[WEB4LIB] E-lists for Monthly Newsletters

[Avi Rappoport]

At 9:10 AM -0800 1/2/01, Ed Veal wrote:
>We are considering sending out our monthly newsletter via email. I 
>am looking for some insight from experience. If you are doing this 
>sort of thing:
>What "e-list" products are you using? Listserv, Majordomo, or web 
>based products like ListBot?
>What are your experience? Good and Bad

I think it's a great idea -- people love to local useful info by email.

I used to be a product manager for mailing list software (ListSTAR on 
the Mac) so I have some definite opinions on the options.

All the products have decent functionality but in my experience, it's 
vital to have a useful administrator interface rather than cryptic 
commands.  Otherwise you end up with little notes everywhere 
reminding you what you need to do and if you're away from your notes, 
you're in trouble!

Last I looked, ListServ & Majordomo were a pain to use and maintain. 
Lyris was pretty good though perhaps overkill for your needs, and 
someone just revived ListSTAR which has some neat features.  But 
running a mailing list server is generally a pain and I don't advise 
it unless you have a good reason -- the services are much better at 
handling bandwidth and mail bounce issues.

Of the services, Topica has very nice interface, nice folks and will 
let you hide your list if you want (like my school PTA list), also 
does not require advertising (eGroups does unless you pay them a 
small fee, like $60 per year).  The only current drawback is that it 
doesn't strip attachments.

Best of luck,

Avi


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