On the Importance of Being Emailed

I don't know about you, but my In box functions as my to-do list. Not my only to-do list, mind you. I still scratch out lists on paper with an ancient technology known as a pen. But my In box plays a critical role in reminding me of upcoming items of interest.

I am not the only one, as I was reminded rather forcefully this week.

The PL/SQL Challenge reminds players (who have asked for reminders) about their daily and weekly quizzes. We also send out emails with results, once the quiz has closed.

Unfortunately, the email queue for our site (and perhaps others?) got backed up this week. Emails did not go out. And I did not pay sufficient attention to notice.

As a result, we received some painful emails like:

I got reminder for 2013-07-30 quiz at early morning of 2013-08-03. Looking at the email headers it is not my local SMTP server problem. All other emails from plsql challenge also is very late, so I missed Fridays quiz :(

I didn't get "Quiz Results"-mails on 31 July and 01 August and I also didn't get a "Reminder"-mail yesterday (or already some days before). So I forgot to play the quiz yesterday.

and worst of all:

I have been playing PL/SQL quizzes without having missed a single quiz since last 2 years.  Since I am working, I rely on reminder emails, But I missed out the 1st August 2013 quiz. If you can please resolve the issue with reminder emails and consider my waiver for 1st August Daily Quiz, which I could not take.  

Sadly, we cannot issue waivers or give you credit for a missed quiz. Hundreds of people did play on Thursday and Friday (though I wondered at the time why the count was lower than usual - I just figured it was due to summer holidays).

We will do our best to ensure that the emails keep on flowing, but remember:

If it is a weekday, there is a PL/SQL quiz for you to take!