So I'm having this problem. I'm trying to find solutions for incorporating a mailing list into a website. I'm looking at ones that allow mail to be "pushed" out to a subscription list, and also at ones that allow recipients to view the archives and/or respond to the email and have it sent to the whole list. Most people refer to this as a "listserv" (although "listserv" is actually a copyrighted brand name, like Band-Aid for adhesive bandages). I'm looking at three different websites where I can apply this technology.
One is my parish's website, where we want to use it to send our newsletter, and have an archive of past issues. Being able to password protect the archives would be helpful.
Another is our diocesan site where I have been asked to set up a "listserv" for clergy, but don't have more specifics than that. I think it would be helpful if we could have archives, and the ability to set up more, different lists as we identified the need.
The third is the other diocesan website that I'm working on. They currently have a series of "listservs" in their site, but we are going to be rewriting the entire site, and switching hosts. I will admit that I don't yet know if this is a key issue that we need to deal with or not, but I want to be prepared with some possible solutions when that discussion happens.
The problem I'm having is with the hosting companies. Our parish is on a shared host and the TOS states a limit of 400 emails/hour. That should be plenty for the parish's needs, but I can't find any information about whether we are allowed to use those programs. I guess (and I probably will) just install one and see what happens.
The diocesan site is self-hosted so my options are theoretically unlimited, except that the way the servers are configured is a little weird. My first thought for the diocese was Mailman, but it uses Python and the webserver doesn't have python installed. We haven't checked the mail server yet, but it seems like many things are just cobbled together, so I'm not holding my breath.
The other diocese is looking for a host, so I'm trying to determine which company will allow us to do what we want. The question is - do they want a shared hosting environment, or are they willing to pony up for a dedicated server (or at least a virtual private server)?
So that's where I am, sitting here knocking my head on the desk while gigabytes, terrabytes, phps, mailer-daemons, cgi-bins, terms of service, underselling, crontabs, and streaming audio swirl around looking for a place to land.
If you have any thoughts on: Dreamhost, SiteGround, Rochen, Slicehost, or even something different, please let me know. Please. (Or your experiences with Dada, phpList, or Mailman.)
One is my parish's website, where we want to use it to send our newsletter, and have an archive of past issues. Being able to password protect the archives would be helpful.
Another is our diocesan site where I have been asked to set up a "listserv" for clergy, but don't have more specifics than that. I think it would be helpful if we could have archives, and the ability to set up more, different lists as we identified the need.
The third is the other diocesan website that I'm working on. They currently have a series of "listservs" in their site, but we are going to be rewriting the entire site, and switching hosts. I will admit that I don't yet know if this is a key issue that we need to deal with or not, but I want to be prepared with some possible solutions when that discussion happens.
The problem I'm having is with the hosting companies. Our parish is on a shared host and the TOS states a limit of 400 emails/hour. That should be plenty for the parish's needs, but I can't find any information about whether we are allowed to use those programs. I guess (and I probably will) just install one and see what happens.
The diocesan site is self-hosted so my options are theoretically unlimited, except that the way the servers are configured is a little weird. My first thought for the diocese was Mailman, but it uses Python and the webserver doesn't have python installed. We haven't checked the mail server yet, but it seems like many things are just cobbled together, so I'm not holding my breath.
The other diocese is looking for a host, so I'm trying to determine which company will allow us to do what we want. The question is - do they want a shared hosting environment, or are they willing to pony up for a dedicated server (or at least a virtual private server)?
So that's where I am, sitting here knocking my head on the desk while gigabytes, terrabytes, phps, mailer-daemons, cgi-bins, terms of service, underselling, crontabs, and streaming audio swirl around looking for a place to land.
If you have any thoughts on: Dreamhost, SiteGround, Rochen, Slicehost, or even something different, please let me know. Please. (Or your experiences with Dada, phpList, or Mailman.)
April 30, 2008 at 12:23 PM
I'm a priest looking for a similar solution -- what did you find out???
April 30, 2008 at 1:53 PM
I ended up not going with any of those programs, although I think they are all worthy of a second look, if we were going to host our own mailing lists.
The "other diocese" ended up going with Constant Contact, and they are very happy. I know they have it set up for a newsletter every two weeks, but I think you can manage more lists than that if you need to.
Another option I came across recently is ChurchPost.com. They seem to function the same as Constant Contact, but with more features. If I were starting today, I would give them a good close look.
That may not answer your question, but it might give you more options to choose from! I don't know if that's good or bad!
April 30, 2008 at 3:08 PM
thanks so much for the reply! I'll check 'em out . . .