TOPIC:

I have been trying to set up a club Twitter account with any of the emails provided by Toastmasters:
twitter.com/TMSkillBuilders

So far NONE of these emails will forward the confirmation email to my personal email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) which I have entered as primary contact for the club

The Twitter account needs me to
"Confirm your email address to access all of Twitter's features. A confirmation message was sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. "

I've tried all of these addresses to no avail.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I believe I have checked all the appropriate boxes in toastmasterclubs.org admin to allow this forwarding to happen, plus checked spam, promotions etc in my gmail) .
It just isn't happening.

I need assistance .
Thanks


Pat Kelley

I have checked the server logs and I do not see any email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. except the one you sent.

I believe that is the issue. Something is not connecting the dots
I have already diagnosed this as an issue, what I need is to get the connection to actually work. All seems fine on the surface,

I have gone through all instructions concerning setting up officer emails and the vppr email to forward to my personal email pkelley9. I have done what I can. set up my personal email and establish myself as an officer with the vppr to go to my personal email. My profile is set to public. The instructions are not helpful for troubleshooting.

You responded:
I have checked the server logs and I do not see any email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. except the one you sent.

now what?

Verify that you entered the email address correctly in Twitter.... misspellings are more common than you may think.

I just copy and paste as the emails are provided - no spaces, etc. I am entering them correctly.

I have entered these so far:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

and I am listed as a contact for ALL of them.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. is for internal use only by the system.
I will be ditching that email address in the near future, anyway, so if you use that, you will be creating problems for yourself.

The public equivalent is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ... please use that instead after enabling it in Email and Contact forms.

Also, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. will not work for use by external websites unless you whitelist the email address that the emails are coming from.

I think you need to get more familiar with how the system designates certain email addresses for public use, members only use, and officers only use. Those are enforced by the system. Please review the following doc: support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc/item/email-lists-and-aliases

Ok, I just looked at your club website. Your assertion "and I am listed as a contact for ALL of them." is not entirely correct.

You are not listed as the admin, so emails to the admin email address will not go to you. If you want to use that for some external website like Twitter typically you would temporarily set yourself as the admin so that you can get the opt-in confirmation email from them and click the confirmation link in it, then you would set the role back to the original person once the address is confirmed.

You are listed as the vppr, so that address should work unless you disable it via your member profile. A simple way to verify that your email address is working is to just send an email to the vppr address (send an email to yourself).

I will, and have poured over these overly wordy instructions. I find them confusing.

Most people in charge of maintaining club websites are fairly technically-challenged and as a retired web designer I am so-so technically savvy for the most part.
I believe instructions should be super simple - especially these days of fast-paced, drag and drop simplicity.
People - volunteers - should not be required to sift through techno-babble explaining the ins and outs and whys.
Make it simple.

Ya, I noticed that. I had put my email in first as admin contact but when it did not forward any of the emails I changed it back to the club pres email and asked her to put me in as admin.

The email came to me from the contact email form.
But when I enter it into the Twitter page I still get nothing.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This is a Contact Us form submission from your Toastmasters club website at skillbuilders.toastmastersclubs.org. If you are replying to this person, note that replies are typically also sent to other club contacts so any other members/officers receiving this will know that this person has been responded to.

---

Contact Details

---

Contact Name: pat kelley
Contact E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Contact Phone:
Contact Source: testing - again
Message: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Include in future emails
about Meetings & Events: NO

OH, and the admins - officers, et al, are not receiving the verification emails from Twitter either

patskelley wrote:

People - volunteers - should not be required to sift through techno-babble explaining the ins and outs and whys. Make it simple.

Well, we are all volunteers and Toastmasters, like you, also. I do not think it is unreasonable to expect web admins to learn some new things. We try to make this as simple as possible, but there are some technical aspects of websites, and what seems simple to us may not seem so to other people.

If you have specific suggestions on how to improve our documentation, I would recommend posting those so that we can make the appropriate improvements.

On the page of instructions suggested above
I see nothing new there that I haven't tried already

support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc/item/email-lists-and-aliases

I did notice this sentence concerning the contact-email
The contact-nnnn email address is sometimes turned off if it has been a magnet for spam. If it's not working, this may be why.

