The FB Autoresponse

There was a very good question about our autoresponse down in the comments section on yesterday's tip, wondering how long one should wait before querying us about whether a story has been received if he or she has not received an autoresponse. To answer that question, I first should explain what the criteria my computer looks for in order to send an autoresponse.

Basically, there are two criteria. One: the email must have an attachment. And Two: the subject line must contain the word "Submission." Most of the time, it will accept "sub" in the line also.

The other thing that can be tricky is whether or not I have the email program turned on. Sometimes, we can go a day or two (at the most) without downloading the FB mail. Because the autoresponse is not at the server level, but in my email program, the autoreply does not get sent until I download the email.

So, to answer the question, you shouldn't wait more than 3 or 4 days before asking us if we received a submission, provided you followed the guidelines and met the requirements of the mail rule. I hope that clears up some things. I welcome these kinds of questions, so feel free to ask more, submitters. I think the ideal situation for the FB one day will be to have a completely transparent editorial process. We have some way to go before we achieve that.

Posted by JeremyT at October 12, 2004 02:42 PM