Submitting Ads to RSI via email

Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 1:40 pm

I was having problems with HAL recently, especially in regards to submitting Team Spotlights. I had also heard of a few others experience issues.

There were a couple of issues at hand, so I spoke with Lee and she was able to troubleshoot them with me to pinpoint the problems. Nearly all of them were old problems, but I wanted to post this so that everyone was aware of them and could submit ads, team spotlights, and DM columns with no hiccups.

Headers

You need to include a header in your email. This is in addition to your subject line. The appropriate headers are:

Personal Ads for DM ___

Team Spotlight for DM ___

DM Column for DM ___

Format

The most fundamental thing to remember when sending in spotlights via email is make sure they are in plain text format. HAL does not like rich text and even if he does accept the email it becomes a nightmare for the person editing the NL. Check your email clients settings and set it to plain text.

Yahoo and Line Breaks

At some point, Yahoo Mail decided that everyone typed emails like a typewriter from 1916. As such, the email program does not automatically issue line breaks. HAL, of course, hates this feature and will send your spotlight and DM column to the junk folder. If you have entered the 21st century like the rest of us, you probably do not think in these terms either, so how do you fix this problem?

If you must use Yahoo Mail, be sure to make a hard return [hit enter] about every 75 characters or so. If you have no desire to do a line count, I suggest using another email program such as gmail.

If you have checked the above factors and continue to have problems, you clearly have a computer in need of an exorcism. If you cannot afford that option, please post your problem here in this forum. A wise man once said there is "no new thing under the sun" and perhaps another manager has encountered your problem and can offer help and advice.

Happy Dueling!

Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2015 9:33 pm

I use note pad to remove all formating when I create my messages. I have a excel sheet that is setup for to just copy and paste into note pad. Excel makes it easy to keep track of sentence length, which Hal enforces.
I only have had sucess sending ads thru yahoo mail. Outlook and hotmail have given me issues. Even when setup as plain text, no html, the other email clients want to mess up my message with formating.
Email ads are the easiest way to go, just when you find something that works, don't change it. Since I have been back playing, never an issue I didn't create.

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 1:27 am

Great advice!
We send many, many ads, DMCs, and spots. We find gmail, by far, the best resort. (Whether we type direct or copy/paste.)

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 2:57 pm

I use Windows live mail, and find if you just make sure it's in PLAIN TEXT mode and has a decent subject line, 99% of the time it goes thru fine.

Advanced Expert Poster Joined: Apr 11, 2005 Posts: 113

What are these "personal ads" you speak of? Never heard of them. Very Happy

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 8:52 pm

ragnarokwolf wrote:

What are these "personal ads" you speak of? Never heard of them. Very Happy

They are all over Dm-8.

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 2:07 pm

ragnarokwolf wrote:

What are these "personal ads" you speak of? Never heard of them. Very Happy

Never writ 'em either?

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 3:01 pm

I try to limit my stuff to two sheets of text, and the first one will be on the back of that blue sheet. There was an old article that advocated this method, and I've just stuck with it for a while. Since it has my name, address, id# and arena # it works fine. Wink