It's a splendid idea... one of the problems with email exchanges alone is that you don't have a real thread of your exchanges. I think you have come up with a rather excellent concept, plus as you say you can include screen captures (as well as videos, images) added to previous discussions.

I have used some support ticket software and while there are some good ones (but, I haven't checked them all) I haven't seen any that will provide the full effect that a blog and especially this kind of multiple blog system would if you combine the email posting. I see it as a great management tool for members of a project team, emailing posting, collaborating. What a good concept.

so, does that mean that the answer is "no"?

if indeed, as i've described, it is not an option-- how does my "fantasy" differ from reality (in b2evo terms of course)?

can we break it down to something that actually IS "doable"?
My partner's main concern is the notification-- that is, if I post something new-- so he's up to speed on any urgent situation w/ the VPS (Virtual Private Server - a budget-minded alternative to Dedicated Hosting).

what about "add-ons", or custom coding? if i were to try to manipulate the code (i.e. make the comments thing work for new posts as well), which document(s) would be my starting place?

Muchas gracias!

(BTW- i see there's a new "skin" to the phpbb2 here. looks real nice-- very nicely integrated into the global site. nice work, ladies and gentlemen! ... i sense a two-point-oh on the horizon perhaps w/ all these new clothes... someone's getting ready for the big announcement, eh? ;-) ... regardless, i applaud the contributors)

What you're describing is basically blogging by email. Nothing at all complex there, unless you want replies to show up as comments to the original post. AFAIK that hasn't been done.

The idea of someone else getting an email when you post can be handled 2 ways. First off, if you're blogging by email then simply add the other party to your TO list. Second, if you're blogging by blogging then you'll want to check out botablog and see if it works for you. I don't know if the blogger needs to have an account, or if the person who wants emails when a post happens needs the account, but someone sets up an account and people get to have emails based on blogs being blogged.

A long time ago I used blog-by-email to have people post to a blog after they could answer a simple question. That way they didn't need an account, but could still add their bit to one of the blogs in the installation. I don't know why others use it. Perhaps for convenience when traveling?

hey there, EdB! thanks so much for your input.

you kinda lost me on the whole-- "do they need to be a member" thing, and working out the permissions w/ all that... but, that's okay because membership is not, and will not be a consideration.

why am i not concerned w/ permissions? because it is ONLY he and i who are able to even see it. i've got the .htaccess setup (in cPanel-- w/ the "password protected directory"), so we both have to log in twice. Once to "see" the directory, and second to authenticate b2evo User permissions.

Let me ask this, because i feel as if i'm missing something:
"Why do you blog by e-mail?"
"What is the benefit of the built-in email feature?"
"is it not ONLY for 'incoming' mail (mail TO the blog, not From it)?"

see-- i WILL be logging into b2evo to make MY posts-- i just want HIM to receive them. where in the config can i do that? it doesn't make sense to me that it's possible... after all, i don't even see that it's an option for MYSELF? you said "other party to your TO list"... but-- which? where? (i see that comments, yes-- they can "send" notifications, but-- from a developer's perspective, why would the "author" need to have the "Post" emailed back to him? in other words-- it would be an "unusual" option to have, would it not? UNLESS-- it's for archival purposes [as in Google Groups "send a copy via email"... hey! that's it-- that's kind of what i need actually!])

this thing botablog... [url=http://www.botablog.com/]it looks like[/url] it prob wouldn't work w/ the way i've setup the .htaccess, no?
i'm really not as stupid as this whole inquiry probably sounds-- i'm just trying to save time, on the backs of the benevolent creatures who have been there. it's shameful-- but i'm only hoping for a little empathy there. lord knows my partner and i are driving each other nuts about this.
and in terms of technical configurations-- i do hope there's truly a goose at the end of the chase (and i trust that someone out there has found it already!). ;-)

(sorry-- ADD, man... concise is like "ruby slippers" to me... is it "real"? i've heard of it!)

adesigninteractive wrote:

Let me ask this, because i feel as if i'm missing something:
"Why do you blog by e-mail?"
"What is the benefit of the built-in email feature?"
"is it not ONLY for 'incoming' mail (mail TO the blog, not From it)?"

