RedHotPawn spamming my Gmail account!!

I signed up for RHP yesterday and gave them my Gmail address. After logging in to Gmail and verifying my e-mail address, I started 6 games. I found opponents pretty fast and played them quickly. When I checked my Gmail account, I was shocked to see it bombarded with over 20 mails from Red Hot Pawn Online Chess. I was online and making moves the whole time. At the other chess site I use, GameKnot, I do not recieve e-mail alerts when I am online.

Can I configure RHP's e-mail alerts such that if I have been active in the last 15 minutes and someone makes a move, I do not recieve an e-mail alert? It is just plain annoying. If I am online and someone makes a move, I should know it, so why send me an e-mail? E-mail alerts should only be sent to me if I have not accessed RHP in 15 minutes and/or have logged out.

My Gmail inbox has no trouble handling the storage but I do not want to recieve 20 mails all about the same thing. Just 1 will do. It makes it harder for me to spot important mails. In addition, please suggest to RHP to make the subject lines of their e-mails identical, differenting only in the username of my opponent who moved. This is because of the way Gmail groups mails in conversations - based on their subject.

Thanks for reading.

The answer was in the FAQ, you may want to take a few seconds and read it. Just go into "My Setting" menu under "My Site Settings". There are several things here you can change, and check out the other Items under the "Help" Menu.

Originally posted by hildanknight
please suggest to RHP to make the subject lines of their e-mails identical ... because of the way Gmail groups mails in conversations - based on their subject.

Thanks for reading.

Some clarifications:

1. When I am online, and someone makes a move, I will probably be checking RedHotPawn and not my e-mail. Therefore, RHP should not send me notification emails when I am online. When I am offline or have not accessed RHP in the last 15 minutes, I will want to recieve e-mail alerts because I am probably not checking RHP. I at least want an option: "Do not send me notification mails when I am online".

2. I hope that the subject lines of the e-mails would follow a simple syntax, e.g.: "It's your turn against %opponent username%!" (using GK's example). This way, Gmail will group the mails as a conversation.

3. Gmail is not any old free e-mail provider. As of current rankings, it is the 3rd most popular e-mail provider and has the functions of a paid service, including over 2 GB of e-mail space. In view of its popularity, if RHP and Gmail have some problems, RHP should settle them so as not to discourage the millions of Gmail users from using RHP. In addition, if I were not using Gmail, I believed that the spam would amount to over 100 mails. Fortunately, Gmail grouped them into "conversations", reducing clutter in my inbox. My friend uses RHP with his Hotmail account, and has reported issues with Hotmail as well. Hotmail is the most popular e-mail provider and I think RHP should settle these issues. If I were using a minor e-mail provider (e.g. Lycos, Rediff, or JackPotMail), and there was an issue, I would not demand that RHP change their settings. However, the issues affect the major e-mail providers, and 1. affects ALL e-mail providers. I believe RHP should at least make efforts to make sure that it runs smoothly with major e-mail providers.

In your opinion what are GK's failings - it can't be perfect or you wouldn't be here.

OK...shortly after upgrading my subscription, I discovered the forums. And their forums are REALLY inferior to those on RHP. The RHP community is more open-minded and non-chess discussions are tolerated. In GK forums, a single misstep earns you a forum ban. I got the life sentence, followed by a horrendous run of form. Next, my school computers and those at my local library (two places which I use to access the Internet) employed SmartFilter which prevented me from logging in to GK as frequently as I used to. This meant I could only play at Internet kiosks. As a result, I suffered massive timeouts. When my subscription expired, I decided it was time to go.

Anyway, I am talking about RHP's issues with my Gmail account. GK never had such issues, but they had plenty of other problems.

Turn off email move notification - that's all you have to do, the time controls will help you manage your games and your opponents will probably send you reminders when it's your turn to move.

Originally posted by hildanknight
2. I hope that the subject lines of the e-mails would follow a simple syntax, e.g.: "It's your turn against %opponent username%!" (using GK's example). This way, Gmail will group the mails as a conversation.

3. Gmail is not any old free e-mail provider. As of current rankings, it is the 3rd most popular e-mail provider and has the functions of a ...[text shortened]... RHP should at least make efforts to make sure that it runs smoothly with major e-mail providers.

Originally posted by hildanknight
E-mail alerts should only be sent to me if I have not accessed RHP in 15 minutes and/or have logged out.

It's nice to have a fellow Gmail user helping me out. Thanks for the advice. I will use the Gmail notifier so I will not need to keep refreshing RHP, and can go and check Friendster or play a game, or something.

However, perhaps we could have the option to recieve e-mail notifications ONLY WHEN WE ARE OFFLINE.

OK, I have applied the filters.

Gmail's conversations are starting to get the mails sorted out. Now I have only about 7-12 conversations from RHP, which is accurate considering I only have 7 games with 7 different opponents.

Gmail did label a couple of conversations as spam.

Now that that is settled...anyone want a Gmail invite? Gmail is great - the 2 GB of storage, Gmail search and labels make finding your mail a breeze.

I actually find it easier just to turn off the notifications. When you think about it, it`s only one more click to get online, than to see your mail 😉

Originally posted by hildanknight

However, perhaps we could have the option to recieve e-mail notifications ONLY WHEN WE ARE OFFLINE.

Offline means when I am logged out of RHP. I may still be logged in to Gmail or other sites. In addition, when I log in to Gmail, I can see at a glance whether I should log in to RHP.

Check this out: http://home.comcast.net/~johnbart/

It's an RHP notifier that will check as frequently as every minute to see whether anyone has made a move. You don't need to be logged in to RHP for it to work. Just online.