User Selection Problem

[kyle]

Hi Dean,
I'm currently using v 1.85 (haven't had time or the need to upgrade), and I'm having a problem with user selection.  I'm searching the Custom 7 field of one particular list (which I have set to State) for an "Exact" match to "Georgia".  That appears to work fine - I get "5,254 users matched."  Then I search the same list for != "Georgia" and I get "225,738 users matched."  

The problem - I only have "221,834" users on this list...  How can I make sure I send a newsletter to this one set of users, then later to the other set (those that don't match)?  Who are the rest of the people that are matching?  Are they unconfirmed users?  Removed users (which aren't supposed to be kept)?  If they are unconfirmed users, when I actually do the send will it go out to all of them?  

Also, if I just wanted to send to the 5,000 most recent subscribers, then later send to the rest, is there any way to do that?  The seq # doesn't seem to work right for me.  Thanks in advance,
--Kyle

[DW]

Hi Kyle,

I'm currently using v 1.85 (haven't had time or the need to upgrade)

You really should because I may not remember some bugs in that version and cannot guarantee support.  If I end up having to troubleshoot directly the first thing I will need to do is update.

I'm searching the Custom 7 field of one particular list (which I have set to State) for an "Exact" match to "Georgia". That appears to work fine - I get "5,254 users matched." Then I search the same list for != "Georgia" and I get "225,738 users matched."

Are you searching only "Active" users, or have you chosen "All"?  If you choose "All" the matches will include removed, bounced and unconfirmed users.

When you click "Show query" what is the query shown?  A query selecting active users will contain the string cnf = '1'

The problem - I only have "221,834" users on this list... How can I make sure I send a newsletter to this one set of users, then later to the other set (those that don't match)?

The way you are doing it should work, keeping in mind what I mentioned above.  If it still doesn't work as expected I must recommend updating to the latest version, but I should be able to tell if it is working correctly by looking at the query.

Who are the rest of the people that are matching? Are they unconfirmed users? Removed users (which aren't supposed to be kept)? If they are unconfirmed users, when I actually do the send will it go out to all of them?

Yes, User Selection can be used to send to bouncing, unconfirmed and removed users.

If I just wanted to send to the 5,000 most recent subscribers, then later send to the rest, is there any way to do that?

Not exactly - the only way would be by searching based on the date added, so you wouldn't be able to choose "exactly" 5000 but only guess (or determine it closely by counting users by date using PhpMyAdmin).

The seq # doesn't seem to work right for me.

This is unrelated to User Selection - followups are currently sent on a per-list basis only.  Can you tell me more about the problem?

Regards

[kyle]

I can't believe all the testing I'd done with that and I hadn't noticed the "All" right there...  After I changed that to Active, it works perfectly.  Thank you very much for your help.

One thing that might be helpful (as some advertisers want to buy only a part of a list to test with) would be the ability to choose, for example, 5,000 subscribers at random, saving that set, and saving the rest to send to later if the test campaign performed well for the advertiser.  That's really what I'm trying to do here (but decided to target to the states most relevant for this client instead).  

Heh, maybe that's already a feature in the newer version?  I know, I should upgrade.  It took us awhile to get this working well and sending in a reasonable amount of time - that's also part of why I've been a little hesitant to upgrade.  I'm sure it would probably go fine though.  Take care,
--Kyle

[DW]

I'm working away on an update containing many improvements and new features.  "Split testing" has been suggested a few times (try a search) but I don't know when, if or how it will be implemented.

Regards

[kyle]

Good to hear - thanks again Dean!  Take care,
--Kyle