topic Email "distribution list"... in Tech Help - Software/Hardware etc

Email "distribution list"...

paul_blitz — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 13:41:00 GMT

Your thoughts please....

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Scenario: Small church wishes to:

-be able to send out emails to a list of people (less than 30),

- without everyone knowing everyone else's email address.

- Possibly want to have up to, say, 6 different lists.

- Emails sending needs to be simple: for example, send emails to a dummy email address, which then forwards them.

- Not "spammable", only limited people allowed to send the emails

- Preferably be free

- There will not be a lot of traffic.

I can think of several ways:

Simplest is for individuals to just "BCC" the emails to a local, private, list of emails. Downsides: list of PersonA may not match list of PersonB; several people need to learn how to manage their own email distribution lists; fiddly to send emails

Another way is to set up a "dummy email account", whose purpose in life is to accept emails, and forward them to a pre-defined list of emails. A technically savvy person can maintain the email list. Just send an email to that email address, and it gets forwarded. Downside: ANYONE can send an email to that distribution address. (Obvious spam CAN be filtered)

Use someone like Mailchimp: centrally managed emails list. From what I read, (BICBW) only one person (for the free version) can send the emails; It seems that you have to use the MailChimp website to send the emails - so over-complicated.

Is there something LIKE MailChimp, but rather than having to use the website to send the emails, can just reflect incoming emails from designated senders? So a relatively simple email forwarder, but with a level of simple "security" to limit who can originate the emails.

Paul

Re: Email "distribution list"...

Townman — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 13:18:17 GMT

Hi Paul,

Does the church have its own email domain?

If yes, who administers it?

If the church has its own email domain (for example @daresburycofe.org.uk ) it should be possible for the system administrator to set up and manage forwarding lists, the ilk of ...

list1@daresburycofe.co.uk
list2@daresburycofe.co.uk

That might not facilitate the restriction of who can send, except by knowledge that the addresses exists.

The merits are...

It is all in-house
There are no incremental costs
It is an easy enough solution
Sender's domains will not see this as bulk emailing

On thing to consider, whatever method you use is facilitation of a means for addressees to "unsubscribe".

Re: Email "distribution list"...

paul_blitz — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 13:59:19 GMT

>> Does the church have its own email domain?

It does, and 100% unsure who manages, but I can ask.

Indeed, we could set up some lists, the 2 issues I see are: (a) does the church email setup allow any form of 'auto-responders' to run the list?; (b) The fact that anyone can still send emails could still be an issue.... But your plus-points are very valid, thank you.

As far as 'unsubscribing', it's a small enough group, we can just tell people to "send an email to xxxx" if they want out.