Most importantly, When Sonic WebMail sends me what it calls a "Return Receipt" (RR):

General discussions and other topics.
4 posts Page 1 of 1
by alan_k » Tue Nov 17, 2020 3:26 pm
1) Does Sonic always, sometimes, or NOT, mean the intended recipient OPENED my e-mail?

Surprisingly, though I like Sonic, incl. Tech Support, overall: 3/3 Tech Support employees did not know the meaning of RR notices. And the last 2 of them said try Sonic Forums.

Or does that RR JUST mean the intended recipient's (IR's) e-mail box ACCEPTED my e-mail?

OR does RR VARY in what it means, or get "told to get lost", depending on the software features of IR's e-mail box?

Like, could RR realistically possibly mean my e-mail was directed to the IR's Suspected Spam or Suspected Malware folder?
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2) And why have I NEVER, in over 2 months/~10 e-mails, gotten a "delivery status notification" (DSN)?

Even though I've checked the box for a DSN, like I do for an RR, EVERY time I send an e-mail where I NEED, not just want, that proof of delivery and proof of opening. And I HAVE gotten RR's for all those e-mails. (I've never sent a WebMail asking for ONE OR the other)

So, assuming a delivery can be done, and can be confirmed to me once done: Is that the ONLY situation I would get a DSN?
If so, why don't I?


Thank You, helpful repliers I anticipate,

Alan K
alan_k@sonic.net
11/17/20, 3:24 pm PST
by dane » Tue Nov 17, 2020 4:22 pm
Related to Delivery Status Notifications (DSN) as one article says "servers may ignore requests for such notifications, especially OnSuccess options tend to be ignored". So, while you'll generally get a failure response (bounce) if a message cannot be delivered, you'll seldom see a serve that will confirm successful delivery. And some even do not provide bounces, for example sending to an-invalid-email-address@gmail.com will simply silently fail.

Read receipts are similarly useless because they rely on recipients choosing to provide you back that response, and there can be client compatibility issues too. From Wikipedia: "However, requesting a receipt does not guarantee that one will get one, for several reasons. Not all email applications or services support read receipts, and users can generally disable the functionality if they so wish. Those that do support it are not necessarily compatible with or capable of recognizing requests from a different email service or application. Generally, read receipts are only useful within an organization where all employees/members are using the same email service and application."

I sometimes see folks try to "recall" messages which have been sent to me, and like read receipts, this also also something that really only works inside organizational email systems that honor these sort of internal requests.

The lack of a valid delivery confirmation or read receipt has led to the invention of tracking URLs and pixels or images. If there's a URL you'll click in the message, it can be uniquely crafted for you and track your specific action. And if there are images in the email and you choose to allow them to be loaded, these can also be used for unique per-user read tracking. This is how tools like Mailchimp can tell a newsletter writer how many unique opens, re-opens and clicks a given campaign has. And it's why email clients don't load remotely referenced images by default.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by virtualmike » Tue Nov 17, 2020 9:58 pm
I'm one of those who disables receipts to senders. In too many cases, when the sender gets the receipt, they expect that I'll immediately take action on the email, whereas I frequently have higher priority issues to handle first.
by ngufra » Wed Nov 18, 2020 12:20 pm
These features are not specific to sonic.

And whether the recipient server will notify you it arrived, then whether the email client of the recipient will send you a read receipt depends on them.

As Dane wrote some servers will not even tell you when you send an email to a non-existent user, for security reason (one could randomly try username and those it does not get an error back are deemed valid and will receive spam, or someone could send a bunch of email to invalid recipients with your return address and that would flood your inbox)

I have used both of these features with relative success. if i receive a read receipt, it's nice, but if i don't, it may still have been received and read.
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