Since October subscribers to The Squid List have had problems receiving email from the list. Email subscriptions for The Squid List are handled by FeedBurner which converts the RSS feed to email. I tried deactivating and then re-activating FeedBurner’s email subscriptions service, but that just seemed to make the problem worse.
There doesn’t seem to be any way to contact FeedBurner for support, so if anyone has any ideas how to get in touch with them, it would be greatly appreciated.
In the meantime, you can always access The Squid List directly through the online calendar, get updates via RSS, subscribe via iCal or using your mobile device.
Another option would be to subscribe to the list using FeedBlitz, RSSFWD or Feed My Inbox, which are all similar services that convert RSS feeds into email.
I’ll update this post when I have more information on the status of this issue.
UPDATE 1: FeedBurner has a contact form, but it appears to only be for abuse issues. Does anyone know how to contact them for general support issues?
UPDATE 2: A representative from Google informed me that FeedBurner no longer provides direct email support.
UPDATE 3: Someone from FeedBurner contacted me about the issue and said that it might be because The Squid List feed was not properly validating, most likely because of people pasting in bad characters into the event submission form, like pasting in MS Word documents, etc. The strange thing is that this has never been an issue until recently. I’ve turned off the WYSIWYG editor in Helios Calendar, the script we use for The Squid List, which will make all future submission plain text.
I’m in the process of removing any events with bad characters so that the feed will validate. I you are an event producer and your event is no longer on the calendar, you may want to re-submit it. When you do, make sure it is in plain text.
UPDATE 4: Ok, I had to remove around 15 events from the list that had bad formatting and now the feed validates. I was also able to re-enable email subscriptions. The next test is to see if email is actually sent out to the subscribers.
UPDATE 5: Alright, it looks like we are back in business. Today email was successfully to subscribers of The Squid List. Thanks for hanging in there everyone.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
You might have a bad a character in one of your titles or at the beginning of one of your posts.
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/contact
What can I do with that link? This is not an abuse issue. I'm curious, how would you suggest that I fill it out?
Have you had that problem before? Is there any documentation on this?
Hi Scott,
I've had major problems with Feedburner as well. I have a few hundred email subscribers and have been getting complaints on and off about late delivery or no delivery.
I finally had enough and this month I am switching everything over to Aweber: http://is.gd/agjI
Aweber has an RSS-to-email service just like Feedburner, except it actually works, sends out right away, and is super-customizable. Of course, Aweber is a paid service…BUT they have real toll-free or live chat support and can handle huge lists.
Everyone I have heard who has moved to Aweber seems to really like it. They do have occasional problems, but nothing like Feedburner!
Good luck with your decision.
-Erica
One option might be to just let people choose their own delivery option, rather that rely on one service.
Hi Scott,
That's true, but if you give people more options, they are that much more likely to do nothing at all. The paradox of choice and all that.
It's best for both you and your list if you make it as easy as possible for people to join it. For most folks, that means an opt-in box on every page of your site, asking for your first name and email address, or better yet, just an email address. The less people have to go through to subscribe, the more subscribers you will have.
-Erica
Well what you are describing is exactly what I did using FeedBurner, which of course is the downside of using one service. The same thing could happen to the service you are suggesting or any of the others.
Hi Scott,
The real problem with Google seems to be that you just can't reach a real person. They've made 0 effort to connect with their community, and since the service is free, there's no incentive for them to change it or make it better.
Aweber engages with the community. Check http://twitter.com/aweber — that's their official Twitter account — and they also have several employees on Twitter. They also have live chat and a toll-free number.
Of course, you have to pay for this. But since their entire business model is built around delivering emails quickly, any problem should be quickly worked on by them. While I agree it's unlikely you'll never experience any issues with Aweber, as a paid service, it's in their best interest to correct your problems as quickly as possible and keep you happy.
I don't have any agenda here except that I want to get my emails out to customers as quickly as possible, and make sure my subscribers are happy. To me, it's worth it to pay the monthly fee to make sure that happens. It really is a shame about Google/Feedburner. The service would be great if it actually worked.
-Erica
I completely agree. The lack of support provided by Google is a huge put off. The upside is that their products usually just work, but when they don't…
Sounds similar:
http://groups.google.com/group/feedburner-servi...
Scott,
If you're considering pay services, definitely check out MailChimp – http://mailchimp.com/rss/ – they have an awesome RSS-to-Email feature that can be used seperate from FeedBurner (or, if the issues with their service are resolved) in conjunction with it. MailChimp is also on Twitter – http://twitter.com/mailchimp