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Using my.ptg.org as an old style mailing list

By Ronald Berry posted 03-22-2011 20:34

  
There are some who want to use this new system as an email system like we are used to. I include myself in that group. There are a few steps to make that work but it can be done.

Log in to the system

Set your email notifications
Go to Discussions>My Subscriptions and you will see a list of groups on this server. There are some at the top in bold that are ones you are already eligible for. 

First set the Mail format choice to TEXT (This sends messages in a small text format)
For each group that you want to follow with email, choose "PDA" (Stands for Personal Digital Assistant, these days that means mobile phone).
When you have selected the ones you want, click "Save" at the bottom right.

You will now receive emails from those groups.

To reply to a post from a group, just reply to the email the way you usually do. To start a new subject, reply to a message from that group and change the subject line to something else. 
In Gmail there is a not very obvious link "Edit Subject" under the To: field. 

You can start a new subject by sending a new message to
ptg_pianotechne@for the Pianotech group 
ptg_cautne@ for CAUT

The my.ptg.org software automatically quotes previous messages so edit out things that are quoted, just the way you did on older email systems.

Attachments don't post to the list from email, you have to post them from the web interface.

You can also view the groups and post to them from the my.ptg.org website. The discussions on Pianotech and CAUT are viewable to the public without being subscribed.

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04-18-2011 10:48

Ron, There are two issues that I know of with this pda/text email approach that make it unreliable in its present state.
1) When a person replies to an email as they have usually done, the RE: is dropped by the time it gets to my.ptg.org, thereby initiating a new thread with the same topic. This makes the View Thread a useless feature for all practical purposes.
2) The reply links at the bottom of the pda/text emails do not always work, returning error messages at times. A definite kink in the pda/text format.
Sincerely, Keith

04-08-2011 11:38

Great post, Ron!
If you have a hosted domain name like I do, "jim@moypiano.com" and are using Gmail as the agent for handling that mail, you may have to switch your email address in your ptg.org profile in order to make it work, because of the security features in Higher Logic (and/or Member Max?).
When I had my profile set to my jim@moypiano.com email, sending email to a discussion resulted in bounced emails saying I was not a member of the site or something to that effect. When I switched my profile email to my back-end Gmail address, moypiano@gmail.com, then things started flowing smoothly.
It would be nicer if the system could handle multiple, valid email addresses, but this is at least a workaround.
Jim