Dealing with the deluge
As you can probably imagine, with over 140,000 readers a month we get quite a lot of emails. Unfortunately the contact form plugin we’ve used until now to avoid being swamped in spam (which is what tends to happen if you just give out your direct email address) is a bit rubbish, and results in an inbox that looks like this:
Having 95% of your email listed as being from “Contact” or “Contact form” is, we can reveal, a major pain in the backside when it comes to keeping track of conversations.
Anyway, long story short, after a great deal of exceptionally tedious experimentation we finally seem to have found an alternative which fixes the problem (“Fast Secure Contact Form”, to be specific.) You won’t notice any difference when using it, as it’s basically identical to the old one, but it’s a lot nicer at this end.
Which is our way of saying that if you’ve sent in an article in the last few weeks, or just an email about something, and we rudely haven’t replied to you because it got lost in amongst hundreds of other ones that all looked the same, we apologise. Hopefully it shouldn’t happen again from now on. Or at the very least, not as much.
Bah Humbug 😉
Why am i suddenly thinking
Vote No and we promise we will see you alright – Which is our way of saying that if you’ve been messed about in the last 300 years, and we rudely haven’t recognised you because we got lost in amongst hundreds of other self-interests that all looked much more important, we apologise. Hopefully it shouldn’t happen again from now on. Or at the very least, not as much.
Rev,
better hope there are no “Happy Independence Day” internet cards next year. It will take while to get through 140,000 of those.
DESIMOND
do you want that thought slapped out off you
sorry for shouting
@gedboy…
i was expecting that from Stu for ripping off his article text! I wouldn’t be surprised if Better Together were here each day thinking “There must be something we can use!!”
@breastplate
Oh there’s an idea for a Wings Xmas Card
2013/2015 – Have a great Last Xmas under the Union
2014/2016 – Have a happy First Independent Xmas
Just resent an article to you on the the grounds that itmight have got lost rather than that you just thought it was crap!
Wow, WOS really is a full-time job, isn’t it? I had no idea you got so many emails from us lot.
Ah the wonders of modern technology. Sometimes I long for the days of pen and paper.
desimond
better together could search all year
if it was infront of them with a big red nose they would still walk passed it
but if it had a pie bailey would notice something was out off place
Just to be clear…we now have 2 Contact Tabs..one shows “Comments are Closed” and the other shows the old mails, ie from Bella etc.
So is the old one the new one? or the closed one the new one but just not yet opened?
desimond
everything is closed
send a smoke signal
“Just to be clear…we now have 2 Contact Tabs..one shows “Comments are Closed” and the other shows the old mails, ie from Bella etc.”
Whoops. Stupid plugins that don’t clean up after themselves properly when you delete them. Cheers for the heads-up.
I use Fast Secure Contact Form myself on Arc of Prosperity, and it works well. The only thing I’d like to add is that I’ve never seen any other plugin that gets updated as frequently (not that I imagine that would cause any problems at all for WoS).
Gedboy
In an Independent Scotland there will be no smoke, only fire(d) MPs!
desimond
fired MPs blowing bubbles
stu
is plugins not an air-freshner
me thinks you need to get out more
“I had no idea you got so many emails from us lot.”
My Gmail inbox, which is used almost exclusively for Wings business, currently has 3,301 emails in it.
Crowd funder for a part time assistant?
Desimond
You got me thinking of trying to imagine myself as a 100% No Voter unionist. After the referendum a No victory, things start to change.
They start to cut funding for Scotland. To save money, they by-pass the Scottish Parliament and send it to local government authorities, Scottish MP’s get less voting powers in Parliament. Scotland will become the forgotten place in Northern Britain.
Just a few of the consequences of a No vote. Now, I am trying hard to get excited about that prospect, but it is just not happening.
I will be sticking with Yes.
Even trying to imagine being a No Voter for a couple of minutes is just too depressing.
Can I just say that I have never sent an email but as soon as I can figure out how you get them in the envelope there will be no stopping me.
@caz-m
If nothing else, putting up that wee reminder of whats been and whats to come helps reinforce our belief ( not that its ever wavering mind) that theres only 1 option to vote for on that Ballot Paper and we must do all we can to get that majority.
