Bulk Mails - Limits and allowances?

Borgs8472 · June 12th, 2005, 1:25 PM

Hi all. My bullietin board has 500ish registered members (150 properly active) and I was thinking of putting together a monthly or bi-monthly newsletter email.

However with my old host, I sent two emails in quick sucession and promptly got my email suspended. I then had to fax an 'I promise I'm not a spammer' fax to them to get the bar lifted.

Does surpass have such a limit?

If I sent bulk mail of 500 twice a month, would I hit any limits, if so, could I negociate to make sure my emails don't get suspended or anything in that time?

Thanks in advance

[ I'm on reseller hosting package ]

**Kickersny.com** · June 12th, 2005, 2:24 PM

I'm pretty sure the limit is 300 emails per hour. So you would need to set up a cronjob or script of some sort that would pause between each email sent so you didn't exceed this limit.

One way that you could do it is within your mailing loop simply insert a sleep(int) command after each iteration of the loop. Calculate the value of "int" by using the ratio support will give you. Assuming 300/hour, that would place it at one every 5 seconds. So something like this:

PHP Code:


			
<?php

    /*

        Mail loop here, blah blah blah

    */

    sleep( 5 );

    /*

        Complete the loop

    */

?>

Or something like that. I just made this up on the spot so I have no idea as to the accuracy of it.

Serge · January 29th, 2006, 5:16 AM

Thank you for the hint!

Any other possible hints how to do it using PHPlist in FANTASICO?
Or source where to learn about it?

I do not have experience unfortunately, need to learn how to make pausing using standard.

malesca · April 17th, 2006, 4:48 AM

Just had to deal with this issue and thought I'd share my solution.

The helpdesk told me the cap is 350 mails per e-mail address, reset at every full hour. My site has a mailing list of currently around 305 users, but sometimes several e-mail announcements will be made in parallell, or one announcement will be made and one new item added, triggering one "mailing list process" each.

My solution, inspired by the one proposed by Kickersny.com above, is simply this:

Store the mail cap in some globally accessible place. I stored "300" to have a margin of error, as anything past the limit will simply be discarded.

Store the number of concurrent mailing list processes in e.g. a database.

When you start to send mails, increase the latter counter by one; when done, decrease it by one.

Between each mail,

PHP Code:


			
sleep(60*60/$mail_cap*$concurrent_mailings)

You would need to retrieve the $concurrent_mailings value at each iteration for this to be accurate. This way, it will send mails at such an interval that it will send $mail_cap mails an hour - and if you spawn more mailing processes, the wait is multiplied so that the number of mails per hour stays the same.

I also use

PHP Code:


			
set_time_limit(0);  // Don't time out
ignore_user_abort(TRUE);  // Don't stop running script even if window is closed

to make sure the process isn't cut short.

I checked this with helpdesk and as long as the process isn't very heavy, it's not a problem.

thePlinth · November 20th, 2006, 6:11 PM

Do you know how this limit applies to mailman mailing lists? Obviously it is not a PHP script I can go in and edit. Was just wondering if Surpass has made any changes to mailman to ensure it complies with their regulations?

robinson.jason · January 21st, 2007, 7:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thePlinth

Do you know how this limit applies to mailman mailing lists? Obviously it is not a PHP script I can go in and edit. Was just wondering if Surpass has made any changes to mailman to ensure it complies with their regulations?

I am also in the same boat. I am using mailman for a clients email lists (1

1600 members and the other

2400 members). I haven't actually been told if the list will pause itself or if it just bombs out.

probably going to submit a ticket today to find out.

jason

**ttorion** · January 21st, 2007, 11:36 PM

Has anyone looked at phplist?

It looks perfect for newsletters, announcements, etc.

robinson.jason · March 5th, 2007, 5:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ttorion

Has anyone looked at phplist?

It looks perfect for newsletters, announcements, etc.

I looked at it, but it is too busy and confusing for customers / users. In any case I still don't know if PHPList has the ability to make the above changes with any reasonable ease.

I have been fighting with Surpass about this issue for a MONTH. They can't or won't tell me if their servers can pause mailman until the next hour. And they don't notify you when you go over the limit so you have no way of knowing what happened to your messages.

jason

robinson.jason · March 7th, 2007, 12:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thePlinth

Do you know how this limit applies to mailman mailing lists? Obviously it is not a PHP script I can go in and edit. Was just wondering if Surpass has made any changes to mailman to ensure it complies with their regulations?

I have been doing the back and forth with support about Mailman... apparently they are not willing / unable to pause my mailman process when the cap is reached. This is probably because I am on a shared server.

