Emailing your commenters
I updated my Emergency WordPress access script today, because of some issues we'd discovered at OrangeValley and some bugs submitted by users. When I updated the post, I realized I should be emailing all the commenters, as some of them had had the same issue, and most of them would want the updated script.
Quite a while back I'd written a plugin for exactly that purpose, called email commenters. It had some small issues though, and I hadn't updated it for quite a while, but thought tonight was a good time to do just that. So I updated it, and it now gives you a link in the top right of the post to email all users:
An easy way to let people know that you've updated a post. Search for "email commenters" in your backend, install the plugin and activate: no need to do more. Let me know what you think in the comments, should I add something?
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17 Responses to “Emailing your commenters”
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by Søgemaskineoptimering on 30 June, 2010 at 22:12
Super tool - never thought of engaging in a dialoque this way. BTW I just just signed up for your newsletter.
by Lucato on 1 July, 2010 at 09:17
Hi there, it was what I was looking for. Well, at least the main idea/function. I've installed it, but it doesn't show any link in the Admin area where I can send an e-mail to the commenter. I'm not sure how it works exactly. I mean, if it shows this icon on the admin or the blog area. I'll wait for new comment be posted.
Here are some suggestions:
1 - It would be interesting to have in the menu "Reject|Quick Edit|Delete..." the option "E-mail", so I would e-mail from the admin area to this commenter;
2- It would be great to have an HTML e-mail template with the {commenter}, so we would create a default e-mail and we would have also the option to edit or not before sending it. So, I would send for every commenter the same "template" mail with a few changes for each one.
Well, just a suggestion. ;0)
by Joost de Valk on 1 July, 2010 at 09:53
Especially #1 is a great suggestion, let me look that one up, if there's a filter or action there that should be fairly easy!
by Alex Roe on 3 July, 2010 at 13:29
I wonder about emailing commenters. I do this sometimes, but sort of feel that it could be considered to be spam. Indeed, I generally include an apology for having sent what might be considered as an unsolicited communication. So far, nobody has complained when I have written to them - but you never know.
To legitimise such emails, I think a small modification to a site's privacy policy might be a good idea. If I do decide to use this plugin, then I will change the privacy policy.
My two cents, for what it is worth.
Best,
Alex
by Joost de Valk on 4 July, 2010 at 10:45
You're absolutely right about the comment / privacy policy, will add that to the plugin page as a remark.
by Alex Roe on 4 July, 2010 at 13:19
Great idea to add a remark to the plugin page, Joost. This should help quell any potential criticism.
Thanks for listening.
Best,
Alex
by Cristian O. Balan on 5 July, 2010 at 10:50
Nice tool and this work more fine if you don't close the comments :D
by Marcelo on 5 July, 2010 at 13:42
Very good Joost!
One idea that came into my mind is to e-mail automatically someone if you reply to his comment on the backend.
Like a report that his comment was replied.
It would increase returns to the website for example.
by Mark Fulton on 5 July, 2010 at 20:52
Awesome idea :) Just a note that the plugin broke my theme layout. Sidebar ended up below post content. I am using DISQUS comments - maybe a conflict here?
by Joost de Valk on 5 July, 2010 at 21:46
Hmm it's wrapped in a div class "alignright", that breaks for you? That's a default WordPress CSS class :)
by Janice - The FItness Cheerleader on 6 July, 2010 at 15:49
Does the plugin email ALL commentors, or just the one you are replying to?
by Oscar Gonzalez on 6 July, 2010 at 19:57
This is such a useful idea, I'm going to try it soon. Thank you for posting, I've been wanting a way to do this for ever. but usually just end up getting all the email addresses via sql. This should be really handy.
by Petra on 6 July, 2010 at 20:33
Thanks for this. I'm going to try it out.
by Jan on 12 July, 2010 at 02:14
I didn't know there was a plugin for this. I have received thank you notes from numerous blogs and I seriously appreciate this courtesy. To me, it's like receiving a thank you note after giving a dinner party or for some other small event.
In Boarding school, our thank you notes were monitored and had to be done within 24 hours of receiving the courtesy!
by Joost de Valk on 12 July, 2010 at 10:26
Hey Jan, the plugin people use to automate the email is called Comment Relish. The issue is that such automated emails are actually considered spam by a lot of people (and arguably even some laws). That's why I use my own plugin called Comment Redirect to thank people for their first comment, and this plugin to personally email people about updates etc.
by Cristian O. Balan on 12 July, 2010 at 10:18
Hi Joost, one note: the authors of the posts can't send email to their commenters. Only the admin users can do this.
by Joost de Valk on 12 July, 2010 at 10:24
I know, that's on purpose, you can edit the plugin if you want that, but it seemed like a tricky thing to do.