Emails for pressing issues... What do you think?

[libert19]

^ I reckon, pinned message/post is right term for it (though, forum announcement section is also correct — just bit wordy), and yes I agree with you, it's better than emails; email notifications feels like a wayward way than merely opening forum and checking pinned message. Why create complexity when there is no need of it?

[FinneysTrueVision]

If lots of accounts started getting hacked because of a database breach then an email alert advising users to change their password could be useful. For non-forum related things, like the Coldcard hack, it isn’t necessary. If you are a customer of Coldcard or Ledger, you will already receive a notice via email. There are also plenty of other sources where we are likely to hear about these incidents including directly on the forum itself. These sources can provide better details, in real time, and are thus more effective at propagating important news.

[Decimation]

Basically a suggestion I had in mind is the admins make preparation for bulk emails to be sent out when any of all these mass hacks happen. The email obviously should not contain any link just a warning that there's a current hack on...... And a short brief. No links to avoid phishing and if they did need further clarification they could visit the forum normally since the link to the thread will always be pinned.

Sending emails in emergency situations seems like a good idea but many people do not check their emails, so sending messages to them will be of no use.

Active accounts are regularly coming to the forum even if they do not check their emails, so how would it be if urgent messages could be sent directly on the forum?

[hd49728]

Basically a suggestion I had in mind is the admins make preparation for bulk emails to be sent out when any of all these mass hacks happen.

Forum has that feature if I am right.
You can check it with your account profile page, go to Notifications and Emails, then you will see the following option together with the other options.

Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email.

It's an option, so users can enable it or disable it.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Users interested in getting information from here can set notifications for posts in the Important announcement board. Any issue important enough to be sent to emails will be posted there.

If a topic or some topics has been posted on the board before the informatory post and the person has not visited the board, the person will not receive any notifications until he visit the board.

I think the common Telegram bot will be better.

Anyone that is into crypto that is following what is going on online, the person will know such information.

I totally agree. The forum shouldn't be held responsible for taking care of user safety. Maybe it's worth making efforts on your own where it might be important? There are too many amenities in our world, and that's what makes people lazy from year to year. One day something will happen to the user's account due to his own carelessness, but he would blame the forum because he did not warn, did not protect, and was always shifting the blame onto others... Ultimately, those who value their own security should be the first to take responsibility for it.

[hd49728]

I totally agree. The forum shouldn't be held responsible for taking care of user safety.

If there is anything the forum needs to take care of user safety, it's user account safety. Forum had hacks in the past and since then the forum software was improved, made more secure.

Other security issues like user devices, bitcoin or altcoins are not responsibility of the forum.

Maybe it's worth making efforts on your own where it might be important? There are too many amenities in our world, and that's what makes people lazy from year to year. One day something will happen to the user's account due to his own carelessness, but he would blame the forum because he did not warn, did not protect, and was always shifting the blame onto others... Ultimately, those who value their own security should be the first to take responsibility for it.

The forum is like centralized exchanges, as a platform it must have good security and security protective layers against hacks in order to prevent hacks against their database including user account information for login. The other things are all belong to users that have to learn about security and have good security practice for their devices, emails, accounts, and wallets as well as funds.

You can check it with your account profile page, go to Notifications and Emails, then you will see the following option together with the other options.

Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email.

It's an option, so users can enable it or disable it.

I disabled this option and I don't know how it works with recent Important announcements from the forum.

Forum members who have this option enabled can confirm is it works with Important announcement sending to their emails.

[RGBTC]

Forum has that feature if I am right.
You can check it with your account profile page, go to Notifications and Emails, then you will see the following option together with the other options.

Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email.

It's an option, so users can enable it or disable it.

OP refers to the embedded news above left (under the avatar) to be forwarded in email form as well. The settings you refer to only notify user activity and moderation actions. At least that's the only type of message I've ever received.

[hd49728]

Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email.

OP refers to the embedded news above left (under the avatar) to be forwarded in email form as well. The settings you refer to only notify user activity and moderation actions. At least that's the only type of message I've ever received.

I knew about email notifications from the forum to my account like password reset by email, posts deleted by moderators but I disabled this option a long time ago.

Forum's Important Announcements are not posted too often by theymos, and I likely did not receive any Important Announcements from the forum before I disabled this option for my account.

It's only my guess, from the Important Announcements board name to the option description, I think there are notifications by email for forum's Important Announcements. It's only guess so it can be wrong.

