Help managing a large volunteer-run list
November 1, 2005 9:23 AM
How can I manage this 3000+ subscriber, volunteer-run mailing list better?
I volunteered as an editor 7+ years ago on a mailing list for women in the metro area where I live. It's grown over the years and the original founder (who also produced local events) has moved to the other side of the country and started doing other things.
So a friend and I are now the Publishers and we have 2-3 volunteer editors.
When we started out we were using the founder's pine account and the subscribers were listed in a text file.
Now, Dreamhost is our hosting company and we use their Announce List function to send out emails to this list. The subscribing and unsubscribing is done using their opt-in script on the list's web site.
Here's how it works: We send out a mailing every other Monday (alternating weeks of Classifieds and Housing) and every Friday (events). We mainly rely on people sending in submissions. Housing alone is broken up into 3 emails because it's so large. Each editor has their own webmail account, i.e. events@ and so on. They log in, compile that week's mailing and then send it to my friend and I. We check it for errors, etc. and then send it out via Dreamhost.
One problem we encounter is formatting. I've told Editors to use plain text, but inevitably we get weird characters showing up and folks complain. We've kept this as a plain text mailing to serve the lowest common denominator. I also haven't had the time to work out an HTML template and how that would work with fairly non-geeky volunteers (I'm a web worker in real life).Dreamhost's Announce List function doesn't allow for much customization (i.e. writing a script to strip out bad characters).
We have no budget--folks donate to pay our hosting fees, so we can't use a pricey solution. Any ideas on how to make this work better. Is there an open source solution we can use that has workflow tools built in and the ability to clean text before it's sent out?
I volunteered as an editor 7+ years ago on a mailing list for women in the metro area where I live. It's grown over the years and the original founder (who also produced local events) has moved to the other side of the country and started doing other things.
So a friend and I are now the Publishers and we have 2-3 volunteer editors.
When we started out we were using the founder's pine account and the subscribers were listed in a text file.
Now, Dreamhost is our hosting company and we use their Announce List function to send out emails to this list. The subscribing and unsubscribing is done using their opt-in script on the list's web site.
Here's how it works: We send out a mailing every other Monday (alternating weeks of Classifieds and Housing) and every Friday (events). We mainly rely on people sending in submissions. Housing alone is broken up into 3 emails because it's so large. Each editor has their own webmail account, i.e. events@ and so on. They log in, compile that week's mailing and then send it to my friend and I. We check it for errors, etc. and then send it out via Dreamhost.
One problem we encounter is formatting. I've told Editors to use plain text, but inevitably we get weird characters showing up and folks complain. We've kept this as a plain text mailing to serve the lowest common denominator. I also haven't had the time to work out an HTML template and how that would work with fairly non-geeky volunteers (I'm a web worker in real life).Dreamhost's Announce List function doesn't allow for much customization (i.e. writing a script to strip out bad characters).
We have no budget--folks donate to pay our hosting fees, so we can't use a pricey solution. Any ideas on how to make this work better. Is there an open source solution we can use that has workflow tools built in and the ability to clean text before it's sent out?
You can use any number of the mailing list hosting providers, like ConstantContact, LSoft, etc. Or you can install your own mailing list software like Mailman or dadaMail.
Most good hosting providers provide Mailman or similar services as part of thier hosting accounts.
posted by camworld at 10:15 AM on November 1, 2005
Most good hosting providers provide Mailman or similar services as part of thier hosting accounts.
posted by camworld at 10:15 AM on November 1, 2005
Last I heard, Dreamhost said anything over 1000 subscribers was too big for Mailman on their servers, but I'll double check. Thanks.
posted by jdl at 6:34 PM on November 1, 2005
posted by jdl at 6:34 PM on November 1, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by DrtyBlvd at 9:57 AM on November 1, 2005