Topic: E-mail read receipts

[chorleydave]

That's a good idea, Simon.  I do have a signature with links to some of my favourite websites (including PC-Pals) but I have to add it manually, as I haven't set it up to automatically append itself to the end of every e-mail.  I could set up a separate signature confirming that e-mails have been virus checked, couldn't I?

I'll set it up now before I forget.

Cheers, Simon.  

[chorleydave]

Hmmm!  Outlook Express is more advanced than I thought when it comes to adding signatures.  I've just clicked on the "Advanced" button and have discovered that I can choose a different signature to add to each account.  Now, I have my own AVG signature (without the  tech stuff) automatically added to my Yahoo account and the my own AVG sig PLUS the links to my fave sites added to the domain account I use for personal (friends and family) e-mails.

Strange, I haven't noticed this facility before.   Is it new to OE6?

[Simon]

Not sure if it's new to OE6, but it's a neat trick!  I'll have to investigate Outlook and see if it does the same.  

[chorleydave]

Hmmm!  Outlook Express is more advanced than I thought when it comes to adding signatures.  I've just clicked on the "Advanced" button and have discovered that I can choose a different signature to add to each account.  Now, I have my own AVG signature (without the  tech stuff) automatically added to my Yahoo account and the my own AVG sig PLUS the links to my fave sites added to the domain account I use for personal (friends and family) e-mails.

Strange, I haven't noticed this facility before.   Is it new to OE6?

Lol.  Typical Microsoft.  The feature is built-in, the help file goes into detail on how to set it up, BUT IT DOESN'T WORK!!!!!  No matter which signature you ascribe to a particular account, it will always load the default signature!

It's not only me.  I've just spent two hours searching the Newsgroups to try and solve this.  Hundreds of users report  this problem.  Guess what?  Microsoft's official line is that it is "by design".  They suggest you add signatures manually if you want to use more than one!

What on earth is the point of building in a feature that "by design" doesn't work.  Why can't Microsoft be honest for once and admit that it is a bug or flaw that will not be fixed?

Does anyone agree with me that ALL Microsoft products should be given away free as magazine cover disks, as they are basically all in the beta stage?

   

[Clive]

:good:   I doubt if anyone would disagree with you Dave.  

[Simon]

I agree.  

I am using Mozilla at the moment, and it definitely works in their mail client.  You create your signatures in a text program (Notepad / Word / Composer etc), save them as files, and you can append whichever file you like to your outgoing mail, in each individual account.

[chorleydave]

Well, I've been using MSGTAG for two weeks now and I don't know how I managed without it.  Has worked so well, I am now considering upgrading to the paid [cough] version, although that isn't really necessary because it is just as easy to leave sent messages in the "Sent Items" folder until you receive notification that the sent message has been read.

[Rodders]

I use MSGTAG, too.  And, in fact, all of Nick Boltons's products.  MSGTAG is very handy and Mailwasher Pro is truly indispensible, but the real beauty of the bunch is Firetrust Benign.  Just do it, ok!

 

[ketamininja]

I'm not sure I would want anyone to see when I opened an email, or not. I'm sure it has thousands of benefits, not least including and SPAM senders knowing if that address is in use.

I am not happy with a receipt like that - I would regard that as spyware? Use of my CPU and bandwidth to send information to another user without my knowledge?

Oh, hi all btw - been away for ages  

[Simon]

Welcome back, K!  Nice to see you again.  

[chorleydave]

I'm afraid I've found another fault in MSGTAG.

I was testing a new e-mail address which I have set up on my domain.  However, MSGTAG did not send a tag.  After investigation, I discovered that this is because I have the option "Read Messages in Plain Text" ticked in Outlook Express 6 SP1.  This option is a security feature to prevent web bugs amongst other things.  Once I had disabled the option and sent another test message, I received a tag.  Therefore, it would appear that any software that weeds out web bugs, including the OE6 SP1 basic effort, blocks MSGTAG's system.

Oh well, I'll stick with it for the time being, until I find something better.

[Rodders]

Well, tell the author, Nick Bolton, about it, then Dave.  Firetrust are usually pretty responsive on these issues (unless everyone else also happens to be reporting the same problem, too).

[chorleydave]

Hi Rodders.

I've sent a message via the feedback form on the MSGTAG.com website.  I'll keep you updated when I have a reply.

ps.  Re: your other problem (internet access) you have a PM)

[chorleydave]

I have now had a reply from MSGTAG.

Hi Dave,
 
Thanks for writing,

 You are correct in your observation that OE6's "Read Messages in Plain Text" options will prevent notifications from being returned. The MSGTAG notification is triggered by someone opening the e-mail you sent in an HTML capable e- mail client. Most of the major e-mail programs will trigger the tag, but  there are some people who don't use HTML rendering e-mail clients, or have security settings that will mean that the notification isn't triggered.  The tagging feature of MSGTAG requires HTML capable readers to activate the tags. There is no possible mechanism to do this in plain text email unfortunately.

I hope this explains the situation, and this isn't too much of an inconvenience for you,

 Feel free to let me know if you ever have any further questions, problems, or comments on MSGTAG!

 Regards,

Charles Horn,

Customer Support Representative
MSGTAG
Fisher Young Group Limited
http://www.msgtag.com/support/

Therefore, for anyone still considering Message Tag, the negatives are:

1) The reader has to be connected to the internet while opening the mail for a tag to be sent.  Downloading mail, diconnecting and then reading offline = no tag notification.

2) The program only works if HTML is enabled in the recipients client.

The positive is that except for the test e-mail I sent to myself with HTML disabled, I have received a notification for every e-mail I have tagged.