Which of these best describes your problem ?
I can’t post to the list !
If you are an EPUK member, you have tried to post to the list, but you have got a bounce message, then the reason is probably that you have tried to post from a different email address to the one you have registered with EPUK.
The address you try to post from must match exactly the address you have registered with EPUK, otherwise your post won’t get through. For example, if your registered email address with EPUK is mail@bobthephotographer.com, then posts sent from bob@bobthephotographer.com won’t get through, and neither will posts from bobthephotographer@gmail.com
To solve this, you can either change your registered email address, or post from the one you already have registered. But please note that from Sep 2016 we have had to block list mail from Yahoo addresses (or ISP’s using Yahoo) because changes by Yahoo break most mailing lists including EPUK’s.
- For instructions on how to change your registered email address click here
- If this doesn’t help solve your problem click here
Why did my post get rejected with ‘Message rejected by filter rule match’ ?
You have posted to the old, obsolete list address (epuk@lists.epuk.org – which is no longer used) instead of the new one. This can happen if you are on the digest and have just hit “reply” to send to the list. You need to send your reply to the list address, which is epuk@epuk.org.
I got a message from Womble !
Womble is our system which checks posts sent to the list and makes sure they haven’t broken any list guidelines. It will diagnose what happened, and tell you what changes you need to make. If the automated message doesn’t help you resolve the problem, email the helpdesk
I have been unsubscribed from the list, but don’t want to be !
EMWD (the EPUK mailing list host) is very sensitive to mail delivery problems. To prevent their server wasting resources, any mail address that repeatedly has delivery problems (3 mails rejected in 24hours) is automatically unsubscribed.
EPUK has no control over this behaviour, but we have spent a lot of time investigating the issue and discussed it with EMWD, and these unsubscribes are always for a valid reason.
Unfortunately EMWD doesn’t report the cause, but it will be one of these:
- Your email box is full and can no longer accept email. Please ensure you have plenty of space so that your email is capable of working consistently. or ask your host to increase your quota. If your mailbox is full, that will be silently depriving you of ALL MAIL to that address, not just EPUK list traffic.
- Your email has spam filtering that is rejecting EPUK list mails. Please ensure list mail is whitelisted.
- Your email provider is temporarily experiencing connectivity issues. This is quite common, especially at weekends when spam and Denial of Service attacks often congest parts of the network and sysadmins are not on duty to deal promptly with attacks. This may also deprive you of other mail to that address, not just EPUK list traffic.
- Something else. Unfortunately email is not a totally robust mechanism. Most of the time it works well, but any number of transient problems with DNS or network or server congestion can prevent delivery. We suspect intermittent DNS issues are at the root of many of these repeated forced unsubscribes, but the only people who can do anything about that are the owners of domains who may be using fragile DNS hosts. There are around 20 EPUK members who have been unsubscribed multiple times, whilst the vast majority (98%) are never affected. We have been unable to work out what the unsub victims have in common, but their DNS hosting is the most likely explanation.
To resolve these issues we recommend you change the email address that you have subscribed to the list.
- We suggest using a Gmail account, as we have never yet seen a force unsubscribe of any Gmail address. Click here to change your delivery address
- If this doesn’t help solve your problem click here
How can I change my personal list settings [NEW]?
Please read this entire section.
The list software has been upgraded, in February 2021, from Mailman 2 to Mailman 3. All existing memberships and settings have been migrated, so list operation is unaffected. But the method for adjusting your personal settings is now very different and central to your use of the EPUK list.
It used to be that once subscribed to the list by a moderator, you were given a password and could login and change your preferences. THIS IS NOW OBSOLETE AND THE OLD MAILMAN 2 LINKS AND PASSWORDS NO LONGER WORK.
Mailman 3 separates list subscription (which EPUK administrators manage) from personal settings, which are now managed by list members themselves, using a control panel called Affinity.
You have direct control over some aspects of list operation, via your Affinity list profile.
You can:
- choose between individual delivery of list mails, and digest format, or temporarily suspend list mail delivery by setting ‘nomail’ (eg because you are away)
- change your timezone
- change your email address
- change your screen name (don’t leave blank. Please use your real name, it helps us resolve problems!)
- change your password.