(1) I don't blog by email anymore. I used it once in one installation where the only members were those who paid dues to a hobby club. Since the club had visitors and friends with similar interests I wanted a way for those people to post stuff. My method was they had to answer a hobby-specific question which let them fill out a form that would be emailed to the account that could blog by email. Other than that I've never done it. Don't need to is why.
(2) The benefits are, as far as I know, like I said: convenience. Let's say you're traveling and can get a crappy connection sometimes. So you set up blogging by email before you travel. You open up your email client from time to time and make some blog posts that you save as drafts. You finally get your connection somewhere and send your drafts. Bing - blogged. Or maybe you just don't want to (or can't?) open your back office on a public PC, but you can get to your gmail or yahoo account. So you can blog from a public computer because you can get to your email.
(3) It is for blogging, meaning posting TO the blog. It is not "email from blogging" which is what you're after. That can be done with botablog, which is the only tool I've come across that does that. Found it in a very old skin. Okay correction: an ANCIENT skin. Check out [url=http://skins.b2evolution.net/192/a.php?skin=ality]ality[/url] and you'll see the botablog button on it. BTW I'm pretty sure the person who wants the email needs the account.

You can do away with the extra level of security via htaccess. Simply post stuff as "protected" and then only logged in bloggers will be able to see what you wrote. Since you and Partner will be the only registered members of your blog that means no one else will ever see stuff. For example http://wonderwinds.com/weblog.php/2004/07/08/sign_my_weblog_guestbook is a protected post. I am the only person who gets to see it.

Note that I'm not sure about making blog by emails be protected. I'm sure it can be done with a minimum amount of work, but off the top of my head I don't know how to do it.

Okay the TO list thing is about if you were going to blog by email. Look blogs aren't about emailing. Emailing is old school. Blogging is about blogging and syndication feeds. If Partner wants to live in the 1980s I guess that's cool, but it's ... old school. Get a damned aggregator and learn to use it. It's no harder than learning to use email! Firefox + Sage add-on is an extremely easy combination to use.

The notification thing sends the blog post author an email containing the comment any time there is a comment on your post. I don't know what the new "notification" thing does because I'm not a member of any multiblogger installations and therefore haven't had the opportunity to subscribe to someone else's notifications. Maybe it sends an email? I dunno.

BOTTOM LINE: You post via the b2evolution interface, Partner signs up via botablog, partner blogs via email (and adds you to the TO field!), and you either see it via the email or by subscribing to the syndication feed. Or you sign up for botablog too.

BEST BET is for Partner to get over this obsession with antiquated tools and simply use the b2evolution interface. Blogging by email doesn't (or more accurately didn't) allow for picking a category. Or sub-categories. Or cross-posting in multiple categories in different blogs.

BTW I'm not seeing where this is anything like a support ticket system. What you're really looking for is a comprehensive "blogging by email with email notifications containing the content" system. You can do that, I'm pretty sure, with blogging by email and botablog for the person who is afraid to use the blog app's interface.

hey, EdB-- thanks VERY much for your detailed, thoughtful reply. seriously-- i got a lot out of that info. the anecdotal too. ;-)

seriously-- i'm w/ you ALL the way. i thought b2ev was a GREAT idea for this VPS project. i mean-- for example, we had a Smarty Compiler crash when i was testing TikiWiki, a Memory issue w/ a file named _calendar.plugin.php in a certain blog software, likely familiar to members of this very forum (php.ini insubstantial allotment), etc., etc-- which i not-necessarily painstakingly-but-put-noticeable-effort into recording these incidents in detail, w/ screen caps and history of this and that-- and b2ev is perfect for it-- the Link Blog-- i've got stuff pointing to cPanel resources, Fantastico-software OEM's help-areas, etc., etc....

you're right-- he's old-school. he's been doing Linux-hosting, via Windows (via SSH) since 1994 or so-- and only NOW getting into cPanel (which is where i come in because i've been doing cPanel / WHM for a while).

we met at Wegman's the other day-- had a little powwow at which point he said "oh! how to you get to that interface?!?", referring to the "back office". i was like "what the hell have YOU been reading?". so-- i'm dealing w/ someone who's got his way of doign stuff. i mean-- he still uses MailWasher and POP accounts for chrissake!