Then i figured I would tell mailman to hold up and go to sleep when the limit is reached.... but I have no clue how to do that. The configuration provides no way to set / view this (if it even can be slowed down).

The answer above for PHPlist looks promising, but the author does not provide many details for us. Care to elaborate?

I understand that I need to add a sleep into the process loop so PHPList just waits 12 seconds per email per list (in order to stay under the 300 emails / hr limit).

But where do I add that? What file?

Thanks for the hints though. I'm am going to keep looking at this for a solution.

jason robinson

June 12th, 2005, 1:25 PM	#1 (permalink)
Borgs8472 Registered User Seasoned Poster Joined in Jan 2005 30 posts Gave thanks: 0 Thanked 0 times	Bulk Mails - Limits and allowances? Hi all. My bullietin board has 500ish registered members (150 properly active) and I was thinking of putting together a monthly or bi-monthly newsletter email. However with my old host, I sent two emails in quick sucession and promptly got my email suspended. I then had to fax an 'I promise I'm not a spammer' fax to them to get the bar lifted. Does surpass have such a limit? If I sent bulk mail of 500 twice a month, would I hit any limits, if so, could I negociate to make sure my emails don't get suspended or anything in that time? Thanks in advance [ I'm on reseller hosting package ]

June 12th, 2005, 2:24 PM	#2 (permalink)
Kickersny.com Surpass Fan Super #1 Joined in Aug 2004 Hosted on SH58 1,688 posts Gave thanks: 6 Thanked 7 times	I'm pretty sure the limit is 300 emails per hour. So you would need to set up a cronjob or script of some sort that would pause between each email sent so you didn't exceed this limit. One way that you could do it is within your mailing loop simply insert a sleep(int) command after each iteration of the loop. Calculate the value of "int" by using the ratio support will give you. Assuming 300/hour, that would place it at one every 5 seconds. So something like this: PHP Code: `<?php /* Mail loop here, blah blah blah / sleep( 5 ); / Complete the loop */ ?>` Or something like that. I just made this up on the spot so I have no idea as to the accuracy of it. __________________ - Evan Charlton \| [site] \| Server - SH58

April 17th, 2006, 4:48 AM	#4 (permalink)
malesca Registered User Fresh Surpasser Joined in Jul 2005 3 posts Gave thanks: 0 Thanked 0 times	Just had to deal with this issue and thought I'd share my solution. The helpdesk told me the cap is 350 mails per e-mail address, reset at every full hour. My site has a mailing list of currently around 305 users, but sometimes several e-mail announcements will be made in parallell, or one announcement will be made and one new item added, triggering one "mailing list process" each. My solution, inspired by the one proposed by Kickersny.com above, is simply this: Store the mail cap in some globally accessible place. I stored "300" to have a margin of error, as anything past the limit will simply be discarded. Store the number of concurrent mailing list processes in e.g. a database. When you start to send mails, increase the latter counter by one; when done, decrease it by one. Between each mail, PHP Code: `sleep(6060/$mail_cap$concurrent_mailings)` You would need to retrieve the $concurrent_mailings value at each iteration for this to be accurate. This way, it will send mails at such an interval that it will send $mail_cap mails an hour - and if you spawn more mailing processes, the wait is multiplied so that the number of mails per hour stays the same. I also use PHP Code: `set_time_limit(0); // Don't time out ignore_user_abort(TRUE); // Don't stop running script even if window is closed` to make sure the process isn't cut short. I checked this with helpdesk and as long as the process isn't very heavy, it's not a problem.

January 21st, 2007, 11:36 PM	#7 (permalink)
ttorion Surpass Fan Seasoned Poster Joined in May 2005 Hosted on SH71 & SH88 93 posts Gave thanks: 2 Thanked 9 times	Has anyone looked at phplist? It looks perfect for newsletters, announcements, etc. __________________ www.w5qgg.org SH71 www.n5na.net SH88

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January 29th, 2006, 5:16 AM	#3 (permalink)
Serge Registered User Fresh Surpasser Joined in Jun 2004 4 posts Gave thanks: 0 Thanked 0 times	Thank you for the hint! Any other possible hints how to do it using PHPlist in FANTASICO? Or source where to learn about it? I do not have experience unfortunately, need to learn how to make pausing using standard.

November 20th, 2006, 6:11 PM	#5 (permalink)
thePlinth Registered User Fresh Surpasser Joined in Sep 2006 Lives in Australia Hosted on Pass64 8 posts Gave thanks: 0 Thanked 0 times	Do you know how this limit applies to mailman mailing lists? Obviously it is not a PHP script I can go in and edit. Was just wondering if Surpass has made any changes to mailman to ensure it complies with their regulations?

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