All,

Recap of my issues.  Setup basic mailing list, Moderator only can post, sending mail to list from Outlook 2003. 

Have a disclaimer and links for removal from the list in a signature file for the list. 

The signature file is attached normally ONLY if you send it as PLAIN TEXT and WITHOUT any attachment.

It seems to me that it would be common for users of a distribution list to send attachments and disclaimers?

How are you all doing it?

I know you mentioned that Outlook does the multi-part thing, however, if my antivirus software can stick a "disclaimer" on every processed email wtihout requiring "plain text", I cannot understand why Mercury can't?

I have tried getting aroud this by setting up a Global (or outgoing) filter, to INSERT A TEXT FRAGMENT (disclaimer) to all emails from the Mailing List address. 

This does not work either, it "breaks" the list.  The CORE will process the mail to the list, but then it does nothing. It will not send the messages to the list members.

I'm guessing this is a bug and should be reported or tested.

Thanks much,

Mark

Hello,

I set up a mailing list with a signature file with unsubscription and disclaimer.  All works fine and the signature is applied when sending posts to the list from Pmail.

I then sent a post to the list from Outlook.  The signature file is missing from all posts.

Is this Mercury32 or Outlook that is the problem?

Thanks much,

MP 

[quote user="Mrpush"]Hello,

I set up a mailing list with a signature file with unsubscription and disclaimer.  All works fine and the signature is applied when sending posts to the list from Pmail.

I then sent a post to the list from Outlook.  The signature file is missing from all posts.

Is this Mercury32 or Outlook that is the problem?

Hard to say but if Outlook does not see it and PMail does then I suspect that Outlook is the problem. That said, if Outlook is sending HTML to the list then probably no one will get the signature.  I'm still researching that problem.

Thanks much,

MP[/quote]

Thomas,

I have determine that if we send to the list from Outlook as text, it works.  HOWEVER, send from outlook as TEXT WITH AN ATTCHMENT, and it strips it again!

We just ran about every singe test we could think of on a list of about 400.  All test we did were fine, but now the list is nearly a total failure.  (We sent it)

 I used the utility you suggested to create the list.  It appears that the utility malforms the format of the list or something.

Any susbcriber generated from the utility WILL NOT BE REMOVED when they send an email to maiser with  UNSUBSCRIBE "LIST NAME" in the body.

It gives a failure message "*** maiser@chstaffing.com  maiser@chstaffing.com Not a current subscriber."

I can open the list via Mercury GUI and see the persons address in the list.  They ARE a subscriber according to the list.

If I add an address to the same list via Maiser commands, they are created and then also are removed just fine by e-mail to maiser with unsubcribe "listname" in body.  

Is there someway to test my utility formed list format to find errors?

We did not want to have to manually unsubscribe everyone who make a request, but it's a little late for that now.  I had no idea these type of things could happen.

Thanks much,

MP 

I believe it is like the following. If the message you send to the list is a multipart message, with the text-part as html, or even the text part as text - *but* within a multipart container, then the maiser list signature fails - as most e-mail clients will look at the first html/ or text multipart as the primary message.

 Basicly outlook messages with attachments does this, and looks like the following.

headers
multipart separator

main text, often stating your client does not support html

multipart separator, content type text

<text message> -- this is what you see in your client

multipart separator

multipart separator, content type data....

<data>

multipart separator

Peter,

So basically you are saying that I should forget about sending list posts to Mercury from Outlook.  I also now have received failures from Pmail as well.  Pmail almost always sends as text, however add an e-mail address and it is now switching to HTML for some reason.

Well that certainly limits things.  The Mercury mailling list setup has been a nightmare for us, I have tested it this past week but appearently missed some VERY important limitations.  (i.e. forget about any mail clients that try to send HTML or multi-part content to the list).

If these points are not in the help, they really should be.  I have been pullin out my hair over a simple list.

And what if people trying to unsubscribe send thier subscription info as HTML?  I guess they are out of luck as well? 

The list utility that I got from this forum created an unusable list as well.  I had 400 people on the list, NONE can unsubscribe via maiser command.  They are not recognized as list members and get "not a subscriber" failures.  They do exist in the list via Mercury interface. 

Just what I wanted all my CLIENTS tyring to unsubscribe to get, a failure notification for trying to get off a list they don't want to be on.  Nice.

