MassMailer
Status of MassMailer in 4.01
As you may know, in the 4.01 patch, Blizzard instituted a number of throttling measures to chat channels (to prevent spamming). In the patch notes, there was no mention of this applying to sent mail messages; however, it appears that there was a server-side undocumented change that now limits the number of outgoing mails. As a result, MassMailer is effectively dead.
Honestly, I could probably get around this new limitation, but I do not plan to for the following reasons:
- In the past, I have made statements in defense of MassMailer to the effect of, "MassMailer is just using standard WoW API; if Blizzard doesn't want me doing this, they would change things to break the addon." Well, frankly, it appears that they have done just that. As a result, I can no longer develop an addon that Blizzard is obviously discouraging. The purpose of MassMailer has always been to support guild and team communication-never spam-so I will not write something that is actively circumventing the security measures that Blizzard has placed in the game to protect the privacy and security of its customers.
- Any work-around would probably involve adding a delay between groups of messages to reset the server-side count. Doing this would make sending messages a lengthy and frustrating process.
- In full disclosure, lately I have had a pretty limited amount of time to devote to video games. What time I do have, I'd like to spend playing rather than writing code (which I do all day). I've had a lot of fun developing MassMailer, but I don't think I could continue to give it the level of attention and support that it deserves. However, if anyone is interested in taking over the project to continue to develop it in a more officially-sanctioned way, I'll be happy to provide you with all the materials necessary to do so.
MassMailer was created to fill a a gaping hole in in-game communication and to facilitate the communication between players and group leaders. I think it's a little short-sighted on Blizzard's part to prevent the continued development of such addons, but, alas, such is life. I sincerely hope that Blizzard will either reconsider its position (since I've never found mail-based spam to be at all a problem) or create an improved method for communicating with offline guild and team members in a more officially sanctioned way.
Thanks,
Necramar
As stated it will mail successfully to all the people who are currently online in the guild, but once it gets past them and starts to go down the list of people currently offline, it gets the "cannot find mail recipient" error.
If there is any assistance I can reander please let me know.
Truly, this is my favorite addon in the game. Sadly, patch 4.0 bugged it a little bit. It still works great, unless you try mass mailing to which it will say "Cannot find mail recipient."
If maybe I can point you in the right direction... it will mail successfully to all the people who are currently online in the guild, but once it gets past them and starts to go down the list of people currently offline, it gets the "cannot find mail recipient" error.
Anyway, great work man, one of the best addons in the game for guild management. I hope you can get this updated soon =p
PS - There probably won't be any new features in the update--just bug fixes and a TOC version change (so it's not showing up as out of date).
/facedesk
"Well, I thought it was working with 4.0.1, but I was sadly mistaken. Claims that it 'cannot find mail recipient' on big lists. Any chances this will be getting an update for 4.0.1? I really like the look of it. Much cleaner and more comprehensive interface than other mass mailers. This makes mass guild communicate much easier on me as a guild leader, that's for sure."
I sadly wasn't able to get a beta key (so I could have all the bugs worked out before 4.x went live), and I've been overwhelmed for the past week working on other projects (i.e. ones I get paid for). Haven't forgotten about it though. ;)
Send Complete. Total Messages Sent: 0
There were errors with the following recipients - MyCharName
i filled out the to:, subject:, body: after hitting mm button in my mailbox.
ideas?
Other than that, are you seeing any additional error messages generated by WoW? Does this happen when you send mail to all characters, or just one in particular? Also, what version of MassMailer are you using?
1) MassMailer does not (and will never be able to) send attachments and gold, so the most someone could possibly use this addon for is to send out text-based adds. That's a costly (remember, in-game mail costs 30 copper to send, and that adds up pretty quickly) and lengthy process if you wanted to reach any kind of sizable audience. Think about it--when was the last time you got an in-game mail ad from a gold spammer? I don't think I ever have, and moreover I don't think I've ever heard of anyone getting one. It's a lot easier to just spam the trade channel; you can reach a lot more people that way and wouldn't have to spend gold to do it.
2) Gold spammers and hackers don't need MassMailer. They don't care about violating the ToS or EULA, so they can use all sorts of external programs to do whatever they want. I very seriously doubt they sit there and manually type every message they send out, and I know for a fact that they use bots to do a lot of the farming. I've had my account hacked before, and when I logged in, I was floating underneath Ice Crown with a bag of ore. They didn't do that through the WoW API.
3) I have used nothing but the standard WoW API. When Blizzard included a "SendMail" function in their API, they had to be aware that it could be used to automate mail. Sometimes people use that API in ways that Blizzard doesn't expect (e.g. AVR), but if Blizzard finds it objectionable, they change things so it doesn't work anymore. As far as I know, the SendMail function has been in the game since release, and Blizzard hasn't found the need to change it thus far.
4) Sometimes addons get abused, granted, but I think I've made it pretty clear that I don't intend for this to be used to spam people. I'm trying to provide a helpful tool to people who want to communicate easier in-game. Why do people freak out and start fear-mongering because they imagine a potential abuse that there is absolutely zero evidence to support is happening? Honestly, I think there are much bigger concerns out there. With the API added in patch 3.3.5, it wouldn't be hard AT ALL to write an addon that scans for RealID names (i.e. your real first and last name). Despite what Blizzard may say, I personally wouldn't feel comfortable with my real name available to every chinese gold farmer on the planet, so I suggest you direct your worries in that direction. Or just turn off RealID.
Regardless, I allow comments on this page so people who use my addon have a space to ask questions or report a problem they have encountered. Please refrain from making comments that don't fall in that category.
1x MassMailer-2.0.2\locales\Locale-zhTW.lua:2: attempt to index local 'L' (a nil value)
1x MassMailer-2.0.2\locales\Locale-deDE.lua:2: attempt to index local 'L' (a nil value)
1x MassMailer-2.0.2\locales\Locale-koKR.lua:2: attempt to index local 'L' (a nil value)
1x MassMailer-2.0.2\locales\Locale-ruRU.lua:2: attempt to index local 'L' (a nil value)