[Mailman-Users] (no subject)

[Ed Wilts]

On Fri, Jan 23, 2004 at 09:32:07AM -0600, Homestead Harvest wrote:
> We currently have a newsletter which we manage through Outlook
> Express.  We are hoping to find a list server who will make managing
> our lists much easier.  We do not need all the features.  Our only
> purpose is to send an email which then disperses that email to
> everyone on our list.

> These are the features which we will need:
>   1.. When a visitor enters their email address in our newsletter box, that address is sent to our list and automatically entered.

That will be a problem with Mailman, as it should be with every good
mailing list application.  Mailman will ask the user for confirmation
and that feature is there to prevent an abuser from signing up anybody
they feel like.

>   2.. When a visitor unsubscribes, that address is automatically deleted.

That's easy.  Every mailman message, by default, will have unsubscribe
instructions in it.  

>   3.. Bounced or invalid addresses are automatically removed.

They won't be removed but they'll be disabled so you can see what's
going on.

> Is there a limit of how many KB an email can be?

That's configured on a per list basis.  Your 48KB target is small.

> We have about 7 lists which will each send out an email once a month.
> The total number of subscribers is currently 1500.  We anticipate
> getting up to 10,000 in the next few months.  We looked at one of our
> emails and it was 48 KB, will that be a problem?

The current version of Mailman doesn't really have performance issues -
the issues typically happen at the MTA level.  I've sent out 40,000
e-mail in 1 day on a dual PIII/500.  I would suggest that you put your
list on a decent server (dual P4 class probably) and learn how to
configure your MTA properly, whether it's sendmail, postfix, or
something else.  There are lots of references on the web, including this
list's archives, that give advice on tuning your MTA.  10,000
subscribers is not that unusual for mailman.  I believe the record is
over 250,000 but my personal high is only in the 40K range.

-- 
Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts at ewilts.org