diff --git a/docs/40_development.md b/docs/40_development.md index 8c9021f4..9958918d 100644 --- a/docs/40_development.md +++ b/docs/40_development.md @@ -126,19 +126,34 @@ However, this is not strictly required. You can contribute using the standard fork-and-pull-request model, but under this workflow we will lose the benefit of those previews. -## Email Lists - -The project's email domain name services are managed via Terraform as AWS Route -53 entries. This allows the API server to send emails to users, etc. It also -means we need a way to forward incoming emails to the proper mailing list--this -is accomplished with a service called [ImprovMX](https://improvmx.com/). +## Email Services + +DANDI Archive maintains several email services to implement the following +facilities: + +- **Public email.** Users of the Archive can reach the developers for help or to + report problems by sending email to info@dandiarchive.org and + help@dandiarchive.org. These are "virtual" email addresses managed by DNS + entries. +- **Transactional email.** The Archive sends email to users to manage the signup + process and to inform about special situations such as long running operations, + registration reject/approval, Dandiset embargo and unembargo, changes to + ownership, etc. These are sent via Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), + programmatically from the Archive code. +- **Mass email.** The maintainers of the Archive infrequently send + mass email to all users of the Archive to inform about downtime + or other notifications of mass appeal. This function is managed through a + Mailchimp account that requires special procedures to keep it up to date. + +### DNS Entries for public email addresses The email addresses info@dandiarchive.org and help@dandiarchive.org are advertised to users as general email addresses to use to ask for information or -help; both of them are forwarded to dandi@mit.edu, a mailing list containing the -leaders and developers of the project. The forwarding is done by the ImprovMX -service, and more such email addresses can be created as needed within that -service. +help. These are managed via Terraform as AWS Route 53 MX entries. We use +[ImprovMX](https://improvmx.com/) to forward emails sent to these addresses to +dandi@mit.edu, a mailing list containing the leaders and developers of the +project. (Other virtual addresses within the dandiarchive.org domain can be +created as needed.) If you need the credentials for logging into ImprovMX, speak to Roni Choudhury (). @@ -168,7 +183,7 @@ there. ### Why do incoming emails to dandiarchive.org look crazy? When a user emails help@dandiarchive.org or info@dandiarchive.org, those -messages are forwarded to dandi@mit.edu (see [above](#email-lists)) so that the +messages are forwarded to dandi@mit.edu (see [above](#email-services)) so that the dev team sees them. However, these emails arrive with a long, spammy-looking From address with a Heroku DNS domain; this seems to be an artifact of how mit.edu processes emails, and does not occur in general (e.g. messages sent