[Tralala]

Another idea I'm hoping you'll consider, Cyricx. I'm wondering if your ambitious hack is overlooking a very simple need, one that would satisfy the demands of a small (about 150-200 users) forum I'm administrating... and many others out there, I'm sure.

Your current mod allows for users to "subscribe" to forums (to receive every thread and post via email) as well as to post via email. Much appreciated. But it does require action on their part... action which is often too much to expect from the less active or less savvy members. That's why the request to allow moderators to set this for them-- or allowing auto-subscription to be the default -- is important. Without that, I fear a user's inactivity will spiral downward, without any email alerts, until they fade into oblivion with no participation at all.

But how about going in the other direction... affording users (in certain usergroups, if necessary) to be able to mass email out announcements to all other registered users, from within the forum interface?

Right now, only Admins can do this, from AdminCP. Under Users -> Send Email to Users. I'd like to afford that privilege to all of my users, without forcing them to "create a thread" (and involving your hack in its current incarnation) to do so.

Match the "from" address to be the same as their confirmed, registered one (and mask them from being able to change it) and it'd be a real winner, in my book.

On my small forum that's exactly what we'd need to finally be able to kick Yahoo! Mailing list to the curb.

In the meantime I have installed Super PM (Mass PM) and enabled it for individual users. But it's not the same -- PM alerts aren't received exactly as emails are (and are often ignored.) And users need to be added individually and manually to be able to use the hack. And that mod, apparently, in need of a vB 3.6.x port anyway. So it's not going to do the trick.

Right now, we're straddling the fence, using Yahoo! for email announcements, and vBulletin for interaction and discussion. It's annoying to me, because the member lists aren't in sync and it's becoming a nightmare to keep straight. Users are getting confused as to why we're maintaining both.

And yet, if someone wants to simply "email all registered users," the only way they can do this now is by using the Yahoo! mailing list. There's no such functionality in vBulletin.



Perhaps this hack may assist, at least for permissions: "Allow Users to eMail other Members" per Usergroup

I haven't seen any mod like this yet, and it would be a major boon for small forums that need the simple functionality of a mailing list. I think if users could have a easy way to blast out emails to all other users (for, say, very important announcements,) while still being able to use the forum as it was originally designed and intended, it would fit the bill for many, many folks hoping to migrate away from Yahoo!'s mailing list. And it leaves just enough incentive for folks to sign up and check out vBulletin, and start getting their feet wet with the forum interface for all other kinds of chat and discussion.

Whaddaya think?