[Mailman-Users] Alternative to Mailman

[Kucera, Rich]

Hello,

Looking at similar problems in the future...interesting to think about.

> We're looking at PHPlist, 

PHPList is all web-based,  isn't it?  Some clients may want to respond over
email.

> DadaMail and other packages. We need to be
> able to send up to 100,000 at a shot, announce only, use MySQL

Have you dbdump-ed a list pickle?  Do you really want all that in MySQL?
What for?

> and
> with html mail (or provide that as an option, which Mailman can't
> do),

Uh,  yes it can?  Isn't that a setting in Outlook when you compose the
message?

> 
> In the best of worlds, I'd like to be able to maintain various fields
> on list members including name and source so, for example, we could
> decide to send an email to all list members from Source A and Source
> C, but not Source B, and if there are duplicates on lists A and B, of
> course send only one copy.

Why not put all members on one big list,  then put a customized filter that
checked an external database that had all the rules. The filter goes into
the python code.

> 
> Maybe that's getting into the realm of campaign software. All of our
> list members are opt-in, but they come from various sources, so I'd
> like to be able to pick sources for each mailing and essentially
> build a list each time from various criteria.

Keep those filters in the external database.  If you pick a filter for a
message,  indicate filter name somewhere in the message,  and then send,  the
custom code would ask the database for the list,  or whether a member should
get the message.  Filter management would stay in the database.  Also the
identity management issues you raise.  Don't want to jam all that into a
mailing list manager.

Just IMHO,
-R