Affinity is much simpler than the older method, which usually resulted in bewildered users asking moderators for help. To use Affinity you must register with it. In fact you pretty much have to, because your personal settings are now outside the control of EPUK moderators. If you ask us for help with any of the above preferences, eg email address change, we will likely point you at this page and tell you to do it yourself because we no longer can.
If you haven’t already created an Affinity login and profile (since mid-February 2021), you should now do so. Follow this link to register with the Affinity management console
Fill in the form using your name, the email address that you use for list mails, and create a password, enter it again, then click submit. This will create an emailed confirmation to the address you used, which you must click to authorise. Please keep a record of the password you used, else you’ll find yourself using the password recovery tool.
You should then be able to login and adjust your profile and personal list settings. Once logged in you access these by clicking on your name and avatar, top right. That produces a drop-down menu which offers ‘change password’ and ‘personal settings’. Personal settings is a simple, single-page form. Please keep it up to date!
NB: If your profile shows a blank name, please fill it in with your real name. For prehistoric reasons the list has quite a lot of members whose names are missing. It’s much easier for moderators to help you with issues if we can search on a name instead of a hazily remembered, obscure or obsolete email address.
- If this doesn’t help solve your problem click here
How can I change my registered email address ?
This is no longer possible from a form on this page. You will need to change your email address by changing your Affinity personal settings.
- Forgotten your password ? click here
- If this doesn’t help solve your problem click here
My inbox is getting filled up with EPUK posts. Help !
EPUK is a busy mailing list, and we strongly recommend you use filters to put EPUK posts into their own folder. You can find step-by-step guides on how to do this for some of the main email clients here
Alternatively, if you would prefer to receive one or two big “digest” emails a day, rather than each individual post, you can change your delivery settings yourself by following the instructions here:
- If this doesn’t help solve your problem click here
How do I switch between the regular and digest delivery ?
Regular delivery – which is the default for new subscribers – means you get emails individually when they are sent to the list. Digest delivery means you get just one or two condensed emails each day which contain all the list emails.
To change your settings see here
- Forgotten your password ? click here
- If this doesn’t help solve your problem click here
I’ve forgotten my list password.
If you try to use an old subscriber password (pre-mid-February 2021) for the new Affinity personal settings, sorry it won’t work. Mailman 3 (which the list now runs on) has a different system and you will need to register for control of your personal settings as described here
If you have already registered but forgotten your new password, password retrieval is available from the Affinity login page.
- If this doesn’t help solve your problem click here
My password isn’t being accepted !
All passwords prior to mid-Feb 2021 are now obsolete and no longer work. Please follow the instructions here.
- If this doesn’t help solve your problem click here
I asked for a password reminder – but it hasn’t arrived !
Check you entered your correct email address for password retrieval at the Affinity login page.>. If you enter an email address for which there isn’t a relevant subscription, you won’t get a warning – just the “reminder has been sent” message.
If that seems okay, then check your spam folder or filter to make sure it hasn’t ended up there by mistake
- If this doesn’t help solve your problem click here
I want to unsubscribe completely
You can unsubscribe yourself from EPUK via your Affinity personal settings.
- If this doesn’t help solve your problem click here
I’m going on holiday and want to suspend delivery of list posts
You can temporarily turn off delivery of posts (known as the “nomail” setting) via your Affinity personal settings.
- Forgotten your password ? Click here
- If this doesn’t help solve your problem click here
Where are the list archives ?
We moved servers in March 2006, and – to keep things interesting – again in September 2006. Only the archives since September 2006 are currently online, and you can access them via your Affinity personal settings.
- Forgotten your password ? Click here
- If this doesn’t help solve your problem click here
I don’t seem to be getting EPUK posts anymore…
That could be for a number of reasons. Most probable is the list could be especially quiet. But as a general rule, if you haven’t received any posts for the last couple of weekdays, that would be unusual.
Here’s what to do:
- Check your spam filters or settings. If possible, ‘whitelist’ any emails from the epuk.org domain.
- Login to your Affinity personal settings.
…and check that your mail delivery is “on” and that there is no mention of “bounces”. (If a large number of bounces are received from your account, your delivery will be switched off, but you will still be an EPUK member)
- Forgotten your password ? Click here
- If this doesn’t help solve your problem click here
None of these help solve my problem !
If none of the advice above resolves the problem, email a moderator at help@epuk.org and we’ll be in touch to help out.