Bulk invitations fail

[ghost]

I don't know if this is a side effect if gmail integration with nodebb or not. But after adding a +100 emails, I have to go back and 1 by 1 resend them to get them out... But not one email in the bulk set was sent. If it turns out to be gmail threshold error, then that is an issue we need to take up with NodeBB since it should queue the emails.

Here is the log
https://gist.github.com/sunsetbrew/7be30e5aa0ab4b8c5003b54fde59cc4b

[ghost]

Sorry to just drop in the failures. I am truly grateful for all this awesome work. It is breathtaking. So thank you!

[yariplus]

Hmm, I'd like to blame google, but it looks like something else might be going horribly wrong. I'll fix some of those errors on there and we can try again.

[ghost]

Thanks for your attention. :)

[yariplus]

np. Okay, try the new version, I just fixed it where it wasn't logging the error message. Let's see what it says now. :)

[ghost]

I retried again. My process was

1. update to 0.5.2 and cleared logs
2. restart nodebb
3. resent all invites (modified message to reduce potential offence for repeat email).
4. Check the "sent" box of the gmail account.
   • Nothing was sent
5. Waited for a while just in case it was queued.

Here is the gist
https://gist.github.com/sunsetbrew/c408622e03a8458d20e8e40f4fc5b764

[yariplus]

Damn, it's not throwing the error any more, must not have been related to the sending problem. I will have to run some more tests and get back to you.

[yariplus]

Okay, I can confirm Google is definitely doing something evil here. I sent 100 e-mails, only 20 were sent. One minute later, sent another 50 emails, only 7 were sent.

This is well below their sending limits, even for brand new accounts. So it's likely they are being seen as spam. I'm not even sure if a delay would help. As you can see, even after a full minute it is brutally throttled.

I'm not sure what the final solution to this could even be. Adding a note next to the Gmail Routing section saying "Not suitable for bulk sending." might be useful though.

I can recommend a third-party email service instead of Gmail. I've used several and never had any issues with bulk sending. They typically have a human that monitors the emails and can very easily tell it's not spam.

Another thing, I am violating several major points in Google's Bulk Senders Guidelines, and I will look into implementing some of them, such as unsubscribing. However, it might be a fruitless endeavour, since sending invites for new users is almost certainly going to violate some by default, such as the opt-in first rule.

[ghost]

Thanks for looking into this. I was very suspicious of using gmail for a forum. I guess the emails would have to be queued up or something. Perhaps the best solution is not to use gmail. I can use Amazon instead, so I'll just switch that over. :)

Cheers!

[yariplus]

🍺

Definitely let me know how amazon goes for you. :)