Mailing Lists/Forwarders

[BAMFFL]

Hopefully I won't get flamed on this, but I'm wondering what the difference is between the two... I looked in the online help and have done some forum searches, but haven't seen a basic definition.

I currently have an email address set up to forward to 10 or 12 accounts (other email addresses) and I guess I'm wondering if the Mailing List buys me the same functionality with less hassle...?

[Eric]

A mail forwarder is exactly what you have setup already. A mailing list is for subscribers who would like to stay up to date on information pertaining to that mailing list. This of course is not the definition, but hopefully helps you understand the difference.

[BAMFFL]

So I (as the guy that wants to get info out to a certain group of people) would be better served by using which? If there's a doc or reference that you can point me to I can research on my own. I just need a starting point.

Thanks!

[Eric]

If you want to inform a group of people on a particular subject, you would use a mailing list. If you'd like an official definition, you can check out http://e-comm.webopedia.com/TERM/M/mailing_list.html .

We have mailing lists that you can setup from within your control panel. They are relatively easy to use and if you ever need assistance in setting it up, don't be afraid to open a ticket and have one of our technicians assist with that.

[jason]

The biggest difference is the background processing that happens with both: with a forwarder, a message is sent to one address and whatever you send is resent, unchanged, to all of the recipients listed. You have full control over the address list and changes can only be made by you. Anyone, even those who's addresses aren't specified in the forwarder, can send mail to the "list" if she knows the correct address.

On the other hand, lists have a much larger software footprint behind them. Mailman, the software that CPanel uses to manage lists, has around 100 different settings that you can manipulate. List members can subscribe and unsubscribe from the list at will (if you let them, this is one of the configuration settings) by sending a special email message or visiting the list's homepage. Lists can also be set up to store an archive of all messages sent to them and subscibers have the option of receiving a digest--a single email at the end of the day that contains all lf that day's messages instead of receiving them throughout the day as they are sent. You can restrict who can send to a list to subscribers, a specific list of addresses, or make it open to everyone. If you are restricting senders and an unauthorized person tries to sneak something in, the list software will grab it and hold it in a queue and send the list owner an email telling him to visit the list's homepage to check it out. The list owner then has the option to send it, delete it, or return it to the sender.

As you can see, both tools have a similar purpose, so it all depends on how much control and security you need to determine which is the better pick. Personally, I use a combination of both for the sites that I run.

One big difference in the JPC/Cpanel implementation: all forwarders are managed from one page in CPanel and each recipient is listed on a single line. If you had two lists of 100 subscribers each, you'd have a very long, difficult to follow list of addresses to manage. If you used a mailing list to do this then you'd have a nice user management interface that arranges subscribers alphabetically, a few at a times, on its own page. No matter how big the list gets, the user management interface will stay manageable.

Hope this explaination helps...

--Jason

[BAMFFL]

Thanks for the great explanation Jason! All I'm doing is setting up a mechanism for 10 users to communicate with each other easily. It's a fantasy football thing so I want all my "owners" to be able to email a single "address" and everyone gets it. It sounds like both will do the trick, but the list sounds cooler... ;-)

I know the forwarders work because that's what I did last year, but I think I'll probably play with the list for this year.

Again, thanks for taking the time to explain it in such great detail!

[BAMFFL]

BTW, does anyone have a link to Mailman doc? The only one I could find (http://staff.imsa.edu/~ckolar/mailman/) was only up to version 2.0...

[jason]

The official mailman site is http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/. The docs can be accesses there (See the very top of the page), although it says they are still under construction.

--Jason