Welcome to FlyerTalk! I cannot help you with getting email notifications for forum subscriptions, but in case you're not already aware, the MyFlyerTalk feature may work equally well or better:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...yflyertalk.jpg

If you set MyFlyerTalk as your FT bookmark, you can easily check in to see the status of your subscribed threads and forums. In the screenshot below, subscribed threads with new activity appear at the top (orange box) — only threads with new posts are listed. Subscribed forums with new posts or threads are indicated by a bulletin board icon with two papers (green circle), while forums with no new activity have a greyed out icon with only one sheet of paper (purple circle):

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...yflyertalk.jpg

I'm not receiving my instant notifications, it's probably just me?

We do sometimes have issues where users with AOL, Yahoo or Hotmail email addresses stop getting them. The only solution we have found is to change your email addy to gmail or the like.

I'm no longer getting email notifications of new posts on subscribed threads.

This happened some weeks ago. I don't know exactly when because we were first on a transatlantic cruise and then in various parts of Europe and China so I didn't notice when the posts stopped appearing in my inbox.

Is there anything to be done?

A belated thanks to IBobi for responding via PM. This problem hits my Comcast email address as well. I realize a few months later that I'm visiting FT far less often than back when I received immediate email notifications, but maybe that's okay. ;)

Daily Notification issue (to merge)
 

the daily email updates stopped coming. Is there an issue with FT?

As this is a question about FT, will move this to the FT Technical Support and Feedback Forum

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

Thanks
 

thank you. Please advise

Jim, I've PMed you to get a little more information.

thanks replied.

Yeah, something seems to be up I haven't gotten any instant thread updates or daily thread updates since August 9 a little after midnight. Everything cut off at that point

same date, same issue

It looks like I started getting at least some notifications today (first one came in at 2:48pm PDT)

agree, my daily emails have restarted.

Good to hear it!

thanks!

In the past 24 or so hours I haven't received any email notifications of new posts in threads I'm subscribed to. Six or so hours ago I even contributed a post to an existing thread which has received about a dozen subsequent posts and still no email notifications.

My subscriptions still show as instant notification when I look at them in my profile.

Has something changed?

I received notifications of updates to a thread I monitor in a forum I rarely frequent (the last time was this morning). I've been on the instant update notification list for several years. I've received these update emails except when I fail to visit the thread, and until after I next visit the thread. Once I ignored the update notification, and the next time I visited the thread there had been several posts added updating the thread. I was not notified, but that's as it should be according to this feature's design.

I don't know if this has anything to do with your situation or not, but it does seem to explain why some others aren't getting notifications.

I've been a member of FT since 2002 and have always received email notifications of subscribed threads, barring the odd sporadic problem, until some months ago.

Comcast has been my email provider for many years but I was told by an administrator that I might have to change my email address to a gmail account in order to start receiving notifications again, a solution which would not be practical for me.

In other words, one's email address may also be the factor.

I'm somehow getting unsubscribed from a thread I have set as instant notification in the Miles Buzz forum (the Marriott tweeting thread). Can't figure out why. I keep resubscribing, and it keeps dropping off. I get a few emails then it stops, and no longer shows up as a subscribed thread. Does not seem to matter whether I access the thread from my phone, my ipad or my desktop computer.

Any idea why?

Hmmm. I changed my email address and that seems to have fixed it. It's odd though as the new email address uses the same domain.

:eek: That's good to know! Thanks.

Could you link the thread (or PM me, if you'd rather) so I can take a look? That seems pretty unusual.

PM sent. Thanks.

I haven't had an updated thread notification for 3 or 4 weeks now, despite the subscriptions still looking unchanged. TalkMail still gets through though.

Interesting. I'm not the only one then.

I didn't know TalkMail was still being published. I no longer get that either.

PM [MENTION=790438]IBJoel[/MENTION] if you want your name re-added to the TM mailing list.

same here, and I can't receive activation emails either. It's a hotmail address.
I changed my notifications to a gmail address I use and now I get them, but my hotmail address is my primary email

My primary address is a Comcast address. I also have a Hotmail address. Those are hardly unknown but almost 15 years after I first joined FT they are no longer viable options to get FT notifications. :confused:

My company deals with thousands of transactional (not marketing) emails each day.

Comcast is one of the worst for deliverability. Many emails sent to Comcast accounts never generate a bounce but also never actually show up anywhere in the recipient's email account (inbox, spam folder, etc.). They just disappear into the ether.

My experience both at work and at home is that if you want a reliable (and free) email address that both minimizes email deliverability problems and also pretty much effectively blocks spam (without many false positives), you should use Gmail.

In general, there's rarely a good reason to use an ISP-issued email address. Email is not a profit center for ISPs, so they don't invest in good infrastructure. The back-end processes are poor and the front-end UI is usually poor as well. The only reason the ISPs even still bother to provide email accounts is because they know it increases friction for users who want to switch to another ISP. If another company comes along with a better speed, a better price, better service, etc. and you decide to cancel Comcast, it's going to be a massive headache to log into every site you've ever done business with and update your email address to your new account. The hassle involved with that means that you may think twice about switching, even if the other ISP is better.

