Forum OpenACS Development: email list and autoresponder

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1: email list and autoresponder
Posted by Jon Griffin on 05/11/07 05:25 PM
Has anyone implemented an opt-in list, preferably with an autoresponder add-in?

ezmlm has some serious drawbacks like not being able to capture name or other information, and not have PG support.

I could hack something together but it is probably easier to start from scratch.

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2: Re: email list and autoresponder (response to 1)
Posted by Tom Jackson on 05/12/07 09:02 AM
Jon,

I notice the same problem: ezmlm is great for exactly what it does, but the administrator has no way of knowing much about the list members if they just look at the list of email addresses. Even if someone signs up with the standard quoted name and email, the name gets stripped out. This makes ezmlm relatively useless for sending personalized spam, but a lot of people would rather not give up any more information anyway.

But the question is: how to build up the opt-in list? From a technical/legal perspective, there needs to be one authoritative list of who wants to be on the list, so if they end up opting out, they are removed for good.

What features are missing in the available tools (ezmlm and acs-mail)?

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4: Re: email list and autoresponder (response to 2)
Posted by Jon Griffin on 05/12/07 05:51 PM
ezmlm won't work because there is no way I could find to add what is missing.

Most people will give their name and email to get a free report or subscribe to a newsletter. I am not interested in those still living in the 90's and think they actually still have privacy ;)

For any list program to be useful, it needs to be double opt-in and needs an EASY way to unsubscribe. Autoresponders (as in sending multiple, timed email) are also a requirement for anyone doing serious business on the web today.

aweber.com is an example of a complete, easy to use system. marketerschoice.com also has autoresponders.

I don't think acs-mail is worthwhile because it was created for one thing, sending out messages and not managing subscribers that are not community members. I don't necessarily want every person on an email list as community members.

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3: Re: email list and autoresponder (response to 1)
Posted by Torben Brosten on 05/12/07 10:48 AM
It seems to me that notifications package already handles most of the opt-in UI functions.
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5: Re: email list and autoresponder (response to 3)
Posted by Jon Griffin on 05/12/07 06:00 PM
Notifications may work, but I don't think so in the scheme I envision.
A. I don't see any way to send to non community members.
B. I haven't looked at the internals closely but it seems overly complex and not flexible.
C. Does it handle incoming mail? The docs don't say.