[Mrbluntzy]

This is a nice idea but the question is, since this forum is not directly about breaking news, is it really necessary? Why I am asking this question is because the news might have already been aired by different news sites and social media before it will finally get to this forum, meaning that anyone that is using the wallet or platform that gets compromised will already see the news before it gets to this forum and before they receive the mails that will be sent by the forum, they will already be aware.
With previous incidents, anyone using the hardware device of any company will be really at alert by either following the company social media account, or subscribe to the company mail notifications or subscribe to a fast news website, so that if anything goes wrong, they will quickly get the information.

[SamReomo]

I totally agree. The forum shouldn't be held responsible for taking care of user safety. Maybe it's worth making efforts on your own where it might be important? There are too many amenities in our world, and that's what makes people lazy from year to year. One day something will happen to the user's account due to his own carelessness, but he would blame the forum because he did not warn, did not protect, and was always shifting the blame onto others... Ultimately, those who value their own security should be the first to take responsibility for it.

Well said, the security of a user depends on their own efforts because most of the times a user's own mistakes led to compromise of the account. The forum is already patched with highest level of security and that's why the accounts of users are safe here but if they don't take care of their security themselves then that's their own issue.

Those who install software/extensions of unknown source or visit malicious websites can get their system and accounts compromised and it's their own mistake for such mistakes they can't help this forum responsible. If someone's system is already compromised and that person visits log in this forum's account on that system then that's user's mistake because he/she hasn't followed any security practices and such a person can't help forum responsible for his/her own weak practices.

[Stalker22]

~
It's only my guess, from the Important Announcements board name to the option description, I think there are notifications by email for forum's Important Announcements. It's only guess so it can be wrong.

You are not wrong.  SMF has a built-in option that allows administrators to send important announcements and newsletters to members by email through built-in mailing tools.  I just dont think that option has ever been used (or is rarely used) on the bitcointalk.org forum.  Possibly because the forum allows registration using throwaway or invalid email addresses.

the security of a user depends on their own efforts because most of the times a user's own mistakes led to compromise of the account.
~

True.  But the primary purpose of this forum is to share bitcoin (and crypto) related information.  The OP only suggested extending the way of sharing important information to a new level.

~
and such a person can't help forum responsible for his/her own weak practices.

Nobody said the forum is responsible. Also, it is "held," not "help."

[The Cryptovator]

Basically a suggestion I had in mind is the admins make preparation for bulk emails to be sent out when any of all these mass hacks happen. The email obviously should not contain any link just a warning that there's a current hack on...... And a short brief. No links to avoid phishing and if they did need further clarification they could visit the forum normally since the link to the thread will always be pinned.

First of all, the admin seems to be trying hard to make us aware when something serious happens, like a wallet hack. We can see on the previous ledger hack that admin have pinned message and give notice at the top of the forum. As you already said, when someone is active on the forum and often visits, then they should notice this hacking.

Sending mass emails to 3M+ users isn’t an easy task at all. The forum has to carry out the extra cost for that. On the other hand, the forum has to use third-party apps or systems to send mass emails, where the admin needs to input all the forum users' emails. If a data breach happens on that third-party app or system, all our email will be exposed. Then hackers would try to hack our forum account and other related accounts as well.

On the other hand, third-party emails would end up in the spam folders. Not all the users actively check their emails, and I am not as well. So I don’t think this is a very useful idea. A crypto holder who exists on the forum has the responsibility to stay updated with the market. We can’t force them to make aware.

[hd49728]

First of all, the admin seems to be trying hard to make us aware when something serious happens, like a wallet hack. We can see on the previous ledger hack that admin have pinned message and give notice at the top of the forum. As you already said, when someone is active on the forum and often visits, then they should notice this hacking.

theymos did not know about the hacks before forum members created threads for discussion and requested theymos to pin these threads or to make important announcements.

theymos or Cyrus is not responsible to spend most of their time online, to get news about Bitcoin, security of exchanges or wallets, and announce these things to forum community. They surely will do that for severe incidents if they are aware about that but the main responsibility is with each person and user. It's security of our wallet, devices, accounts, and safety of our fund so we must be fully responsible for stay up to date with news in this forum and else where.

[noorman0]

theymos did not know about the hacks before forum members created threads for discussion and requested theymos to pin these threads or to make important announcements.

We can’t even determine how quickly someone might bring such news into the forum, not to mention the additional time required for admins to vet the report.
It’s better to follow security investigators on X or Telegram; I find that more reliable when it comes to urgent matters.