Email service providers that focus 100% on email tend to do a better job developing and maintaining their infrastructure as well as being on the forefront of technologies that serve to maximize the delivery of legitimate email and minimize issues with illegitimate messages (spam, etc.), like SPF/DKIM/DMARC/etc.

I'm currently trialing Fastmail. It's a paid service, but they seem to offer an very reliable, rock-solid, and customizable product, plus (since it's their main business and revenue stream) they are on the cutting edge of support for new developments in email technology and standards. It lacks a few of Gmail's bells and whistles (and I'm missing Gmail's "All Mail" mailbox and search functionality), but I've appreciated a lot of the settings I can tweak under the hood to make it work how I need it to. I doubt I'll make it my primary email (I'm too reliant on Gmail's search function to keep my life organized), but it has its uses for me as a secondary account and works better than just about any other non-Gmail provider I've seen (and better than Gmail for a few things).

Thanks for your comprehensive and useful comments. ^

As it happens, I'm not a fan of Google and GMail (nor of Comcast), but that's neither here nor there. As you write, to change email addresses is a massive headache, certainly when it's been my primary address for 12 years.

Is there a list somewhere of FT-approved email addresses? I haven't encountered another company refusing to email me because I have a Comcast email address, and this still perplexes me.

It would be annoying to go through the hassle of changing my email address only to learn that the new one doesn't qualify to receive subscription notifications.

It's not that FT has to approve an email address or is refusing to email you.

FT is emailing you, and Comcast is not delivering them to your inbox. The blame lies squarely on Comcast.

The blame would lie on FT if they were out of compliance with email standards. But a glance at the email headers reveals they are properly signing the emails as industry best practice dictates:

It's not on FT. It's 100% on Comcast. The only two possible solutions are:

1) Choose a more reliable email provider than Comcast (I've provided advice on those lines above)
2) Contact Comcast and request they fix the problem with their email service (good luck)

The only way to know for sure that a different email address you set up will be either to test it yourself or rely on recommendations from others here vouching that a particular service works.

And I will vouch that I have never had a single email issue with Gmail, ever, in the 12 years I've had my multiple accounts with them, both personal and work. This includes emails from FT.

(I would also be cautiously optimistic that Fastmail would work well, too, but cannot vouch for them as I have not truly extensively tested it yet.)

Others may be able to vouch for other services. I will say that the likelihood of having problems decreases significantly when you use a dedicated email service rather than an ISP's, which is usually an afterthought for them.

You don't need to change your entire email account at once. Set up an account with another provider, change your FT email address to it, and test it for awhile. If it works well and you like the interface, then you can start switching things over. Or, perhaps even better, use a dedicated email client like Thunderbird or Windows Mail or something and aggregate multiple accounts into a single virtual inbox. Then you can get your FT emails in a good account that works well to receive them and leave everything else in your Comcast account to save the headache of switching. Or set up forwarding from your Comcast account to your new account so all emails just get forwarded to your new one. (You can then decide which address to give others in the future to message you at, but it won't matter, as it'll all go to the same inbox.)

Thanks very much for this additional information. ^ Actually, this doesn't surprise me.

I've experienced problems over the years not receiving emails from Canada, Australia, and the UK. In some cases, the senders have had emails bounced back, and in other cases the emails have simply disappeared, which is of course even worse. :mad: Comcast's explanations have been lame and I realize that problem could recur at any time, although fortunately it hasn't for several of the same email addresses for a few years now.

Maybe it's time to immerse myself in the nightmare of changing email addresses.

Cheers,
Fredd

IMO, GMail is the best answer. I've not had problems with delivery, though GMail is very efficacious at intercepting spam.

Thanks! ^

Being retired and having time on my hands, I've just tried jackal's option 2 ("Contact Comcast and request they fix the problem with their email service (good luck)"). :D

Two phone calls later I was directed to the webmaster.comcast.net site, where I filled out a request form for "unblocking." The form seems designed more for a sender of blocked emails than the receiver, but there was at least a pulldown allowing me to identify myself as a Comcast subscriber. The IP address and official domain name jackal supplied were very useful, at least in terms of completing the form.

That took close to an hour, and I think I'll now invest some time more productively in checking out some email alternatives, including GMail.

Update... At least the form reply was prompt:

Update: I changed my FT email address to my Hotmail address and it's working like a charm for now as far as subscription notifications.

I'm not in the US and I don't use Comcast but I've still had the non-delivery issue.

Would also suggest that you first buy a domain name so that from now on out if you change your "real" email inbox address, you simply have to update the forwarding address on your domain name's control panel.

Ongoingly, then, you simply start using [email protected] (or whatever) and let it forward to gmail or comcast or whomever where you pick it up.

I've had our own family domain name for almost 20 years and it's money very well spent.

also not receiving emails on hotmail and have ATT internet, receiving through gmail address

Email notification fiasco! Please help!
 

A few days ago, I suddenly began receiving email notifications for all posts in the threads to which I'm subscribed. I've never wanted emails, and I've always subscribed with no emails.

What the heck happened? Is there a glitch that turned on my email notifications for all of my threads? Has anyone else experienced this?