I think we are going to have to abandon Mercury lists and just make and manage a list in Outlook.  I really spent a lot of time on this and it has failed.

Not to mention, I upgraded to the latest version of Mercury and now I can't work on the mailing list unless everything is shut off, else it says "List unavailable, try again later". 

Do you want to "try again later" to be removed from a list?  I sure don't.

Thanks for the help,

MP

Actually there are a lot of people out there using Outlook so send mail to my lists as HTML.  The mail sent from the mailing list though as HTML will have the headers to allow unscribe however there are some thing to think about. 

The email address "user@doman.com " and "user@domain.com" are not the same.  So if you created email addresses with a tool from a text list that contained trailing blanks in the email addresses the unsub will not work.  This is not a problem when you send mail to maiser with the sub listname email@address.com LName FName since it is trimmed.  It is a problem when you try to unsub though and cannot find a string match when you have built a list with trailing blanks.

Not real sure where your problem lies since I build mailing list from text files created by a Access and Excel databases using BuildMLF without problems.

Thomas,

I used the Build MLF that you had suggested to build these lists.  The list "text file" was simply an Excel CSV file.  Looking at the email address in the cells, there appear to be no spaces as part fothe "string". 

 However, I copied and pasted some of these cells into WORD, turned on the formatting markers, and there they are, spaces after most of the addresses.

Seems you may be correct with the spaces.  I am working on some tests right now.

I have sent 100 post to the list from my P-mail account, now after I updated Mercury to 4.6, suddenly my P-MAIL posts are going to Mercury as HTML and getting flagged as "no commands text section in message".  It does not happen every time, it seems hit and miss.

Why in the world is this suddenly happening?  It did not happen a single time in over 100 test posts to the list from the same Pmail client?

Thanks much,

MP

I have sent 100 post to the list from my P-mail account, now after I

updated Mercury to 4.6, suddenly my P-MAIL posts are going to Mercury

as HTML and getting flagged as "no commands text section in message". 

It does not happen every time, it seems hit and miss.

Why in the world is this suddenly happening?  It did not happen a

single time in over 100 test posts to the list from the same Pmail

client?

I have no idea since I've never run into the problem.  Check and make sure the "Rich text" is not checked when sending to the list for the PMail HTML problem.  

I really have no problem setting the list management headers set in PMail though with or without HTML.  I send multipart/alternative HTML messages so there is both a text and HTML part.

As a test try subscribing to to one of my test lists be sending a message to maiser@tstephenson.com with

sub newlist your@email.addreess FName LName

quit

in the body and then send to the list using both plain text and HTML using you email client of choice.   I'm the only member of this list and it's set to Moderator/member post only but I will get to see anything you send to the list via PMail.  ;-)  This list does require confirmation of subscription so you need to confirm before posting.

[quote user="Mrpush"] Peter,

So basically you are saying that I should forget about sending list posts to Mercury from Outlook.  I also now have received failures from Pmail as well.  Pmail almost always sends as text, however add an e-mail address and it is now switching to HTML for some reason.[/quote]

No, not at all. This all depends on what your intent with the list is. F.ex. if it's an internal list, subscribing all employees, then signatures are a waste. If its a news list, that anyone can subscribe to, I'd say you easily screw the layout by appending signatures, unless the messages are pure rfc text messages. The list submitters in this case has to have some form of template they use, so that subscription / unsubscription information is added properly and in an attractive position within the html message.

We've learned that the (hrmm excuse) old-fashioned way of sending a plain text message with subscribe <listname> too often fails, either
a) because the user is unfamiliar with lists,
b) doesn't care in creating a plain text message,
c) has an email client app that encaps text into multipart
d) receives one failed attempt from the maiser account, and decides not to trust you at all.....

The only, simple enough, solution, imo, for a broad public, is to create a small input box on your web site, through which anybody can subscribe to your newsletter - or for that matter - unsubscribe.

Peter,

I'm back at this again for our quarterly newsletter.

I did setup a web form that gets the users email address, then sends the commands to Mercury to unsubscribe from our web site.  Works good, thanks for the tip.

However, I never really solved my initial problem.  If I send an email to the list (HTLM or Plain Text), and it has an attachment, (in my case a PDF), the signature file is stripped that has my susscription links.  If I send to the list without an attachment, the signature is attached just fine.

Is there a way to get around this?

 Thanks much,

Mark