If it helps a NO or a Dont Know even think “Hmmm” for a second, well that’s even better,
The choice is stark
Independence Day celebrations
or
Forever shamefacedly tell your children “I had a chance to leave this madness but I bottled it”
handandshrimp
then ask your kids to jump into the skip
and toss out the boxes for a dry bed
There is only 10 emails there. Quit moaning Rev.
: )
I sent an article and a scan of an unacceptable Better Tother leaflet in the last couple of weeks I’ll send them again
I guess being a victim of your own success in a small way isn’t such a bad thing, sometimes.
@ Dave McEwan Hill O/T
Hey Dave hope you’ve seen this
On Friday 13th and Saturday 14th December Better Together is going to be out in Dunoon, taking our positive message to local people.
We will be meeting at 10:00am by the Dunoon Co-op car park on Queen Street on both days and will be spending a couple of hours delivering our new leaflets on our positive case for Scotland remaining a strong part of the UK.
(back at the Co-Op we see)
@Doug
Wow, WOS really is a full-time job, isn’t it?
And don’t forget the time Stu spends editing articles from contributors. He must have put in at least two hours of time on my Schengen piece (and much improved it). Plus I bet he checks every link…
Worth an 11% pay rise a lot more than some, I reckon
I thought the “deluge” in the headline referred to some unprecedented peak of traffic to WoS because of its hard-hitting articles, as it’s been so hard to get through for the past few days.
On top of that, my ISP had some glitsch today. I finally got back online just in time to see Eileen McLeod MSP (South Scotland) saying in the Holyrood chamber that ice hockey U20 world championships are being held in Dumfries this week.
What?!
I’d thought the Finnish little lions were going to Malmö, Sweden after Christmas for the world champs.
OK, Dumfies are having the U20 third tier tournament. IIHF has the championship tier and then lower tiers, and all the tiers play “world championships” every year and the best of the lower tiers get promoted to the tier above and the worst get relegated to the tier below. (Finland has always been in the top tier [smug smiley here].) The most legendary ice hockey score I’ve ever seen was after the Soviet Union broke up and Kazakstan beat Australia 47-0. (A score of 5-0 would be called slaughter in the top tier.) That game only happened because Kazahkstan had to start from the bottom but now they’re back in the top tier, among the 16 teams that play for the World Championship.
Anyway, good on Dumfries, for hosting the lower tier IIHF tournament, and locals and the council apparently getting behind it and promoting the event. Apparently even the Stanley Cup will visit the town.
Bit later on in that debate (on young people’s sport participation) the redoubtable Margo MacDonald made a bold call for Scotland to concentrate on winter sports. Sports that suit the Scottish climate.
Oooo, to even suggest a shift away from football, brave woman indeed!
Still, I can’t see Scotland as a wintersports superpower like the Scandinavian countries and central European Alpine countries and Russia and ex-USSR countries and USA and Canada. Though, with independence, all those Canadian ice-hockey players with a Scottish granny might play for Scotland… 😉
Gordoz
We’re out tomorrow, meeting 11am at the YES shop in Dunoon (weather permitting).
Sorry Dave –
Xmas shopping with wife planned ages ago for tomorrow or would come out to help – will drop in to YES Shop to try and help out in some way.
Will visit Co-op above; can’t wait to hear this so called ‘positive message’ ‘Better with Britain’ if it goes beyond one side of A4 I will be gobsmacked.
Sure there will be a distinct lack of Union Jacks as always. Cant wait to ask difficult questions of them its always a great laugh.
Aye REV,ma e mail must have been caught up in your filter tae,
I sent a wee present £ on Frid 6/10 to your bank acc jist wanted to know you had got it, reply either in post up or e mail , and chinge that donation method to a more variable option
“Oh there’s an idea for a Wings Xmas Card
2013/2015 – Have a great Last Xmas under the Union
2014/2016 – Have a happy First Independent Xmas”
Some years ago, I drew a Xmas card for independence cause legend Niall Aslen who was rather poorly at the time. Subsequently, he gave permission for it to be used for promoting Independence First and other pro-indy causes. When I read your post I reckoned it must be about time for another WOS version.
Bravo Chic…that is brilliant…Rev..your Xmas hold page is sorted!!