Anyone familiar with email list software?

[Andrew B.]

I've heard the names email list software, like Majordomo, Listserv, and Mailman. But I don't know much about them. I've also been reading here to get an idea of what's out there. Still, it is all new to me.

Has anyone here set up an email list, either commercial or free software? Or does anyone know something about this, and can make suggestions?

[annc]

Originally Posted by Andrew B.

I've heard the names email list software, like Majordomo, Listserv, and Mailman. But I don't know much about them. I've also been reading here to get an idea of what's out there. Still, it is all new to me.

Has anyone here set up an email list, either commercial or free software? Or does anyone know something about this, and can make suggestions?

I ran a couple of EZMLM lists for a few years, on my old hosting company. They were run in the classic style, where anyone can join and post. Worked extremely well for the purpose, which was developing the Queensland dressage competition calendar each year.

Then I moved to IX Web Hosting, who also use EZMLM, but had them set up so that replies went only to me, and this killed my mailing list community stone dead. I ended up making a private section on my phpBB message board for the purpose, but it was a lot more work, and people missed posts when a new topic was started.

I'd love to set up mailing lists again for this year, so am happy to participate in any research you're planning.

[Andrew B.]

How do you (as admin) interact with EZMLM? What kind of interface?

[annc]

Originally Posted by Andrew B.

How do you (as admin) interact with EZMLM? What kind of interface?

You do it through the Control Panel. But you can't get to the real guts of it that way, at least on IX. for example, they have it set to only allow replies to the Admin, and I can't change that, because that's how IX hav it set up.

I'll e-mail you the relevant pages from the IX manual.

[terrie]

I've sub'd to lists that use Majordomo and Listserv...I don't know if this was a quirk of the particular group but with Majordomo for that list, there wasn't a digest option which drove me nuts and I finally unsub'd from the list...

I think having a digest option is very important...

Terrie

[Andrew B.]

I think this might explain why you didn't see a digest feature:

"Majordomo handles digesting with an optionally-installed digest script, and it treats the digest as a separate list that users can subscribe to (possibly in addition to the regular list)"

http://www.greatcircle.com/lists/lis...s/software-faq

[Andrew B.]

Thanks. :-)

[DTP Guy]

Andrew

One commercial program that I have used in the past is GroupMail from Infacta Software (www.infacta.com). I can recommend it for sending out bulk email. Where I was using it, we sent out over 6,000 emails every day (both text and HTML) and it performed flawlessly.

[terrie]

>>AndrewB: "Majordomo handles digesting with an optionally-installed digest script, and it treats the digest as a separate list that users can subscribe to (possibly in addition to the regular list)"

Ah-ha! It also might be a new-ish feature because this was 5-6 years ago...

Terrie

[LoisWakeman]

Andrew, late to the party, but I have just written a FAQ for a client on using Mailman, and have had to set up and play with a list as research. It seems pretty competent, and all the setup is done via web forms (as you might expect). Setting up a list with mostly default options took about a minute, and is pretty self-evident. Sign-up is by email confirmation, and optionally moderator approval.

I can't comment on how easy it is to install of course.