Email/CPU Usage Limits by plan?

I've noticed that DH places a limit on the hourly number of emails per hour, (100/hr via SMTP and 200/hr via SSH/SHEL), as well as the cpu usage, and I was wondering if there were any options to increase the limit other than talking to dreamhost support personally? I run a weekly email list announcing events happening in and around the city my site is based around, (Tianjin, China), and am running into problems with the email limits.

I don't meet their requirements for the email list, (my email list is single opt-in, and there isn't a way to do a double-opt-in), and the announcement lists are inadequate for what I need them to be able to do, (interface with my classifieds/forum/news/etc system). Still, I'm not spamming, and it's getting increasingly frustrating to split up my emails as my announcement list grows, (only at 500 now, but almost all of those subscriptions have come in the last 3 or 4 months). Is there any way to purchase the right to send more emails, or do any of the more advanced plans (such as sweet dreams or code monster), have increased limits on these sorts of things? Thanks in advance.

You should use an external service for mailing list for such usage.

Or ask them ;)

When you say "I don't meet their requirements for the email list", do you mean you've already asked for an increase in your email limit and were turned down?

In reply to:

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I don't meet their requirements for the email list, (my email list is single opt-in....Still, I'm not spamming, and it's getting increasingly frustrating to split up my emails as my announcement list grows

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Well, *you* may not feel, or believe, that you are "spamming", but list mailing without confirmed opt-in, irrespective of the software you use, *is* a violation of DH's Anti-Spam policy (note "Subscriptions" section) so it's not particularly relevant whether or not you call it "spamming" - DH prohibits it. Period.

Note, that even if you continue to "split up your emails" as your list grows that will only serve to avoid the quotas kicking in, and will do *nothing at all* to help your situation when/if you receive complaints from a recipient. The resultant investigation into the complaint will reveal you are not in compliance with the anti-spam policy, and you will quite likely find your account suspended or closed altogether (I do not work for DreamHost, so I will not say *certainly", even though that *has* been others' experience).

All in all, attempting to circumvent DH stated policy on list-mailing is likely to work out badly for you, and if you really want to host on DH, I suggest you change your practices *now* rather than be forced (and probably at the worst possible time) to struggle to get your account re-instated (which they may not even do) and *then* have to change anyway or change hosts altogether. That's just my opinion, which is worth exactly what you have paid for it, and YMMV!

DH does not currently offer plan-based exceptions to it's Anti-Spam policy - even their dedicated servers share mailservers, so they have no interest in facilitating any behavior that increases those servers' likelihood of being "blocked" by the spam-fighting organizations, ISPs, or other mail systems.

*If* you were compliant with DH Anti-Spam policy, you could ask for an increase in the number of mails you could send in an hour, and possibly receive such an increase, but that will not happen unless you use confirmed opt-in and comply in every other way with DH policy.

There are other things you could do via software (automatically queued sending, etc.) but those won't solve your non-compliance problem. You are presently violating policy and getting away with it; I would not expect that you will be lucky enough for that to continue.

Why isn't there a way for you to do a "confirmed opt-in"?

(btw - the term "double opt-in" is a term used by spammers, not knowledgeable and legitimate list managers or legitimate commercial e-mailers - you won't help your case using that terminology, or "email blast", etc., with DH)

--rlparkerEdited by rlparker on 06/24/07 02:22 AM (server time).

I wasn't turned down, but I didn't follow up after I found out how strict the requirements were for compliance. I am looking at switching mailservers, or switching hosts alltogether, but I was hoping perhaps there was another way to become compliant without having to switch hosts or go through yet another 3rd party.

I still don't see why you can't just set up a double opt in list. Unless you fear you list wouldn't be popular at all if people had a choice of receiving it?



--Matttail
art.googlies.net - personal website

Hm... just curios (again) if there is DH's user which has a mailing list/ newsletter above 10,000 subscribers ?

Dino

I really hate how DH drops the emails without any SMTP/sendmail errors. They just vanish into thin air.

It isn't easy for everyone to code new features into their system. I eventually coded a database stored method and a cron job to slowly send out my properly confirmed and compliant emails, but it was a fair amount of work to get it right and I don't like the idea of doing it for every website I design which uses a different newsletter software.

Maybe dreamhost should do the hourly queueing itself instead and allow up to 200mailsx24hours per day before being blocked/locked whatever.