pinyinput, programmed by forums regular Imron - download, install and type away.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/10274-pinyinput-type-pinyin-with-tone-marks

*******************************************************

Many thanks for your continued support for the forums, and as always if you have any queries, don't hesitate to contact us at admin@chinese-forums.com.

As mentioned above, future issues of this newsletter will only be sent to subscribers, so if you want to keep up-to-date, reply to this email with the subject 'subscribe' or visit this link:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?page=newsletter

And instructions on activating your subscription will be sent to your inbox shortly. If you do not wish to receive it, do nothing - this mailing list is used only for very rare admin announcement.

Chinese-forums.com

www.chinese-forums.com

admin@chinese-forums.com

[roddy]

Additionally, if anyone wants to go through the subscription process, you can follow the instructions above. It's a little messy still and I need to tidy things up a bit, but it should be functional. Main problem is that I still need to run some processes manually, so don't expect an instant response to your requests. As usual . Oh, and I might delete your subscription as I try and figure out how everything works.

[venture160]

I think it needs to be trimmed down to no more than 10 top posts. If you want to get people's attention make is short and sweet. Otherwise I like it

[imron]

I hate HTML email :-) However there are people who don't. Whatever you decide you're going to end up annoying one set of users.

My vote is for plain text - at least for the first post. Maybe you can have a plain-text/HTML option for users that subscribe?

[roddy]

Yeah, I was aiming for 10, but got overexcited I think. Will trim mercilessly. Subsequent newsletters will be shortly, if only because the 'forgotten who we are?' stuff at the top won't be needed.

I wouldn't want to use much html, certainly no images. But having

User suggestions and the tireless efforts of Doumeizhen have brought us the Best of Chinese Study Tools - More a selection of what's been found to work than an exhaustive list of everything available. Take a look and see if there's anything you can make use of, and perhaps suggest some of your own favourites.

is going to look a lot better (especially when you consider it would be done over the newsletter as a whole) than

User suggestions and the tireless efforts of Doumeizhen have brought us the Best of Chinese Study Tools - More a selection of what's been found to work than an exhaustive list of everything available. Take a look and see if there's anything you can make use of, and perhaps suggest some of your own favourites.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/8195-best-of-chinese-study-tools-studying-chinese-online-and-off

I think all those free-floating urls make it look a bit scrappy. Plus I might like to have a sub-heading or two, but I guesss I could do

******that*******

like

******

this

******

or something.

[Lu]

Not sure why people don't like email with html in it, but I'm sure they have their reasons. Personally, I agree with Roddy that the second version, with html, looks much better, more professional too.

I don't think I would subscribe though, I stop by here almost every day, a newsletter would be redundant for me.

[roddy]

The trouble with HTML email is that you can't be sure everyone sees it as HTML. I have people who think they're sending me

Meanwhile, in other news on our site . . .

But actually what I get is

Meanwhile in other news on our site . . .

As you say, anyone who is visiting every day will probably find it redundant. But if you are an occasional visitor I think it would be useful. Already got one subscription

Edit: And quiet congratulation to Lu on joining the 1000-post club

[imron]

Not sure why people don't like email with html in it, but I'm sure they have their reasons.

because some people (notably computer types) disable HTML in email because it poses a security risk, or if they're really computery the might still be using a text-based email reader from their UNIX shell. This means that HTML email turns up as HTML code rather than a nicely formatted text, and it's a pain to try and sort out the text from the markup.

[gato]

I used to send out a weekly newsletter with the latest headlines for a news website I used to run, using Mojo Mail (renamed as Dada Mail) to automatically handle the subscribe/unsubscribe function.

The newsletters were in text-html dual format, done automatically by Mojo Mail. Such a dual format email would accommodate subscribers using text-based email readers, though I suspect they are very rare nowadays. (Anybody still using pine? elm? or mail?)

See http://willmaster.com/possibilities/archives/wmp20021015001.shtml for an example of a dual format email.

Here's a similar example done implemented with PHP: http://www.webcheatsheet.com/php/send_email_text_html_attachment.php

Perhaps your program could do the same, Roddy.

I also used a simple php script to display the latest headlines from the database and add the necessary HTML tags for the URLs.