Pat I want to thank you for volunteering to help improve the documentation, all documentation has been created and updated but volunteers such as yourself. Please send any of the documentation you update.

All I can suggest is KISS instructions.

get a technical writer - perform tests on real live people to see if what you say is what others understand.
programmers are notoriously bad at technical instructions because they "know" and skip over steps because they "know"

I do know how to write simple technical instructions but first I have to succeed in making a thing work before I can make simple instructions. which I am very willing to do.

patskelley wrote:

get a technical writer - perform tests on real live people to see if what you say is what others understand.
programmers are notoriously bad at technical instructions because they "know" and skip over steps because they "know"

Keep in mind that we have zero budget, the system works on a donated server, we use all open-source software and tools, and all support and development (me) is done w/ strictly volunteer labor. (All are Toastmasters members.) I have a totally different day job (not IT at all) and I only do the development/updates as a spare time hobby.

As such, we do encourage and want input and support from our user base... that is kind of implicitly "part of the deal". If you have specific suggestions for documentation updates, then please post those. support.toastmastersclubs.org/documentat...eedback/topic/create

Lastly, given our constraints, patience and persistence is always warranted. Keep in mind that I am trying to sort out what will work best for that vast majority of clubs using the system... So if you make improvement suggestions, you will get much further with me if you frame your proposal in terms of how it will help the majority of clubs using the system. (as opposed to just yours) Also, keep in mind that I am always weighing how to prioritize the limited time I invest in updates to the system... not all of that is always obvious.

I understand, we are all volunteers.

As yet I still am unable to make the system forward to my email as a VPPR.
This should be simple, I should only have to designate myself as vppr with my pkelley9 as my contact. Why it is not working is a mystery.
I believe I have followed all instructions as they are written
I have no access to functionary behind the scenes technical editing to be able to ferret out what is not connecting.
Just trying to make it work as a user.

be glad to help, I am a good web designer and writer - but I gotta get the email to work first.

patskelley wrote:

be glad to help, I am a good web designer and writer - but I gotta get the email to work first.

Understood... Brian (or any other FTH "Ambassador") can look at our email logs to determine what is coming and going to/from the system. I have to do my paying day job now... I will check in later.

I noticed on the
Use "System" Email Black List NEW!

The contents of the black list have several gmail.com entries.
Could this be blocking legitimate gmail emails?

·.·.······@gmail.com
···.······@gmail.com
····.··········@gmail.com
·····.···@gmail.com
·····.·····@gmail.com
·····.········@gmail.com
······.······@gmail.com
······.·········@gmail.com
·······.·····@gmail.com
·······.······.···@gmail.com
········.·············@gmail.com
·········@gmail.com

etc...

plus
········-·······@linkedin.com
········@yahoo.com
·········@aol.com

····_·······@yahoo.com

Until this is figured out either use your own email address or create a Gmail address for you club and document it.

Oh how I wish I could!
I already have personal Twitter and Facebook accounts.
When I use my own personal email both Twit and fb ball them all up and combine my personal rants and raves with the TM site. Not...uh...good since I am a crank, and my rants do not belong on TM - ha ha

patskelley wrote:

I noticed on the
Use "System" Email Black List NEW!

The contents of the black list have several gmail.com entries.
Could this be blocking legitimate gmail emails?

·.·.······@gmail.com
···.······@gmail.com
····.··········@gmail.com
·····.···@gmail.com
·····.·····@gmail.com
·····.········@gmail.com
······.······@gmail.com
······.·········@gmail.com
·······.·····@gmail.com
·······.······.···@gmail.com
········.·············@gmail.com
·········@gmail.com

etc...

plus
········-·······@linkedin.com
········@yahoo.com
·········@aol.com

····_·······@yahoo.com

No, that would only block emails *from* those gmail addresses.

Please do us a favor and send a test email from your gmail account to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Wait a few minutes (<5 mins) and you should get the email back in your gmail inbox. Please post back here whether you got it or not.

And then again... if it is not forwarding to my personal gmail, it probably won't forward to any gmail or new email account either...but it's a great idea to get a tm gmail, so I will get on that right away. Thanks