Mail Queue not sending Newsletters

[bynw]

After upgrading from 2.0.19 to 2.1.1 we are unable to send out newsletters. We are using the default of PHP Mail. Sending a single test email works just fine. No errors are generating. Just we aren't able to send any Newsletters and have a good 300+ members so the mail queue normally fills up too. This is not happening. No newsletters are sent and the mail queue is empty.

Help??

[bynw]

All users must want to get emails via newsletters in order for them to be sent.

[m4z]

Are you saying that if even one person hasn't agreed to that option, no newsletters at all will be sent?

[bynw]

I'm saying with zero members opting in, nothing is sent. Not even to admins as they have to opt-in as well. The previous version didn't have that opt-in. It was an opt-out choice so everyone got the newsletter unless they decided they didn't want to get those emails. It's been reversed in 2.1.1

[Sesquipedalian]

I'm saying with zero members opting in, nothing is sent.

That is intended behaviour. Newsletters are only sent to people who want them.

You are correct that in SMF 2.1 members are opted out of newsletters unless they actively opt in, whereas in SMF 2.0 they were opted in unless they actively opted out. This change in the default assumption was made in order to align with the privacy and anti-spam laws of many countries (not only the EU's GDPR, but also many other countries' laws). Moreover, the people and companies who study these things tell us that it is bad marketing practice to send unsolicited mass emails to people; it mostly just gets you flagged as a spammer.

However, there are some legitimate situations where you might need to send a newsletter to members who have opted out, and so SMF 2.1 does provide an "Override notification settings" option in the "Advanced" options section of the page where you choose the intended recipients of a newsletter. If you select that option when composing a newsletter, that particular newsletter will be sent to all selected recipients even if they normally would not receive it. As the warning text for that option says, though, "This should only be used in exceptional circumstances. Using this to send promotional or other non-essential email messages violates many countries' privacy and anti-spam laws."