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List Owners - Frequently Asked Questions
What are the advantages and disadvantages of HTML email in mailing lists ?
HTML email allows graphics, pictures, colors, different font sizes, and font styles like bold or italics, which can be an advantage if used correctly.
Because there is no email HTML standard, the primary disadvantage of HTML email is that your message will look different or be blank for some of your subscribers. In addition, HTML email (without any graphics) can be 3 to 10 times larger than plain text email, and a pain to download for subscribers with dial up connections.
Email etiquette says send plain text email messages, with clickable links to the web pages that contain any graphic material.
For more information about HTML email, please click here.
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How long does it take to deliver a big html message ?
For a user with a dial up connection, it will take several minutes to download a typical HTML message.
Note that email readers rarely show the true size of an HTML message, since they ignore all attachments when computing the size.
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How do I make a clickable link for my email subscribers in a plain text email message ?
Simply type the full web page address (URL), including the http:// part. Almost all email readers will turn that URL blue, and allow your subscriber to click and instantly visit that page.
mail-list.com will automatically translate your link to the format needed by AOL and Compuserve subscribers, when delivering your message to those ISP's.
You can also use this technique for secure web pages (https://), email (mailto:), and File Transfer Protocol (ftp://).
For example, http://www.mail-list.com or mailto:info@mail-list.com.
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How do I make very long URL's clickable for my subscribers ?
Very long URL's are frequently broken by the time your subscriber tries to click on the link. That is because either your email reader or their email reader will insert a carriage return when it word wraps the long line. Typically it's your email reader that is silently trying to help you by inserting carriage returns when it sends your message out.
Send yourself a test message with a very long URL, and see what happens. Many email readers have a formatting option that will word wrap long sentences. If this option is creating the problem, turn it off, and test again.
mail-list.com simply delivers exactly what you send, so make sure that the URL is one continuous string before it gets to our machine for distribution to your list.
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One of my subscribers received the Goodbye message and was unsubscribed from the list, and yet they did not ask to be removed ?
Your message to the list has a click to unsubscribe link at the bottom. When people click on that link, it presents them with a web page that asks them to confirm that they want off your list. If they then click on the Unsubscribe button, they will be removed from your list.
If your subscriber forwards your email on to a friend, their friend may accidentally unsubscribe your subscriber, by clicking on that link.
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I sent out a message to my list yesterday, and one of my subscribers said they did not get it ?
If you know that your message was received by most of your subscribers, then the first step is to verify that this particular subscriber is actually on your list. The CHECKLIST command will answer that question.
If the subscriber is on your list, then the next step is to see what the mail delivery logs show. The QUERYSENT will return the logs of all delivery attempts for the past 5 days. If the delivery logs show that your message was successfully received at their ISP, send that log to your subscriber and ask them to check with their ISP as to where the message went.
If the logs show anything other than a successful delivery, please contact us with all the details, and we will troubleshoot this problem.
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On a discussion group, how do I keep spammers from infiltrating the list ?
There are a number of different options that you can use to keep spammers from sending messages to your list. Some lists have a moderator that approves each message before it goes to the list. This option is usually used to help keep the discussion on topic, and of high quality. Any spam message would simply be ignored by the list moderator, and the moderator could also remove the subscriber if and when spam is sent.
For those lists that allow any subscriber to post a message to the list, there is an option that automatically puts new subscribers into an "Approve Their Message" status. That means that you can let anybody join, and then if and when the new subscriber posts a message to the list, their message is diverted to the list moderators for approval.
A corresponding option can be used to automatically remove the "Approve Their Message" status if their message is legitimate and approved. These two options allow you to easily control just the new subscribers to your list, while allowing all the other subscribers to post a message without any intervention.
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On a discussion group, how do I insure that requests to join are coming from people that we want on our list ?
Most discussion groups have the list moderator(s) approve any new members. When the new subscriber asks to join, by sending an email to yourlist-on@mail-list.com, they will receive back your acknowledgement message.
You can edit your acknowledgement message to say anything you want. Many acknowledgement messages state the list rules, and ask the new subscriber to reply to confirm their acceptance. When their acceptance is received, the list moderator will then complete the steps to add their email address to the list.
The alternative to approving each new subscriber is to allow anybody to join. In this case, any requests to join will be sent back a confirmation message with a random number in the Subject line. When the new subscriber replies to that message, keeping the same random number in the Subject line, they will be added to your list. This confirmation process is called confirmed opt-in and keeps pranksters and viruses from adding other people to your list.
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Having the unsubscribe instructions in the footer seems redundant with the link that allows people to unsubscribe ?
Not everybody has web access, or they may be reading their email while disconnected from the Internet. Subscribers with the latest Blackberry Reader and subscribers from third world countries, both have this problem. Since you are sending email, you should always have email options to allow your subscribers to get on and off of your list via email.
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