Category Archives: Updates and Admin

Yahoo Mail’s overly enthusiastic bulk mail filter

Update: We’ve had a few reports of this same problem happening for Gmail users.  So… if you’re not receiving your FPF email, regardless of your email host (Yahoo, Gmail, etc.), please follow the steps below.

Original posting: Yahoo Mail‘s spam filter technology has a tough assignment… no doubt. But recently it started blocking many Front Porch Forum e-newsletters from our subscribers’ inboxes. Not only did these good folks sign up to receive their neighborhood newsletter, but they write it too. You can imagine how upset some people are becoming. Not much help forthcoming from the Yahoo monolith, so we’re sharing the message below with all FPF-subscribing Yahoo Mail users.

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For Yahoo Mail using Front Porch Forum Subscribers: Front Porch Forum (FPF) has learned that Yahoo Mail’s spam filter mistakenly thinks that some FPF neighborhood e-newsletters are spam. So, it’s likely that your Yahoo Mail inbox is not receiving your FPF neighborhood forum. PLEASE TAKE STEP 1 below and consider taking the other steps (DETAILS below):

1. Teach your Yahoo Mail spam filter to accept Front Porch Forum!
2. Provide FPF with a non-Yahoo email address.
3. Stick with Yahoo Mail, but use email client software instead of Yahoo Mail’s website.
4. Read your FPF neighborhood news on our website, instead of via email.

We regret this inconvenience. TAKING STEP 1 will help you and hundreds of other folks who have been cut off from their neighborhood news. Thank you!

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DETAILS for the steps above:

1. TEACH YOUR YAHOO MAIL SPAM FILTER to accept incoming email from Front Porch Forum by taking step A (please consider steps B and C too):

A. DESIGNATE FPF MESSAGES AS “NOT SPAM”:
– Go to http://mail.yahoo.com and sign into your Mail account.
– Click on Spam folder to see contents (do NOT click “Empty” next to the spam folder!)
– For any Front Porch Forum messages listed in the Spam folder, click to create a check-mark in the small box at the left.
– Go to the “Not Spam” icon just above the message list, and click once. This will move any checked messages into your Inbox.
– Yahoo says this should train your Yahoo spam filter to accept FPF messages (however some Yahoo Mail users have reported that this feature is not dependable). Repeat as needed.

If there is nothing in your Yahoo spam folder, chances are that you’ve set it to be emptied automatically and immediately. To fix this, go to “Options” (top right), then to “Mail Options” and then “Spam” (left-hand menu) and change the spam settings to empty your spam folder weekly or monthly. Then repeat step 1A above in a few days.

B. ADD FPF’S “FROM” ADDRESSES TO YOUR YAHOO CONTACT LIST:
– On Yahoo Mail website, open any email with an FPF address (especially one that was sent to spam folder), or click message to view it in the preview pane.
– Click the “Add” icon next to the “From” email address.
– At “Add Contact” dialog box, confirm email address and click “Save.”
– Alternately, you can click on the “Contacts” folder and add FPF address(es) manually.
– Addresses to add include: members@frontporchforum.com, neighbors@frontporchforum.com, and [YourNeighborhoodForum’sName]@frontporchforum.com

C. CREATE FILTERS TO ROUTE ANY FPF MESSAGES DIRECTLY TO YOUR INBOX:
– On Yahoo Mail website, go to “Options” (top right), then to “Mail Options” and then “Filters” (left-hand menu).
– Click on “Create or edit filters.”
– Click “Add.”
– Filter Name: “FPF” (for example).
– Under: “If all of the following rules are true:” designate “From header” / “ends with” / and enter “@frontporchforum.com”
– In “Then… Move the message to:”, choose “Inbox.”

2. PROVIDE FPF WITH A NON-YAHOO EMAIL ADDRESS: You can either (A) replace your Yahoo address as your FPF Primary Address with one from a different provider (gmail, hotmail, your employer/school, your ISP, etc.), or (B) add a secondary email address to your FPF account. To change your FPF account, go to http://frontporchforum.com and click “Log In.” Once logged in successfully, click on “Account” and make changes there. Or contact us directly (http://frontporchforum.com/about) and we’ll be happy to help.

3. Continue using your Yahoo email address, but USE EMAIL CLIENT SOFTWARE, such as Mozilla Thunderbird (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird), that will download your emails onto your computer for reading. The Yahoo Mail spam filter will be avoided this way.

4. READ YOUR FPF NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS ON OUR WEBSITE, instead of via email: If email fails altogether, or you want to look at any missed issues, you can read your FPF neighborhood news on our website. Go to http://frontporchforum.com and click “Log In.” Once logged in successfully, click on “Archives” and browse or search.