Stamp refunds & history

[[violet]]

As proposed, telegram stamps are now returned to sender when a message can't be delivered.

This occurs once per day. So if you send a Mass Telegram and over the next few hours, 30 bounce, you'll be refunded 30 stamps all at once at the end of the day. If the telegram takes several days to go out (because it targets new nations), you'll receive daily credits.

Also, to help track is going on, there's a new Stamp History page, which records your acquisition and use of stamps. If you have a Stamp History, which you will once you use or acquire stamps from now on, a link to it will appear at the top of your Telegrams page.

[British Accia]

So, things that count as bounced would be nations DEATed before arrival, class nations, and those who have blocked the category?

[Consular]

This is great, thanks.

[[violet]]

So, things that count as bounced would be nations DEATed before arrival, class nations, and those who have blocked the category?

Yes, anything other than delivery is refunded. The non-rare reasons for delivery failure are:

• "Blocked by Category:" Rejected by the recipient's anti-spam preferences
• "Previous Recruitment Too Recent:" An attempt to recruit the same nation to the same region twice in 28 days
• "Class Member:" Nation is a member of a school class
• "No Such Nation:" Nation ceased to exist before the telegram arrived
• "Blocked by Sender": Nation has explicitly blocked telegrams from you

[Leppikania]

So, things that count as bounced would be nations DEATed before arrival, class nations, and those who have blocked the category?

Yes, anything other than delivery is refunded. The non-rare reasons for delivery failure are:

• "Blocked by Category:" Rejected by the recipient's anti-spam preferences
• "Previous Recruitment Too Recent:" An attempt to recruit the same nation to the same region twice in 28 days
• "Class Member:" Nation is a member of a school class
• "No Such Nation:" Nation ceased to exist before the telegram arrived
• "Blocked by Sender": Nation has explicitly blocked telegrams from you

What are the rare reasons for failure?

Also, this change makes me tempted to buy some telegram stamps to test this out. I think this is a big enough change to warrant a news post.

Oh, and the store needs to be updated.

[[violet]]

Oh, there are so many. Some only apply in weird circumstances. But a few more are: The sender ceases to exist. The region the message is addressed to ceases to exist. The recipient's inbox is full. The server has a fail.

I will fix up the documentation once I'm sure everything is working, thanks.

[Eluvatar]

I think returning stamps in the case of previous recruitment too recent may be too generous.

Will go into detail elsewhere.

[King Nephmir II]

This is excellent, considering I use several thousand stamps a month. This will not only help recruitment greatly, but allow stamps to go much farther.

[Flanderlion]

I think returning stamps in the case of previous recruitment too recent may be too generous.

Will go into detail elsewhere.

I'm with you there. If someone decides to send the same letter to someone twice, they shouldn't get refunded.

[Consular]

I think returning stamps in the case of previous recruitment too recent may be too generous.

Will go into detail elsewhere.

I'm with you there. If someone decides to send the same letter to someone twice, they shouldn't get refunded.

Why not? The telegram is still blocked I believe, so the person isn't getting spammed or anything. If you have an API recruiter and stamps running at the same time it is very possible both will try send to the same nation. There's no way to prevent that AFAIK. Sometimes you'll do manual as well, and will get the manual telegram in before the stamp one arrives, so the system blocks the stamp one and refunds a stamp. Again, no way to get the stamp telegrams to not send to that nation as well AFAIK short of stopping stamp recruitment for the duration of your manual recruitment time.

[Floor 448]

I'm with you there. If someone decides to send the same letter to someone twice, they shouldn't get refunded.

Why not? The telegram is still blocked I believe, so the person isn't getting spammed or anything. If you have an API recruiter and stamps running at the same time it is very possible both will try send to the same nation. There's no way to prevent that AFAIK. Sometimes you'll do manual as well, and will get the manual telegram in before the stamp one arrives, so the system blocks the stamp one and refunds a stamp. Again, no way to get the stamp telegrams to not send to that nation as well AFAIK short of stopping stamp recruitment for the duration of your manual recruitment time.

The point is that you still can't buy a hundred billion stamps, send out twenty thousand recruitment telegrams with those, and block out everyone else from getting the first telegram other than the welcome telegram. Ever.

