Mailing list software

What about users like me who turn off images because they don’t like spam and want to let on my email addreess is active.

Also, sometimes those dam image heavy emails are just a plain pain the arse while you’re waiting for their server to catch up on the image delievery problems.

As I indicated earlier, I prefer the HTML over the plain text. However, I also agree that it’s nice to have the option. My parents, for instance, operate out of Africa where their ISDN line (for whatever reason) is just barely up to the specs of our 56K modems here in the U.S. In a situation like that or with an analog modem, I would probably choose a text only option.

But just like I prefer my magazines in color and with pictures, or my web sites in color rather than plain text (does anyone even make a plain text website), I also prefer my emails in color and with pictures. If given the option (and the bandwidth).

So for a MODx snippet I think an option for the user to choose HTML or text would be a good idea. And for the publishers it would be nice to have an intuitive setup for newletter creation that can require entries for both formats before a letter is mailed.

Quote from: Carsten at May 06, 2006, 05:19 AM

Also, sometimes those dam image heavy emails are just a plain pain the arse while you’re waiting for their server to catch up on the image delievery problems.

umm, haven’t hit that problem... actually the most image intensive email I get would be from daz3D and it’s probably the fastest to load. I imagine if your marketing includes html emails with images and your user base is vast then you’d be ensuring the very fastest server so your client’s don’t become ex-clients

... besides, there’s always unsubscribe - and if people are doing that in numbers then I’m sure most would re-evaluate their marketing strategies.

I am currently evaluating dadamail which is very clean and user friendly. If all goes well I shall be looking at integrating it into Modx.

And I’m fiddling around with phpList, so maybe between the two of us we’ll get something working here!

Currently, I’m working with someone who already bought a license for 12All. Closed source, very much so, the source files are encrypted. Very painful trying to customize it. There are a number of cutomizations allowed, but of course not the ones the client wants! It appears to be a very powerful program, but there is a reason why they sell their services as front-end designers for it!

Just curious as to why you want to twist your CMS into acting as a maling list manager? Those seem like pretty different functions.

Having said that, why not just install Mailman (http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/index.html) and not reinvent the wheel? But then again, maybe I don’t understand what you’re trying to accomplish...

A unified interface for the client to publish pages / newsletters

site archives of past newsletters

unified user database. Eventualy that could even work with a commerce feature for a paid area of the site.

There should be one place for users to log in and access whatever your site has to offer, and one place for managers to log in and manage whatever they need to manage. Besides, MODx is not really a CMS, it is a CMF...so it does a lot more than just manage content. It provides a framework for managing all the content of your entire site.

Susan,

I agree with your reasons, but there are certain wheels that I think aren’t worth reinventing -- and a mailing list manager is complex enough that I think it’s one of those wheels.

Anyway, Mailman is easy enough to customize that you can make it look like a part of your site, as well as point it to your database for user info. Personally I think that’s easier than creating something from scratch, but that’s just me

Yes, but a bridge like the SMF bridge would be very nice. Why should a user have to register twice, once for your site and once for your mailing list?

I, for one, certainly have no intention of trying to write an entire mailing list app from scratch! Just a way to seamlessly connect users between MODx and a "real" mailing list app is what I have in mind. A module to connect to the mailing app’s manager would be nice, but not really as important.