NOTE: i am not saying that these methods are wrong. however, i do not understand the continued use of them when things such as gMail seem so much more efficient, among other issues mentioned-- but i'm more of a "newb", so perhaps that explains my affinity for the "modern". and, make no mistake-- i do appreciate the old-school, or else i wouldn't be trying to fix this issue for him-- i can appreciate that he wants it such and such. there must be a reason for this affinity-- and who am i to question it. i'm fortunate to be involved w/ a guy who happened to "make it through the dot-com revolution" and come out on the other side w/ a beautiful wife and two lovely children-- so, it's difficult for me to argue, ya know? all i can do is try to say "hey, but dont you think this is cool?"

part of the problem is that he doesn't understand my level of knowledge-- whether it's above or below his perception makes no difference-- it's like, to him-- a ticket-system solves the problem. but to me-- i'm left w/ nothing-- no resource for learning. but with b2ev, i feel like we would be building a robust resource, which i could reference for years to come-- about whatever issue might come up.

in my perception, in contrast to b2ev, a ticket-sys is "cold" and "lifeless". to regard such an "archive" of transactions and learning in a ticket-system-- it's just not very enticing; it doesn't beg me to go out and learn about something (i.e. Apache modules, Zend, Smarty, etc., etc.), but b2ev is like building a home-library. i want polished mahogany shelves, and hard-cover books, and above that-- about five 16" x 20" action-shots of Jimmy Page in mid-solo to Dazed and Confused, circa 1974 Houses of the Holy tour... just so i can tell the wife "this is MY room, hun. you get the rest of the house..."

(BTW-- i think EdB has pretty much given me what i needed here! it's in my hands now. and thanks, EdB!)

Cool. Hey maybe hooking him up with "post by email and see stuff by botablog" will set you up to show how cool stuff can be. Cross-post something. Then post with a screen-cap. And do blockquotes and stuff like that. The idea being you be the guide on a guided discovery adventure. As soon as he says "how'd you do that" you can say "by blogging directly, but you like email so ... " ;)

EdB wrote:

you can say "by blogging directly, but you like email so ... " ;)

right on.

i'll check it out. i'll probably have to ditch the .htaccess thing, like you said. my only concern there, however, is google bots n stuff. i didn't really want to have that sort of stuff just "out there". am i correct in assuming that? i know i've encountered subject matter in results before-- where i'd go to the source only to find it to be "private"-- so i got a "snippet" of private info. i could be wrong about that of course.

I think search engines and stuff can't get to protected or private posts because they don't have any login credentials. It is possible that some blog engines will allow a snippet to be public while the rest is private, but b2evolution doesn't work that way.

You can test it by making a protected post with junk text. Not "lorem ipsum" stuff because that's everywhere. Just post with a bunch of words that aren't words strung together in a bizarre manner. Do one post public and one post private, with titles like "oolafoola manganolo bakaraka snoobalooga", then see when google (and others I guess) have the public one. As long as they don't also have the protected one you'll know that they can't get protected stuff.

But yeah the htaccess protection would have to go away. Especially for botablog to work because I can't imagine they can get through a password protection.

Hmmm... seems to me there have been methods to make the whole blog invisible to those who are not logged in. Something like adding "if( is_logged_in() ) {" after the body tag, and "}" before the /body tag. That way no one who isn't logged in will see anything. No sidebar, no skin, nothing. Do something like that and you don't even have to post in protected mode because you're using the "is_logged_in()" function to decide if the whole page gets shown or not.

The best way to do a private blog is :

1) meander over to your blog settings and untick "published" from the post statuses list in advanced/wide view
2) crack open conf/_config.php and add this just below the <?php at the top

$login_required = true;

¥

hi. thanks again for your input. on this issue. i've resolved that there's really no reason to do it, not to mention-- lost any inspiration to put more effort into to it-- consider the most recent remark from the other party:

unless that blog can e-mail me when you post to it and allow me to reply and auto-post via e-mail then it just isn't going to be a workable thing for me

sort of makes to whole thing pointless, doesn't it? ::scratches head::

too bad though-- it could have been a nice archive developed there.