ouch!! I nearly lost half my post because of that thing with the word "al3ert"... thankfully, regularly using DNN sites has long since taught me to select and copy everything I type whenever I'm about to submit a form. .. but what a crummy thing for a forum to do!
Anyhow.. here's my longwinded post pasted in again ;P
Hi Rodney,
Thanks for the tips. I've got that seamless opt-in module on my list of potential future purchases. It's not quite the same as this subscriber one, but it does make a tidy alternative to using the "manage Services" tab in the core profiles for allowing members to choose site options including mailing lists. Perfect for adding to a user profile module :)
The DNN Subscriber module's purpose is to take email addresses from site visitors who are not necessarily registered. It simply takes the address and sends it to the site owner with a note to add or remove that address from their mailing list.
I've not had any site owners so far who even use the DNN roles and membership for anything at all let alone for their mailing lists. Instead, they all have lists that they've managed for years offline in Outlook or elsewhere and there is simply no viable means and no real purpose in transferring those lists onto their DNN site. What is needed is a convenient way of accepting subscription and removal requests from the site... but not necessarily from registered members... just from any visitor.
The DNN Subscriber module was very cool because it not only managed anonymous requests but also handled requests from signed in users... it would auto-populate the address field and add or remove the user to or from a role... in additon to sending the email notifications.
So it really works both ways and in the simplest possible manner... if only it still worked! :(
I spent a few hours last night assessing Onyak's NukeAl-rt and whilst it has the simplified subscription box for anonymous visitors, it doesn't trigger a notice to the site owner to maintain their offline list, nor does it allow the offline list to be uploaded and managed online in the module. Basically it's stuck inside the DNN black box, when I really need a module that crosses the gap to offline lists. I've sent Chris a pile of feedback on that and hopefully he might improve it.
Tonight I'll spend some time with the Datasprings Opt-in module and see if that can manage it any better.
oh.. and the additional use for the DNN Subscriber module was that it could be used in conjunction with a conventional mailing list server.. the emailed notifications would carry out the subscriptions and removals automatically. This would no doubt have been the orignal purpose behind the module.
One additional thought for this thread is... is there a module, or could one make a module, that creates user accounts with only an email address provided? This would be the first step towards getting a visitor signed up on the site. If their address were recorded in a slot and added to a subscribers' role on the portal when they subscribed to the mailing list.. then if they returned to the site to say, make a purchase of something they saw in the newsletter, .. the site would recognise the email address and when they register proper, add their remaining details to that account slot. It would also allow newsletters to be emailed to those addresses without full account via the role assignment.
I have a feeling I may have seen something along those lines once in the past.. i'll go have a dig.
Regards,
Rob