phplist - question about setting the batch rate

I am setting up phplist on my server, and asked the dreamhost people if there was a limit to the send rate for such programs. I got this response:

In reply to:

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You can only send to 20 receipients in a single message (if you batch it
so that you don't have more than that per message you should be fine)."

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This is an except from the config file...I am hoping that somebody here might know whether or not I'm setting the config file up right...Thanks!!

# define the amount of emails you want to send per period. If 0, batch processing
# is disabled and messages are sent out as fast as possible
define("MAILQUEUE_BATCH_SIZE",20);
 
# define the length of one batch processing period, in seconds (3600 is an hour)
define("MAILQUEUE_BATCH_PERIOD",30);
 
# to avoid overloading the server that sends your email, you can add a little delay
# between messages that will spread the load of sending
# you will need to find a good value for your own server
# value is in seconds (or you can play with the autothrottle below)
define('MAILQUEUE_THROTTLE',0);

Edited by mhaustx on 09/22/05 10:44 PM (server time).

Dreamhost's reply seems to related to a Cc/Bcc situation, not what PHPList does. PHPList sends out an individual message to each recipient.

On the other hand, a client of mine has repeatedly run into a situation with PHPList where a message starts out sending just fine and reporting the correct number of users to send a message to, but then just sort of stops somewhere in the middle of the process, with the unfinished messages saying they're "In Progress." This was with 2.8.12. If it happens to you, go here
http://www.phplist.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3280
at the PHPList boards for some suggestions.
I'm going to be installing the latest released in the hopes it stops doing this.

Remember to make sure you have read and are in compliance with our spam policy:
http://www.dreamhost.com/spam.html

Additionally, we have begun throttling outbound email due to problems with spam and large lists (more than 1000 recipients) may encounter issues related to that.

We strongly recommend that you use our own announcement list feature instead.

- Dallas
- DreamHost Head Honcho/Founder

Sorry, but I need custom data fields for user registration and to be able to use them pretty much arbitrarily for selection of who to send messages to. The announcement list doesn't seem to even come near my client's needs.

On the other hand, could you define throttling some more? I specifically asked support about this and got a completely unsatisfactory response, basically, "We suggest you use the announcement lists, and if you bog the server, we'll just shut your script down." I don't believe there aren't some actual numbers attached to this.

PHPList is *highly* configurable, and it'd be easy to keep it within any limits you may have. At the moment, for example, I've got my client's installation sending out bursts of 50 messages each spaced two seconds apart, with 90 seconds between bursts.
I'm still having the issue of the send dying, which suggests it's a software problem, but it'd still be nice to not be poking around in the dark wondering if I'm causing a server issue at the same time as trying to figure out if it's really a software issue.

We will be restricting all users to sending only so many messages per hour. Most of the spam that goes out from our servers is due to exploited website software (much of it which has been updated by the authors and never upgraded) so we are putting in this limit to slow the flow of spam while we track down the source. Additional messages over the limit will bounce back to the sender and will not be delivered.

A good rule of thumb is to not send more than 500-750 messages per hour. The actual limit is subject to change and is higher than that. Sticking to that limit will keep you safe.

We generally try to let you do what you need to do on our servers as long as it doesn't interfere with other users. Bulk email very regularly interferes with other users so it is officially unsupported. It is still allowed, but we won't guarantee any sort of performance level for it. It will work fine most of the time still, of course.

- Dallas
- DreamHost Head Honcho/Founder

Hi there... I was also looking at installing phplist but it sounds like since we have over 5,000 subscribers we shouldn't be using any third party enewsletter software, correct?
If thats the case I have 2 questions. Does the dreamhost announcement list use any click / send tracking? And can it unsubscribe bounces?

... otherwise what would you suggest I use if we can't use third party apps?

Also you mentioned that you're tracking some spam coming from dreamhost servers, does that mean that if another dreamhost account sends a message that's flagged as spam, then everyone on that server's IP will basically be having their announcements blocked as well?

Thanks for any help guys.

Our announcement list system does automatically handle bounce detection but it doesn't do any sort of click tracking.

As of now you can use a third party application to send email announcements from our shared hosting servers as long as you stay under a limit of 1000 messages per hour. The default limit is actually lower than that but you can ask our support team to raise that limit for you to 1000/hr.

- Dallas
- DreamHost Head Honcho/Founder