Newsletter: Batch and Time out limit

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  • Misspell
    Junior Member
    • Apr 2004
    • 12

    Newsletter: Batch and Time out limit

    Hello all.
    Just did a search here at the forum and found some older threads with information about newsletters and i would like to clarify a few things.

    Im creating a custom newsletter script which will have the following settings
    - Double opt in (option on join page and email verification)
    - Unique member ID link in newsletter email so they can remove themselves easily from all newsletters or current newsletter
    - Batch sending
    - Time out/pause between batch submissions
    - Bounce retrieval then deletion of email address from Dbase

    My questions:
    - Batch email:
    Since there will be a unique ID for each members email i can not use the "multi-sendto or BBC" command. Each email will have to be sent in a loop as a separate email.
    -- What is an acceptable number of emails to send off per-loop ?
    If this is a problem, i can try and rework the script and create a general link and make the member login to remove themselves and use the BBC option or other method, but i was trying to avoid this.

    - Time out/pause:
    What is an acceptable pause between each batch ?

    - When is a good time (time of day and time zone) to send off newsletters ?

    The newsletter script is all PHP and MySQL, no other commands (shell or anything like that).
    Using PHP's mail() function to send mail.
    Newsletters will be sent to roughly 2,000 - 2,500 members (at most).
    Newsletters will be sent once a month (or once every other month) normally, maybe twice a month in a rare occasion.
    On server with cpanel53


    Any help with the questions above or additional guidance/experience would be great.

    Thanks

    -
  • AndrewT
    Administrator
    • Mar 2004
    • 3653

    #2
    You do need to send a separate email to each individual. Using BCC to send to multiple recipients at once is not acceptable for bulk email.

    As long as the sending is throttled there really shouldn't be a problem. An example that we commonly recommend is to send 10 emails, pause for 10 seconds, then send 10 more.

    Please keep in mind that we do limit shared hosting accounts to roughly a couple of thousand emails per month. Monthly to 2,500 wouldn't really be a problem and as long as the spam complaints are low (or preferably none) twice a month every now and then wouldn't be a big deal.

    Comment

    • Misspell
      Junior Member
      • Apr 2004
      • 12

      #3
      ok, thank you.

      I cant see spam being a problem at all, but how would i check/monitor that with you guys after a few uses of the newsletter script ?


      Originally posted by AndrewT
      Using BCC to send to multiple recipients at once is not acceptable for bulk email.
      Is that common practice for most hosts (or newsletter scripts (just wondering why it is not acceptable)) ?


      Thanks again.

      _

      Comment

      • AndrewT
        Administrator
        • Mar 2004
        • 3653

        #4
        If spam complaints become an issue, you'll certainly hear from us.

        To answer your question, yes, that is common practice. Large CC/BCC groups can easily create performance problems and they reduce your ability to track down spam complaints among other things.

        Often times with spam complaints you only have the message headers to work with (the recipients address is almost always redacted). From these headers you can get the mail server's unique ID for that particular email. This can then be used to search the mail logs and track down the source of the complaint. If the email was BCC'ed to multiple recipients you'll have no way of telling which one the complaint is in reference to.

        Comment

        • Misspell
          Junior Member
          • Apr 2004
          • 12

          #5
          Understood, thanks.

          Ive coded a few different things in PHP (never really much with email though), this script will be an extension for Mediawiki (for my own use and for others to download). While doing alittle research i also searched though some of PHPlists code and came across this link:
          http://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/369.html (PHPlist's code was explaining to add the a 'Received: from' line to the out going header).

          Which now makes more sense after reading your post.

          Being that this script will end up as a download for other people, i would like to code it so Wiki owners can not abuse anything.

          Anyway...
          Thanks again for your help and information.

          _

          Comment

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