Serendipity Forums

I run a fishing tournament and I have about 70 anglers entered and registered as members in my blog http://976fish.com/cblog/. The tournament begins May 25th. I want to be able to broadcast my entries to my members.

1. Is this possible?
2. How do I set it up?

If the solution is to export my entries to a mailing list, how do I set that up?

The easiest way is built in: have them use an RSS reader to read your RSS feed.

The next easiest way is not built in, but is provided with every installation: install the "Send Entries via E-mail" plugin and configure it to point to a mailing list. Just set up a Yahoo mailing list and register all your members with it. Then they'll get an email each time you create a new entry.

Yes, that is what I would like to do. So, altho I have the e-mail addresses of all my members and they want to be notified, I still have to go outside of the blog to broadcast new entires to my list of members?

Does the mailing list have to be thru Yahoo? I currently use Outlook. Would it be better to simply move my blog to a Yahoo blog?

No, the mailing list does not have to be through Yahoo; it could be any mailing list you like. I believe Yahoo allows you "invite" people to their mailing lists.

A Yahoo blog would certainly not be better for my purposes. I guess a lot of our users feel the same way. But you need to find what's right for you and your purposes.

The problem with sending multiple emails is that it could cause Serendipity to be recognized as a spammer's tool. We've spent so much time making it secure, we wouldn't want to be involved with anything like that. Additionally, sending multiple emails can take a lot of the script/CPU time, and many services don't allow it.

Even so, you could write a plugin that would do the job. And since you already have their emails, you could make your own distribution list in Outlook (or any other email client). Then you could have Serendipity send the mail to you, and you could forward it to your list.

So that is how it is done, you basically send it to yourself, and then you forward it to a group? Seems convoluted, but I can see making it work, thanks.

Well, that's ONE way. The more modern way, as I mentioned before, is to let them use RSS readers to subscribe to your blog. RSS was almost specifically designed to eliminate the internet stress caused by email. A little more archaic is sending the notification email to a mailing list; it's possible Feedburner or other RSS services could do this for you. You could also design a plugin that turns Serendipity into a mailing list (although we haven't done that ourselves to avoid the spam tarbrush), or work around the whole issue by using the distribution list capabilities of your email client.

You've just gotta pick the one that fits you best.

I understand RSS to be a more modern tool, however, it is so modern that I do not know how to use it. And, if I do not, I can guarantee that my members do not, so...what happens if I put a string of e-mail addresses into the field entry box where it says to put in a specific e-mail address?

Also, on a different topic, I have over 6000 comments from spammers that used trackbacks on my site. I have closed the loophole so I do not get these anymore, but is there a way to 'select all' and delete all the old comments?

I did not believe that rss is too modern!

What Browsers use your members? Whatever they use, it is unimportant! If they use a modern version of Opera or Mozilla or even the actual InternetExplorer: all these are able to use rss! The user has to click onto the rss-symbol and everything is fine!

Afishinado wrote:I understand RSS to be a more modern tool, however, it is so modern that I do not know how to use it. And, if I do not, I can guarantee that my members do not, so...what happens if I put a string of e-mail addresses into the field entry box where it says to put in a specific e-mail address?

It would fail, probably quietly.

As stm9x9 states, any modern browser can handle RSS feeds. It creates a "Live Bookmark", which constantly changes to show you the latest entries in the blog. I like using the "Reader" application on my Google home page. Just sign up for a Google account, add the reader to your home page, and copy the RSS link to the reader. Now every time you visit Google, you get to see all the updated posts in all the blogs you subscribe to.

Afishinado wrote: Also, on a different topic, I have over 6000 comments from spammers that used trackbacks on my site. I have closed the loophole so I do not get these anymore, but is there a way to 'select all' and delete all the old comments?

Sort of. There should be an "invert selection" checkbox; I believe it's near the bottom. If you click this when nothing is selected, it will select everything on the page. Then you can delete them with one click.