email for new world

[Dorian254]

i would like it if i got an email for a new world or some kind of message. i'm going to play next world and would like to know when it is going to happen

[Kamekono]

+1
an email notification to all players would be helpful

[vatas]

I can't find the post, but Loftar is worried that sending e-mail en masse will get their mail domain blacklisted.

[VDZ]

I can't find the post, but Loftar is worried that sending e-mail en masse will get their mail domain blacklisted.

It's this post in 'in client Game development meter request' (a thread that would be on page 1 instead of page 3 if it weren't for shubla's spam):

I don't think it is ever a good idea to announce far in advance how long it is until a world reset. It's no coincidence that the population drops off a cliff whenever we announce one.

I am asking that mainly because I was never able to join a world on the first week of its reset at the very least

If that is the problem that you want solved, I'd be more inclined to send a mail to all registered accounts when a world reset is announced. The main reason I haven't done so up until now is that I'm kind of worried about getting our mail servers blacklisted, however, and I'm not entirely sure how to properly handle that.

(Though regarding the population dropping off a cliff...)

There are 68 hearthlings playing.

Among these, there are 19 from United States of America, 18 from Russian Federation, 5 from Canada, 4 from Poland, and 3 from Australia.

Later that thread, I suggested making it opt-in instead:

How about an opt-in mailing list? I think a lot of people would be interested in getting an e-mail before world resets, and a specific 'tell me about new worlds' opt-in list would be far less likely to be seen as spam than mailing everyone who ever registered. (It may come at the expense of forum activity, though; at least for me part of why I still keep an eye on all Haven announcements is so I won't miss a world reset announcement.)

Though there hasn't been a post in that thread by the devs since then.

[loftar]

How about an opt-in mailing list? I think a lot of people would be interested in getting an e-mail before world resets, and a specific 'tell me about new worlds' opt-in list would be far less likely to be seen as spam than mailing everyone who ever registered. (It may come at the expense of forum activity, though; at least for me part of why I still keep an eye on all Haven announcements is so I won't miss a world reset announcement.)

If I were to do this, I think the way I'd go about it is to add an account setting for e-mail notifications with three levels: 1) No e-mails, 2) Very infrequent e-mails (world resets, pretty much, perhaps exceedingly major updates), and 3) More frequent notifications, perhaps every patch; and I'd probably set the default value to 2.

There are mainly two things I worry about, though; partly, as mentioned, the risk of getting our mail-servers and/or domain blacklisted; but I'm also a bit worried about having a too successful world launch. The last two resets were teetering right on the edge of server overload, and so if we can't handle more players than that for now, it may be actively harmful to bring in even more until that has been fixed.

[shubla]

There are mainly two things I worry about, though; partly, as mentioned, the risk of getting our mail-servers and/or domain blacklisted; but I'm also a bit worried about having a too successful world launch. The last two resets were teetering right on the edge of server overload, and so if we can't handle more players than that for now, it may be actively harmful to bring in even more until that has been fixed.

Now I see why you refuse to fix certain mechanics and ban certain individuals. You want to control the population so server wouldnt overload. Finally found the reason why you actively destroy your playerbase.

Not sure about email every update, they are often so frequent that one may just check the forums.

[VDZ]

There are mainly two things I worry about, though; partly, as mentioned, the risk of getting our mail-servers and/or domain blacklisted; but I'm also a bit worried about having a too successful world launch. The last two resets were teetering right on the edge of server overload, and so if we can't handle more players than that for now, it may be actively harmful to bring in even more until that has been fixed.

That sounds like a good problem to have, if you ask me? I assume Haven's infrastructure can't just be upscaled on-the-fly or you'd be doing that; is it economically infeasible to upgrade the server, or perhaps (dunno how your hosting works) start a world on a better server and migrate to a cheaper server once activity decreases? I imagine getting a bigger playerbase at least somewhat correlates to an increase in budget to work with.

If I were to do this, I think the way I'd go about it is to add an account setting for e-mail notifications with three levels: 1) No e-mails, 2) Very infrequent e-mails (world resets, pretty much, perhaps exceedingly major updates), and 3) More frequent notifications, perhaps every patch; and I'd probably set the default value to 2.

If e-mail blacklisting is your concern, an opt-out system seems a bit risky to me (even if it applies only to new accounts henceforth). Opt-in should be pretty low-risk, though.

Not sure about email every update, they are often so frequent that one may just check the forums.

I think it would be convenient if update news were proactively pushed to me, rather than having to check the forums constantly to see if there's an update. Of course, this could decrease activity on the forums depending on how many visit the forums mainly for the news.

[loftar]

Not sure about email every update, they are often so frequent that one may just check the forums.

I hardly think it hurts to have the option. You don't have to select it.

That sounds like a good problem to have, if you ask me? I assume Haven's infrastructure can't just be upscaled on-the-fly or you'd be doing that; is it economically infeasible to upgrade the server, or perhaps (dunno how your hosting works) start a world on a better server and migrate to a cheaper server once activity decreases? I imagine getting a bigger playerbase at least somewhat correlates to an increase in budget to work with.

The problem is that the server is still entirely single-threaded, so there aren't really any extremely meaningful hardware upgrades to be had to it. I have to parallelize the server to make that feasible, which is a somewhat large undertaking.

If e-mail blacklisting is your concern, an opt-out system seems a bit risky to me (even if it applies only to new accounts henceforth). Opt-in should be pretty low-risk, though.

True enough, but once the server has been parallelized, I imagine it would be a nice thing to actually send an e-mail about the next world reset to all accounts. It could make for quite a fun world if it works out well. And in that case, it wouldn't be nice if all account had already become opted-out by default. I guess I could add a fourth "shadow option" for the default, which could be repointed for anyone who hasn't explicitly select an option, if anything. It just seems a bit more confusing, UI-wise.

[shubla]

Not sure about email every update, they are often so frequent that one may just check the forums.

I hardly think it hurts to have the option. You don't have to select it.

I was thinking about the additional effort that comes with posting updates if you have to make sure that mail is delivered for it as well. But maybe it can use the same text as the forum post or something so it wouldn't require any manual overseer.

[loftar]

I was thinking about the additional effort that comes with posting updates if you have to make sure that mail is delivered for it as well. But maybe it can use the same text as the forum post or something so it wouldn't require any manual overseer.

Yeah, I wouldn't do that unless it could be automated.