[Mackovyak]

Hey, I don't build websites, got someone to build my last one, but I wanted to konw if anyone knew of a place I could get a html code to copy and paste that would allow me to put a text box and a button on my site so that someone could enter their email, push the button, and it would email me that address to add to my mailing list.

You know like, sign up for my mailing list crap.

Justin
_________________
www.seventides.net

On a pillow of your bones
I will lay across the stones
Of your shore until the tide comes crawling back

[Matt_22]

I used to have a site I used in college all the time for that kind of thing but I can no longer remember. Sorry, I just pissed down your back and told ya it was raining. Ha haha

[Mackovyak]

Thanks anyway.
_________________
www.seventides.net

On a pillow of your bones
I will lay across the stones
Of your shore until the tide comes crawling back

[Staceman]

The first step in this would be to find out what capabilities your web hosting account has. Like, do you have cgi-bin access? PHP? FrontPage Extensions? What operating system and server software is the server running that hosts your site?

Find that out, and I might be able to give you a more detailed description of what you'll need.

[Ron]

Justin,
What you are looking for used to be very simple to implement, but lately it is very hard to do because of spammers. Here are some of things you'll need:

1. A host with good SMTP capabilities. This means that your host will provide you with an outgoing mail server. These are starting to get rare because of spam. Another big roadblock is that almost all of the major ISP's are starting to filter out emails from everyone but known sources. Finding a decent priced host with SMTP capabilities that will allow you to send mail to an AOL address is practically impossible.

2. The host needs to have and allow server-side scripting (CGI) capabilities, usually through PERL or PHP.

3. You will need to find a secure mailing script on the web, with a stress on security. If a host finds that you are using a script that is exploitable, they will usually remove it and possibly delete your account.

Your best bet is a script that will simply write the email address to a server side text file or database when the visitor enters it. You can then check the list daily and copy any new additions to the list into the address book of your email program. This solution would require custom scripting and daily checks, not very convenient or cost effective.

This is the main reason there are no longer any band mailing lists on Rockpage like there were before 2002. Basically if you have the capability to implement a good mailing list, you also have the capability to send out large amounts of spam. Sad, but true.
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... and then the wheel fell off.

[Mackovyak]

Well that just sucks.

Thanks for the info though. I wanted to mimic the old school rockpage mailing list I used when I still lived in Pennsylvania, seems more trouble than it's worth.

I usually have a mailing list signup at my shows as well...guess that's kind of pointless b/c they're probably being blocked anyway.
_________________
www.seventides.net

On a pillow of your bones
I will lay across the stones
Of your shore until the tide comes crawling back

[Ron]

Justin,
The mailing list you gather at your shows should work fine, you only run into trouble when you have a system that sends mail out to unverified addresses that the problem arises. Confused yet?

For example:

- I have a Verizon ISP account at home. The SMTP server for my email is operated by Verizon, therefore it is a verified point of origin for any of my outgoing email from home. I can send mail out to any address with no problems as long as it goes out through Verizon.

- The Rockpage web host also has an SMTP server for outgoing mail, but some mail service providers (like Hotmail and Yahoo) won't accept email sent out by the Rockpage SMTP server because of the potential that I could use a script to send out tens of thousands of spam emails.

- The old RP mailing list sent out mail from it's SMTP server via a script that ran when a band's page was updated. That type of automatic system will no longer work effectively.

- Some of the web portals will accept email from unknown addresses until they get a certain number of failed attempts. AOL is like this, and the Rockpage SMTP server is now blocked by AOL because members or applicants either close their accounts and don't update the email address in their profile, or try and sign up with a fake or deactivated AOL address. When AOL gets a certain number of failed emails from an unverified source, they flag the mail as a spam and block the sending SMTP server. I get notified when a failed attempt happens, and right now the list has hundreds of failures since late November. I got three this morning from attempts to register with closed or non-existant email accounts.

- This is a big problem all over the web, with no solution that I know of. It also affects small local startup ISPs, who suddenly find that none of their customers can send out emails to AOL addresses. They then contact AOL and go through all of the ass kissing necessary to get unblocked; then a week later they are blocked again.

- So... if you have a mailing list at home and send out mail from your home ISP, you should have no trouble at all. You could contact your ISP and ask if their outgoing mail server is blocked by AOL or other major portals.

- If I ever get the time, I have an idea to bring back mailing lists, but it would have to be a two part setup. One part would be a script that basically keeps a text file of email addresses that people enter on your site. The second part would be a program located on your home machine that would periodically go to your site and update your home address book to keep it in sync with the remote list. The complexity lies in supporting all of the different email clients, Outlook Express, Outlook, Netscape, Thunderbird, etc., since they all use a different format in their address books. It would probably be easier to write my own email client.

I hope that clears some things up, and don't forget... spammers suck.
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... and then the wheel fell off.

[Staceman]

God bless Mac OS X and it's "iSync" system, for synching address books...

Another nasty blacklist to get your ISP/domain on is the S.P.E.W.S. list. They're real bastards when it comes to trying to get your domain off their list.