Use Policy And Cgi Question

[gotnick]

Hey guys,

 

I've been hosting 3 new commercial sites here since last May and I love it here. Now I'm in the middle of my biggest move - transferring my main commercial site to this host. I just noticed something in the use policy about "spam" e-mail.

 

With my main site and main e-mail account coming here, I wonder if I'll have a problem. I send e-mails to a list of clients and prospective cleints every month or so for my DJ company, which specializes in school dances. My e-mails usually contain a request for information from pubic school districts in my state. Most of these are past clients, I guess some might receive "unsolicited" mail. But there is one difference here - these are all public school employees. These public employees are required (as public servants) to receive requests for information for my company, right? Also, my cable company (charter) is actually my outgoing mail server (because of the port 25 blocking), does that mean that I'm free and clear with your policies?

 

Part 2 - I noticed that my sites are spread across Servers 69, 70, 87, and 89, but 89 is the only server that has FormMail in the CGI center. Is there any way that I can get all of my sites on server 89? My old host had FormMail and all of my sites would benifit by having it.

 

Thanks and happy holidays!

[LisaJill]

1) If you're not using our smtp servers, then you are bound by the policy of the owner of the servers you are using. Note - you can use port 26 to use ours. I'm not sure of the legality of public school employees and receiving requests for info, so I shan't comment. You should follow up on that regardless of where you send from - there are more and more cases of spammers paying high fines / going to jail - you should look into this for your own protection. =)

 

2) Formmail is disabled on all servers because it is massively not secure and a common target for spammers to use for sending their junk.

 

You should check out dodos mail and ultimate form mail for more robust, more secure solutions.

[TCH-Don]

I too am on Charter and they do have limits as to how many e-mails you can send at once.

It is 25 at one time.

 

I used a program called Group Mail Free

and had to set it to

reconnect every [20] messages,

then pause for [5] seconds

You may want to check it out.

the free version is limited to a list of 100 subscribers,

but you can have more lists and use the same message.

 

 

As to

These public employees are required (as public servants)

to receive requests for information for my company, right?

I would not think so.

Is your company state funded or a private business?

I think you may want to check on that, before hand,

to protect yourself from being reported to Charter.

 

Reguardless what program you use,

you need to include a message at the bottom

with a link to opt out of your list.

 

Hope this helps.

[Deverill]

These public employees are required (as public servants) to receive requests for information for my company, right?

 

This is not correct. Although public employees are paid from government funds, they are not obligated to accept solicitations from anyone. The school teacher that gets a paper catalog in the mail has every right to call the company and ask to be taken off their list if he's not interested in their goods. Even more is the situation with UCEmail since the newest laws have been enacted. Many would say you are in violation unless they asked to be on your list.

 

Just because my tax dollars pay the mayor's paycheck, it doesn't give me the right to sit in his office hours on end or chat on the phone with him all the time. These things would get me arrested if I was obstructing him from doing his job. Now, they won't throw you in jail for asking for info, but you and I certainly have no implicit rights to send spam to them just because of the one for whom they work.

 

Of course, I'm no lawyer and you may consider asking one if you have the opportunity to make sure you don't get into trouble - some folks take the anti-spam laws very seriously and a school would have more chance getting you in hot water than a "normal guy" would if they were of the mind to do so.

 

Best wishes on the business and moving your big site over. If you need any help feel free to ask.