Send a message-error

when i try to send a message for all the people of the ward, from the website appear this message "recipients have opted out or do not have an email address in Ward Directory / MLS ",why appear that message? and how i can resolve?

Due to the local laws, some countries (like in the U.S.) allow "Opt-out" in having their emails listed. But others (like the U.K.) require "Opt-in" which seriously limits what can be done. I'm not sure what the laws are for Guatemala. It's entirely possible that no one has opted in and so there are no emails available.

With a list the size of the whole ward I don't know how well this will work, but I typically send to members of the ward council. When I get that message, I compare the list of people showing in the Recipients section with those who should get the email. For those not on the list I go to the directory and when I look at their profile, something about it is set to a privacy other than Stake Visibility, or they don't have an email address entered.

JonesRK wrote:With a list the size of the whole ward I don't know how well this will work, but I typically send to members of the ward council. When I get that message, I compare the list of people showing in the Recipients section with those who should get the email. For those not on the list I go to the directory and when I look at their profile, something about it is set to a privacy other than Stake Visibility, or they don't have an email address entered.

You're saying that it only takes one person with privacy settings to create the problem? I'd have assumed that it would only happen if for whatever reason, no addresses were returned for the entire list. Either way, it sounds like a bug.

RussellHltn wrote:You're saying that it only takes one person with privacy settings to create the problem? I'd have assumed that it would only happen if for whatever reason, no addresses were returned for the entire list. Either way, it sounds like a bug.

For me when I see the message, everyone else that has an email without a privacy setting shows up. The message is just a warning that you didn't get everyone that you were expecting to.

So in the example from last weekend, I selected ward council for one of the wards in my stake, I received the message that

1 recipients have opted out or do not have an email address in Ward Directory / MLS

I looked at the recipient list and there were 12 people listed instead of the usual 13. In looking through the list that ward has a new primary president without an email.

RussellHltn wrote:You're saying that it only takes one person with privacy settings to create the problem? I'd have assumed that it would only happen if for whatever reason, no addresses were returned for the entire list. Either way, it sounds like a bug.

I don't see any bug here. The Send a Message feature excludes those who have their privacy settings set such that they don't receive messages. That could be anywhere from 0 to all members in the target distribution list.

The original post simply said that the message "recipients have opted out or do not have an email address in Ward Directory / MLS" appeared. You seem to have assumed that this message appears only if there are "no emails available." But that's not how it works. If there is at least one person in the target distribution list who does not have an email address or who has restricted their email address visibility, that message will appear.

What's more, the message "recipients have opted out..." has a link for "View all". When you click that, you will see the entire list of all those who have no email address or have restricted their email address visibility. So there's no need to "compare the list of people showing in the Recipients section with those who should get the email" as JonesRK did -- you can easily see the exact list with one click.

aebrown wrote:What's more, the message "recipients have opted out..." has a link for "View all". When you click that, you will see the entire list of all those who have no email address or have restricted their email address visibility. So there's no need to "compare the list of people showing in the Recipients section with those who should get the email" as JonesRK did -- you can easily see the exact list with one click.

You're correct there. If I find one that doesn't have an email, I get the message with the link.

My issue is that if they have the privacy on I don't get the message they just don't show up. I have created a grease monkey script that tells me how many recipients I have and when that doesn't match the 13 I expect for ward council, that is when I have to compare the list.

I think the message shows up differently based on your calling too. My stake clerk gets the message when people were left off the list due to privacy.

JonesRK wrote:My issue is that if they have the privacy on I don't get the message they just don't show up.

I think the message shows up differently based on your calling too. My stake clerk gets the message when people were left off the list due to privacy.

I see what you mean. It sounds like there is a bug in how members are left off the list due to privacy. I am an assistant stake clerk. I have the rights to see any household in the stake, and I can even edit their profiles and see or change their privacy settings. Therefore the only reasonable implementation is that if someone is left off the distribution list because of privacy settings, those members would be included in the list that is labeled "recipients have opted out or do not have an email address in Ward Directory / MLS." It makes no sense to hide from me those potential recipients who have opted out, when I have full permissions to see their information in the Directory.

I'm the stake clerk and I'm seeing this same issue. I have done some testing with my wife's account and have found the following problem with the "Send a message" functionality under clerk resources. I get the "1 recipients have opted out or do not have an email address in Ward Directory / MLS" message when the email setting on her account is set to "Private - Leadership Only" or "Ward" and I try to send a message to her. The only way the email will send and not show as opted out is if the option "Stake" is selected by her email address in the directory. This seems like a bug to me. Even with leadership only, I should be able to send a stake wide or leadership email to someone with that option selected (a stake clerk is considered a leader correct?). We have some bishops who have the "private" option selected so I can not email them through the send a message functionality so they miss out on important stake wide emails or reminders (i.e. stake priesthood meeting, stake conference, information about a church employment fair, etc.) unless I were to forward it to them after sending it out.

My thought is the "Private - Leadership Only", "Ward", and "Stake" should apply to if their email address is visible in the directory for others to see, but when using the send a message functionality it should send it to everyone with an email address. I don't see any other way for them to currently "opt out" as the message indicates other than by removing their email address or changing their setting to private. After all...you have to be a leader to even be able to send a message so if there is an email in the system it should go to them.

Is this something that can be fixed, or is there another way around this? Many people in our stake are missing out on reminders and events because of this glitch.

ChadLarsen wrote:The only way the email will send and not show as opted out is if the option "Stake" is selected by her email address in the directory. This seems like a bug to me. Even with leadership only, I should be able to send a stake wide or leadership email to someone with that option selected (a stake clerk is considered a leader correct?).

Yes, that's the clear conclusion of this thread.

ChadLarsen wrote:My thought is the "Private - Leadership Only", "Ward", and "Stake" should apply to if their email address is visible in the directory for others to see, but when using the send a message functionality it should send it to everyone with an email address. ... After all...you have to be a leader to even be able to send a message so if there is an email in the system it should go to them.

I think everyone agrees that this is how it should work.

ChadLarsen wrote:Is this something that can be fixed, or is there another way around this?

I'm sure it can be fixed by the development team, but apparently hasn't made it to the top of any priority lists.

Is there a way to get this bug with send a message prioritized so it can be addressed? Who can be contacted?

ChadLarsen wrote:Is there a way to get this bug with send a message prioritized so it can be addressed? Who can be contacted?

I have come to find that priorities are set based on the desires of leaders at Church headquarters, and not by the wishes of local users. With the very limited programming resources of the Church, I suppose it almost has to be that way.