Newsletter / mailing list software

[lovingboth]

We want to email a few hundred people every month. Until now, that's been done by adding the names to the email program's address book and sticking the lot of them in the BCC line (because unlike say the BBC, we hide everyone's address from everyone else).

This is obviously not the best way to do it, not least because we're being dragged kicking and screaming into having to use Outlook soon (mind you, it's been 'very soon' since last July!)

So, it was off to google and hotscripts to find a free mailing list manager, preferably in PHP, with a web interface.

I don't mind it needing MySQL, but I do mind having to recompile it to use a different file format. I also mind having to turn off the register_globals protection because it's an old script. The admin must be able to add people without getting them to confirm, but no-one else should be able to do so (ie double opt-in). Emails have to be able to be sent in plain text and we must have control over the header and footer (no ads we can't delete!)

Mailman is overkill until we decide we want a email list rather than a newsletter, which we probably never will. We're also not interested in archives, or readers being able to read via the web. If I want themes, I'll listen to a soundtrack.

Mailgust... what was wrong with that one? It was the first one I tried and I think it didn't let you import from a text file.

Subscribe2me wants money to import subscribers.

phpLedMailer wants MySQL with InnoDB.

MyMail's install.php is broken.

email_list_lite wants register_globals ON.

We found something, but it's not perfect - as well as no double opt-in, I have some security doubts to the extent that I've ripped what program it is out of the mail header.

Any other suggestions?

Comments

You can always...

[kingginger.livejournal.com]

... enable the BCC part of an Outlook email if you like and then just set up a distribution list...

A few clicks and its sorted.

Unless you want to set up some sort of mailing list stuff??

Or have a I missed something?

[lovingboth]

That's how we have been doing it, albeit not with Outlook (spit).

But the people who enter email addresses from ads often get things slightly wrong and it's a pain to edit these out when sending. Even the system used yesterday can cope with this sort of thing easily.

Having a server-based set up also means things like letting people subscribe themselves online.

So yes, some sort of mailing list stuff.

Me too

[ofiwriter.livejournal.com]

I am also wanting to do this, to update 70 or so supporters about my book. I thought I had it sorted when my new website host offered a mailing list facility, but now I have it I realise it is actually the facility to set up a discussion list (like uk-poly etc) that everyone can contribute too. While that might also be useful, I still haven't worked out how I can send to lots of people using the To: field not the Bcc: field. If you find out, I would be very interested to know, and I will let you know if I work it out.

[lovingboth]

There are two I managed to get working - neither is a mailing list, like uk-poly where everyone can email to the list.

That's certainly doable, but you either need to create a yahoogroup (or similar mailing list hosted by someone who wants to have ads) or be able to do more with your webhost. If that's a problem, ask me.

For a mailing list, it's considered essential that they join the list themselves, rather than you join them.

For an announcment list, where you can email everyone but they can't, it's less essential - and one of the announcements can be 'join the mailing list at...'

Sending to lots of people via To: or CC: is considered Bad. Or did I misunderstand that and you can't work out how to BCC: them? What email program are you using?

Are you coming to BiFest? If so, grab me for a chat about this.

[ofiwriter.livejournal.com]

I have been using Bcc so far, but it is cumbersome as I don't want to add lots of Bcc addresses for each mail in case they all get put into junk mail folders. I certainly am not using To or Cc. What I am looking for is an announcement list. Anyway, I will be at Bifest, so we can talk about it then, unless (as is likely) there are plenty of other interesting things to talk about. See you then.