[Wintermoot]

This is nice for regions that recruit using stamps, but would it be possible to have some sort of happening or indicator in the API and/or on their nation page so that API and manual recruiters can skip over nations that have at least blocked recruitment telegrams? That way manual and API recruiters wouldn't be left at such a big a disadvantage now that stamp recruiters get their stamps from those nations back.

[Ancient and Noble House of Ravenclaw]

This was an unexpected change, and one that both I and Alexandria's community are extremely grateful for.

[British Accia]

So, things that count as bounced would be nations DEATed before arrival, class nations, and those who have blocked the category?

Yes, anything other than delivery is refunded. The non-rare reasons for delivery failure are:

• "Blocked by Category:" Rejected by the recipient's anti-spam preferences
• "Previous Recruitment Too Recent:" An attempt to recruit the same nation to the same region twice in 28 days
• "Class Member:" Nation is a member of a school class
• "No Such Nation:" Nation ceased to exist before the telegram arrived
• "Blocked by Sender": Nation has explicitly blocked telegrams from you

Alright, thanks [Violet], will have to send some to test this new feature out.

[Nationalist Gold Union]

Wonderful, thanks [violet].

[Bears Armed]

This is nice for regions that recruit using stamps, but would it be possible to have some sort of happening or indicator in the API and/or on their nation page so that API and manual recruiters can skip over nations that have at least blocked recruitment telegrams? That way manual and API recruiters wouldn't be left at such a big a disadvantage now that stamp recruiters get their stamps from those nations back.

Seconded.

[[violet]]

This is nice for regions that recruit using stamps, but would it be possible to have some sort of happening or indicator in the API and/or on their nation page so that API and manual recruiters can skip over nations that have at least blocked recruitment telegrams? That way manual and API recruiters wouldn't be left at such a big a disadvantage now that stamp recruiters get their stamps from those nations back.

Added here.

API and manually-sent recruitment telegrams don't compete with stamp-sent telegrams for delivery, so adding more stamp recruitment doesn't slow down the delivery of manual or API messages. So long as there's at least one telegram awaiting delivery in each channel, they're delivered in a round-robin system, e.g. 1 manual, then 1 stamp, then 1 API, and so on.

[Floor 448]

Any way to see that stuff on regular nation pages?

[Ever-Wandering Souls]

Question: Is there any when, when one is using this to target a tag:existinggroup, for the required number of stamps to reflect these changes?

i.e. Tag:Osiris with a recruitment TG reflects only the number without them blocked

or most vitally, especially with the ballooning population: Tag:all only reflects those of the 190K nations without, say, recruitment TG's blocked? That's the case where it would cut the requires number of stamps to initiate a message by tens of thousands, and hence a good chunk of $$.

[Wintermoot]

Added here.

API and manually-sent recruitment telegrams don't compete with stamp-sent telegrams for delivery, so adding more stamp recruitment doesn't slow down the delivery of manual or API messages. So long as there's at least one telegram awaiting delivery in each channel, they're delivered in a round-robin system, e.g. 1 manual, then 1 stamp, then 1 API, and so on.

Thanks for adding this in! This should save recruiters some time they would otherwise spend sending telegrams to nations that wouldn't see them to begin with.

[[violet]]

Question: Is there any when, when one is using this to target a tag:existinggroup, for the required number of stamps to reflect these changes?

This isn't possible, sorry, since it would require loading every potential recipient (up to 190k nations) to check their settings. Also, many nations block "Some" or "Most" TGs, meaning that whether a TG gets through is time-dependent and difficult to know in advance.

[Goddess Hestia]

Thank you [violet]
I use basically all my spare money for this.
Now i can save to buy weapons

[Ever-Wandering Souls]

Question: Is there any when, when one is using this to target a tag:existinggroup, for the required number of stamps to reflect these changes?

This isn't possible, sorry, since it would require loading every potential recipient (up to 190k nations) to check their settings. Also, many nations block "Some" or "Most" TGs, meaning that whether a TG gets through is time-dependent and difficult to know in advance.

Figured. Thanks for answering!

[Wadden-Amrum]

Does the 'Stamp History' page appear at the end of the day or once you've sent out the mass-telegram instantly?

[[violet]]

The link should appear at the top of your Telegrams page as soon as you've acquired or consumed stamps. So yes, immediately after sending your first Mass TG that required stamps.