Comments on: Is it OK to use BCC for a mailing list? http://www.brilliantthinking.net/2006/04/29/is-it-ok-to-use-bcc-for-a-mailing-list/ Edward Terry on the Internet, Cloud Computing, Innovation and the Environment Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:45:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Single Mom http://www.brilliantthinking.net/2006/04/29/is-it-ok-to-use-bcc-for-a-mailing-list/comment-page-1/#comment-16443 Single Mom Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:37:42 +0000 http://www.emissary-consulting.co.uk/reportage/2006/04/29/is-it-ok-to-use-bcc-for-a-mailing-list/#comment-16443 Great site! Keep it up! Great site! Keep it up!

]]> By: Gail Argie http://www.brilliantthinking.net/2006/04/29/is-it-ok-to-use-bcc-for-a-mailing-list/comment-page-1/#comment-16230 Gail Argie Tue, 05 Jan 2010 04:21:40 +0000 http://www.emissary-consulting.co.uk/reportage/2006/04/29/is-it-ok-to-use-bcc-for-a-mailing-list/#comment-16230 Just thought you'd be interested to know that I have added you to my bookmarks You make valid points in a concise and pertinent fashion, I will read more of your stuff, thank you for your time. Just thought you’d be interested to know that I have added you to my bookmarks You make valid points in a concise and pertinent fashion, I will read more of your stuff, thank you for your time.

]]> By: Edward http://www.brilliantthinking.net/2006/04/29/is-it-ok-to-use-bcc-for-a-mailing-list/comment-page-1/#comment-16021 Edward Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:53:15 +0000 http://www.emissary-consulting.co.uk/reportage/2006/04/29/is-it-ok-to-use-bcc-for-a-mailing-list/#comment-16021 I toyed around with this a while ago and decided that if you start down this route you have to start thinking about building a "proper" mailing list system to make it worthwhile. I built my own basic system at one time but constant changes in ISP policies meant constant changes to the way the system worked and it was slow overall because of the problems with contacting mail servers too quickly. I used to use Mailman but this became subject to abuse occasionally and was not technically an email news distribution system but a group collaboration tool. Although it could be used for the former and generally worked quite well, it didn't offer the reporting that provided the assurance that messages were (or were not) getting through. Plus it was notoriously difficult to migrate between servers if a client's hosting was moved as it needed SSH access with command line scripts to export the subscribers (quickly). phpList fell by the wayside quickly as it required constant patching (the same is true of any open source system) and was fiddly to use and again didn't provide the reporting. So, I decided to outsource, but, running my own web company and knowing that my clients needed a solid system I licensed a third party, <a href="http://www.emissary-consulting.co.uk/campaign-pilot.php" rel="nofollow">dedicated mailing list management system which I now offer to my clients</a>. It has been used by the likes of Apple and Jaguar and so comes with a good pedigree and offers excellent reporting and you can set campaign schedules to send campaigns at designated times. There are many third-party systems out there that do an excellent job for a few dollars per campaign and save you the effort you will be required to invest in building and maintaining your own system and I would recommend first doing a quick review of what's on the market before delving into DIY based on personal experience. I toyed around with this a while ago and decided that if you start down this route you have to start thinking about building a “proper” mailing list system to make it worthwhile. I built my own basic system at one time but constant changes in ISP policies meant constant changes to the way the system worked and it was slow overall because of the problems with contacting mail servers too quickly.

I used to use Mailman but this became subject to abuse occasionally and was not technically an email news distribution system but a group collaboration tool. Although it could be used for the former and generally worked quite well, it didn’t offer the reporting that provided the assurance that messages were (or were not) getting through. Plus it was notoriously difficult to migrate between servers if a client’s hosting was moved as it needed SSH access with command line scripts to export the subscribers (quickly).

phpList fell by the wayside quickly as it required constant patching (the same is true of any open source system) and was fiddly to use and again didn’t provide the reporting.

So, I decided to outsource, but, running my own web company and knowing that my clients needed a solid system I licensed a third party, dedicated mailing list management system which I now offer to my clients. It has been used by the likes of Apple and Jaguar and so comes with a good pedigree and offers excellent reporting and you can set campaign schedules to send campaigns at designated times.

There are many third-party systems out there that do an excellent job for a few dollars per campaign and save you the effort you will be required to invest in building and maintaining your own system and I would recommend first doing a quick review of what’s on the market before delving into DIY based on personal experience.

]]> By: Scott http://www.brilliantthinking.net/2006/04/29/is-it-ok-to-use-bcc-for-a-mailing-list/comment-page-1/#comment-16020 Scott Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:49:20 +0000 http://www.emissary-consulting.co.uk/reportage/2006/04/29/is-it-ok-to-use-bcc-for-a-mailing-list/#comment-16020 Sometimes you kind of HAVE to use CC or BCC. I'm managing a pretty large mailing list (>10,000), and our software is doing just as you recommend. Although we've been splitting up mailings into smaller batches, when we contact a particular mailserver many times per minute, sending one email at a time, we're often considered to be spammers, and have all of our emails rejected by that domain for 5 hours or longer. Besides burdening our mailserver with thousands of rejected retries, this puts us in the position of being unable to send time-critical business emails to anyone in the affected domains. And these are not Yahoo or any other notoriously picky receiving domains, they're ones that are usually quite tolerant of large mailings in most other respects. In short, spammers have ruined BOTH methods now. We're looking at using in-house code to BCC about 5 people at a time, so that we can cut our connections sending by 80%, while still not running afoul of any "large BCC list" limits. Sometimes you kind of HAVE to use CC or BCC.

I’m managing a pretty large mailing list (>10,000), and our software is doing just as you recommend. Although we’ve been splitting up mailings into smaller batches, when we contact a particular mailserver many times per minute, sending one email at a time, we’re often considered to be spammers, and have all of our emails rejected by that domain for 5 hours or longer. Besides burdening our mailserver with thousands of rejected retries, this puts us in the position of being unable to send time-critical business emails to anyone in the affected domains. And these are not Yahoo or any other notoriously picky receiving domains, they’re ones that are usually quite tolerant of large mailings in most other respects.

In short, spammers have ruined BOTH methods now. We’re looking at using in-house code to BCC about 5 people at a time, so that we can cut our connections sending by 80%, while still not running afoul of any “large BCC list” limits.

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