Email heads-up and a haiku

because tech...

Dear friends,

Well, an oopsy moment has arrived for these emails. It appears that some at least are now being shuffled off to Promotions or Socials tabs in Gmail. Research indicates there is nothing I or my newsletter platform (Substack, in this case) can do about this; it is a function of the Gmail algorithms.

However, you the recipients can fix this issue (if it is an issue for you) by a simple process of drag and drop on a computer or click and move on a phone. First, I’ll explain how to do it on a desktop or laptop. (I know this works on a laptop, at any rate, because I have been testing it on other subscriptions which have been quite unfortunately dumped into my own Socials tab.)

It works like this: click on the appropriate email and drag it up to the Primary bar at the top of your Gmail page. This can be done with either a mouse or a touchpad. Once you have done this, a dialogue should appear at the bottom of the page, asking if you would like to “Do this for future messages from…”. At this point, click “yes” to keep future messages from ACM Weekly (yours truly!) coming to your primary inbox.

If you are reading these from a phone, find the email, then tap the three dots at the very top of the screen (not the second set lower down—yes, it can be a bit confusing!). This upper set will open a menu, at the top of which is the command “move to”. Click on “move to”, opening a new menu. Click on Primary. I don’t know whether the phone version will affect future emails or not; that setting may need to be changed on a computer.

It should also help to add this email address to your Contacts.

I did not expect to be writing tech instructions in this newsletter, but clearly one never knows…!!

I am aware that my instructions may not be of the clearest; a quick search on “move emails to primary in gmail” will offer plenty of more expert versions.

And now, because poetry can soothe the soul, and anyone who has read through my bit of tech explanation probably needs some soul-soothing, here is a haiku from my hillside:

Golden lichen paints
The weathered fencepost's furrows
For the newest spring.

Cheers!