Hi everyone! Here with updates relative to verification emails and prompts from last month and this month!

Updates on Account Verification Emails

We're currently still struggling to get email verification working through certain providers (yahoo, aol, and hotmail mainly). We've contacted SendGrid customer support but have yet to hear back from them on if there's anything they can do to help us resolve this issue. So our hands are a bit tied on this.

The most we can do for now to try to accomodate is have you note the Berry-Bazaar group with an alternative email to try, if you're unable to verify with the email you used initially. Please also include your site username so we know what account email we need to try to update. We've been finding gmail seems to work the best. We know that may not be an option for some group members but so far it's been the most consistent. If gmail is not an option for you we can try any alternative emails you have to see if one might work, but we still may end up stumped until we hear back from support. We can also verify there aren't typos or anything in your current email if that's a concern, since it has come up a few times already.  ovob

If you are struggling to verify your first account do not create a second account to try to verify again. Please contact us through a group note! Let us help you, we would be happy to! Thank you.

Update on October's monthly prompt

October's prompt is now live! This month's prompt is a gift art prompt, since we heard the community might be itching to treat others to something sweet. ^^ Due to this being a gift art prompt AP will be run a bit differently this month. We're still setting up the activity a bit so we'll post an announcement about it in the next few days here. Feel free to read the prompt's details for more info on October's prompt here.

Updates For the August/September prompt

We've extended the deadline for submissions to the "Light Storms" monthly prompt by an additional week (7 days). This means the prompt will now end on October 7th at 11:59pm PST. We were hoping for news back from SendGrid much sooner but with no word back yet we're giving a little additional time to allow for submissions and get people up to speed on how we'll be addressing account verification problems during this time.

If you are currently a verified user you can skip the rest of this news post, as the information will not apply to you!

Updates on MonthLy Prompts for Accounts Unable to Verify

We understand that the account verification problems are quite frustrating, given gmail or creating an alternate email may not be an option for all users. We do want to provide a way to let users currently stuck in the middle of account verification problems submit their prompts on time with intent to redeem them later on site for currency. With currency tracking and prompts now living entirely on the World of Eyre site we will not be using old systems of currency granting/tracking via google sheets and comments.

How this will work:

• We set up a folder called "M-000 Holding" (here) on dA for prompts from users that have been unable to verify their account.
  
  • This folder is considered a holding folder, meaning it will just be a place for us to cross check the requirements listed below were met when a user is able to finally participate on site.
  • Submissions to this folder will not have any AP/EC tracked/granted for them. At most we may record down that requirements for a certain region's AP are met, however no currencies will be granted until the submission comes through the world of Eyre site itself.
• In order to submit to this folder on DeviantArt you must meet the following requirements:
  1. You must have a link to your World of Eyre site account in the description of your prompt entry. (This is so we can verify you have signed up for the site, agreed to the Site Terms of Service, and are currently unverified. You do not need to wait to be verified to submit to this folder, though we request users only submit to this folder if they are unverified and are unable to verify their account.)
  2. Any monthly prompt submitted must meet our General Prompt Entry Rules and Guidelines as well as the quick rules listed for the corresponding monthly prompt, and Regional Affinity Guidelines if you're trying to earn AP!
  3. Any monthly prompt submitted must be submitted during the corresponding time window for that prompt. This means you'll need to submit it to this holding folder before the deadline for the prompt you're submitting it for.
     • Moderators will be approving submissions into this folder, so if your submission does not appear right away in the folder don't be alarmed. You may ask a moderator to check your submission is pending review/approval into the holding folder. This can be done by noting the group or asking in the discord #questions channel.
     • If your submission was submitted last minute moderators may not be present at the time of prompt close, so please plan to submit it in advance to give moderators at least 24-48 hours if you're wanting to request this sort of double check.
• Once your submission is in the folder you have until the end of the following month to contact us in some way to try to seek help for verifying your account.
  • Please do not wait until the last minute to contact us if you're having trouble verifying your account. We want to help and we're leaving an entire month of leeway just to try to determine what your verification problem might be, and attempt to fix it.
  • If we find the problem to be something we cannot fix, specifically you are unable to use an alternate email for any reason or do not wish to try alternate emails, then we'll leave your prompt submission in the holding folder on dA until you are able to verify your account. This will mean waiting for the third party customer support to get back to us, which we have no ETA on and likely won't be able to give an ETA on.
  • We will not be creating workaround systems/solutions for accounts unable to verify beyond this holding folder. This means you will not be able to track or spend currencies, or use any of our existing systems on site, until your account is verified. If this concerns you, then you may want to refrain from submitting prompts until you are able to work with us to try to verify your account.
• If you were able to verify your account and currently have a submission accepted into the holding folder, please note the group! We will work with you to make sure your prompt gets into the correct submission folder on the World of Eyre site.

We hope this clarifies our plans relative to future prompts and unverified accounts. Thank you for working with us as we muddle through getting these email problems resolved! We hope this won't have to be a long term solution to this problem, as not having a definite solution is not ideal for anyone involved. >^<b