Official New Newsletter Format goes out today!

[TUGBrian]

So we have selected mailchimp to handle the newsletter moving forward and today is the first real live test so please give me any and all feedback related to the newsletter so i can work out any kinks if we have any!

I hope everyone enjoys the new look, but as always we can and will improve things based on owner feedback!


here is a link to the web version of todays newsletter a few hours early! (but still please open the email version and take a look at it, or make sure you get it at all and that it doesnt go into your spam folder or similar! Mailchimp has some amazing claims on deliverability to inboxes and I sure want to know if they live up to that (and the cost involved)!

TUG Week 33 Newsletter! 🏖️

 

[Patri]

Very attractive. Mail Chimp has been around a long time, so they should know what they are doing.

 

[pedro47]

I got it a 9.9 out a 10.0 rating. LOL

 

[TUGBrian]

will say the first initial response is "holy smokes that is a TON of out of office replies"......and an even larger number of yahoo spam reports.

it is extremely frustrating to get flagged as spam as the newsletter is 100% opt in.

 

[TUGBrian]

also ill be playing with the staggered delivery option (wasnt available in previous newsletter) so vs sending out 60,000 emails at once it sends them in chunks over the course of a few hours. so if you dont see yours yet, its not done sending this morning!

 

[TUGBrian]

biggest complaint i have is that with the nicer fancier format the email itself is larger and ive discovered that gmail (and yahoo) will actually truncate any email over a certain arbitrary size of 120kb.

so for this past one you can see gmail clipped off the bottom of the newsletter in everyone's inbox, though you can still click the "view message" tiny text at the bottom to view the whole thing, i doubt many people will notice that.

the super bizarre part is that its not a "length" thing, its the actual size of the CODE in the email itself which unfortunately is what makes it all pretty and easy to read!

 

[TUGBrian]

other observation is that mailchimp provides some amazing granular reporting...will wait 24 hours to see it all come in but it is neat to view!

who knew that the 2nd most popular country for opening the newsletter would be sweden! (us is #1 by a staggering margin)...but sweden is higher than canada/uk/mexico combined!

 

[stmartinfan]

The newsletter arrived with no problem in my Comcast/Xfinity box. It's an attractive format, very inviting and easy to read. I like the amount of white space…makes each of the topics really pop.

 

[TUGBrian]

up to 80 spam/abuse reports sofar...unreal. usual average is in the single digits.

guess it does deliver to more inboxes than the old software did if so many people are suddenly seeing it and marking it as spam.

 

[MULTIZ321]

The change is great, Brian! I found it very attractive and informative.Thank you.



Richard

 

[TUGBrian]

thank you all for the feedback sofar, glad the new format is much easier and more attractive to read!

can only guess the ultra high spam reports are due to folks who havent been seeing the newsletter in their inbox in the past and simply dont recognize it. fairly shocked at some of them being members for years and still marking the newsletter as spam...but that should taper off moving forward as they cant get sent the newsletter again in the future.

 

[dioxide45]

I think some people just use spam folders to sort out what they deem to be unimportant e-mail.

 

[TUGBrian]

yes, that's typically what we have seen in the past with the regular newsletter. however the numbers just from Saturdays send are off the charts high in comparison and the distribution list hasnt changed. as an example, last Saturdays newsletter send resulted in 6 people marking the newsletter as spam yet we are over 100 already from the mailchimp send.

will say the majority of those are from the "non members" list, but there are still plenty of active/expired members who have marked this latest send as spam as well! Still a fraction of a % of the total list, but with such a significant increase it bothered me.

 

[susieq]

Got mine in my Yahoo inbox yesterday afternoon. LOVE the new format!!

 

[TUGBrian]

one neat feature is that its supposed to track when you open/interact with the newsletter moving forward and can adjust the delivery for each recipient individually.

no idea how long it takes for that to "learn", but I thought it was a pretty nifty option if it works.

 

[DaveNV]

Nice look and change, Brian. Good work!

Dave

 

[Sugarcubesea]

@TUGBrian , I really love the new newsletter format, nice job

 

[moonstone]

Looks good!

~Diane

 

[SteveinHNL]

Looks great! I wonder if it would be helpful to you to continue to send the newsletter in both old and new formats, with a notice up top informing recipients/members to add "xxxxx" as a non-spam email so their email doesn't send the new version into the spam folder. That might eventually save you from getting so many spam notices as people begin to add the new sender to their non-spam lists.

 

[TUGBrian]

the sender should remain the same, they should all come from tugadmin@tug2.net.

unfortunately our previous newsletter provider is shutting down at the end of the month thus the scramble to find a new solution.

 

[Glynda]

the sender should remain the same, they should all come from tugadmin@tug2.net.

unfortunately our previous newsletter provider is shutting down at the end of the month thus the scramble to find a new solution.

I didn't get it. I haven't gotten anything from tugadmin@tug2.net. since 2021.

 

[TUGBrian]

I didn't get it. I haven't gotten anything from tugadmin@tug2.net. since 2021.

had to dig into this one in the old software! it shows you clicked the link in the july 11th 2016 newsletter to unsubscribe. thus it has not sent any newsletters to that email address since!

I have added you back on the subscriber list for the new newsletter, so you should see it again moving forward!

 

[Glynda]

had to dig into this one in the old software! it shows you clicked the link in the july 11th 2016 newsletter to unsubscribe. thus it has not sent any newsletters to that email address since!

I have added you back on the subscriber list for the new newsletter, so you should see it again moving forward!

I don't recall that. No wonder when I saw this post I thought, "What newsletter?" Looking forward to reading it.

 

[TUGBrian]

I have no doubt that many in the past have misclicked the spam or unsubscribe button/link...but unfortunately the software is pretty strict and there is really no way for me to know it was done on accident, it simply wont send emails to that address in the future!

you can click the link above to view last saturdays newsletter directly!

 

[TUGBrian]

some other fun facts from the newsletter! a number of things wont kick in until tomorrow when the 2nd edition goes out (comparisons etc)....and we have cleaned more than 500 emails from the distribution list from new bounces and or spam flags/similar. so im excited to see the results for tomorrow!

as for now:

congrats to dallas texas for being the winners here! =)