ATS email newsletter woes, problems, and changes...

Hello members...

If you've been a subscriber to our email newsletter, you now know a couple things:
1) It's an excellent way to stay on top of popular or important threads you may have missed
2) It used to go out regularly, but now, not so regular

We've had a growing problem that has now become unsustainable. The massive size of our list, 86,000+ subscribers who have opted-in over the past seven years, has run head-long into the limitations of the open source software we've been using for sending out the newsletter. As a result, opt-outs and bounces (emails that bounce-back to our server) have not been properly processed for the past 6-9 emails that went out. The result of which has been both a penalty placed on our server IP by ISPs, and occasional lock-ups of the server.

The only real solution is to move our newsletter to a professional provider of sending services that treats our data at least as anal as I do. We've identified two (MailChimp being the top choice) and are investigating moving our entire newsletter operation to them. Of the top providers of quality email newsletter services, these two are the only ones that allow customers (ATS) to disable all tracking in the emails, as well as create an encrypted key for our database of subscribers (meaning no one but me could ever possibly see the content of our list of subscribers -- it costs extra, but you can be damn sure we'll pay it).

The down-side is that we must start from zero, as our current list of subscribers must be considered tainted as we've received temporary blocks from some ISPs. Hopefully soon, we'll provide information on how to subscribe to the new service, as well as send out one final (carefully managed) email to our current subscribers with the information.


Stay tuned.

Not much I can say except thanks SO for keeping us anonymous. Also, I would assume if someone wants the newsletter they would have to resubscribe sometime in the future, once this is all sorted out? If I read that right.

reply to post by TheLoony


That's correct.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Merci -Oh Great One and smileon the avatar wouldn't go amiss!
Onwards?

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Never bothered with the newsletter on ATS.

Guess some people like that function.

And others don't.

Then again I prefer finding the stuff I read myself.

It's much more fun searching for information.

Then having it handed to you.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


".....86,000+ subscribers who have opted-in over the past seven years, has run head-long into the limitations of the open source software we've been using for sending out the newsletter..."




86 thousand on a newsletter... over a 7 year period.....

i never signed in
only visited 'chat' once for a 2 minute look-see
i'm sorta put off from the bells-&-whistles & shiny objects routine... besides the flags & stars quantifiers of newsletter articles discourages me from opting in.
thanks for the heads up though

Staying tuned.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Can't you just setup your own mail-server?
If it's the only thing it will do, it won't require much.

...hey, bill... i'm sure you've considered all the pros/cons of an email newsletter but i thought i would chime in with my personal deal anyway...

...loss of interest in email - for the better part of the last decade, i thought it was just me and figured it was normal for someone who'd been an internet junkie for so long...

...a few years ago, i mentioned my lack of interest to some friends and found out they felt the same... now we call each other on the phone, like we used to in the olden days...

...maybe we're just a very small minority - maybe its an age thang - i dunno... all i know for sure is that checking email has become a chore that i'm real good at ignoring, lol...

...thats all i gotta say - except - good luck with your new deal for the newsletter...

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Thanks for updating us - and thanks more for protecting our privacy!

Parcel Post

Strange... I didn't see anything in the newsletter about this.

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I used to be tasked with sending out spam customer newsletters to over two million recipients using nothing more than Bourne shell scripts, so I know that pain.

But that was the good old days. These days, with time itself an ever increasing expense, as long as a given mail service isn't too pricey and can be trusted to keep email addresses confidential, farming this sort of thing out definitely has its advantages.

Here's hoping all goes well, and I read all about it in my inbox soon.

Originally posted by tomten
reply to post by SkepticOverlord

 

Can't you just setup your own mail-server?
If it's the only thing it will do, it won't require much.

I think the problem is that they are hitting the ceiling of what the software is capable of handling and all the ATS members/viewers that would recieve it:

The massive size of our list, 86,000+ subscribers who have opted-in over the past seven years, has run head-long into the limitations of the open source software we've been using for sending out the newsletter.

So in essense, they are forced to upgrade by letting someone else handle it exclusively.

Either way I'm sure the members of ATS will continue to get and give out the best alternative information that the net has to offer, just as it always has.

King

i was not on the email list, but i would like to be in the future... staying tuned... will there just be another sms to inform us of the how and when? well, i guess that is meant by stay tuned... but i am very interested in subscribing, and as always, thanks for keeping the anonymity as one of the highest concerns here on the ATS, where i spend probably 1/4 to 3/4 of my day at the firm... don't really know what i did before it!

Thanks, SO.

I appreciate the fact that here at ATS you guys are on top of things like this. Other sites are more likely to just let it slide.