At work on v1.85

[DW]

I'm working on the next update and am thinking about providing more individual message options (headers).  For example:

1. Message Importance: high, medium (normal), or low
2. A List-Unsubscribe: header containing a remove URL
3. Return receipt? Note: There is no Internet standard for email return receipts, thus the functionality of delivery acknowledgment is unpredictable.

Perhaps some additional headers, such as Subscriber IP and RefURL could be options as well.

"Send From" emails on a per message basis are also under consideration.

A number of other features and improvements are also being worked on - I may post here for further feedback.

Regards

[BGSWebDesign]

Hi DW,

Great to hear the new version is under way!

"Send From" emails on a per message basis are also under consideration.

Headers are a good idea, but individual 'per message' headers are not necessary, and will cause overhead that will slow the mailings...  please think again about this... how many people really need individual headers?

Here's some of the features I need most (IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE) - others please chime in...

My Top 10 (in order of importance - 1st is most important)
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1.) A background mailer, that 'kick starts', or 'removes bad email addresses', and continues on - REGARDLESS of what happens, I know that you've done a lot of work on this, as the v. 1.84 is MUCH better than 1.7x as far as mailings going out, but from time to time I still get a hangup, and there's no way to restart unless I manually restart the mailing (by clicking).

2.) A TRUE list copy function, that also copies my Followups... this would also let me do an IMPORT to a new list, and then copy the Followups from another list into this one, without having to copy/paste them all by hand.

3.) Split Tested Mailings (as well as Split Test link tracking), please see my last post - with full examples here:
http://listmailpro.com/forum/index.php?topic=455.0

This includes a way to enter multiple messages (4-6) that will be sent splitting them between the list being mailed to, also the links provide a way to split where they are sent to, enter a new link to be tracked, and then enter 4-6 different URLs to send the user to...

4.) Along these lines, I love your new 'Extract Links' code, and use this to extract all clicks to new tables, but it's time consuming...  I send different links (for each of my user selections) in 5-8 different mailings, I would like to be able to combine 5-10 different LINKS and extract a GROUP of links into one NEW LIST.

5.) Custom HTML that allows for different Unsub ALL, Unsub ALL Confirm, Unsub ALL Error, etc... for more info see this link:
http://listmailpro.com/forum/index.php?topic=873.0

6.) Profile editing - with form validation - something like the new Profile page you sent, but that will allow admins to enter field types that can be validated for correct values (including a date entry validator).  For more info see this link:
http://listmailpro.com/forum/index.php?topic=900.msg3525

7.) A way to NAME my messages, that is NOT just the Subject of the message, provide an Admin NAME that will display, copy in the Subject when the Admin enters it, and then let the Admin change this to anything they want.

Disabling/Enabling Followups in each list based on whether they are activated or not (checkbox on), and a generall all-around better Follow-up editor...  for example, I'd like to be able to copy followups from one list to another, by clicking of a checkbox, or selecting a group of them, and then 'Copy' to list xx.

9.) A BULK remove function, display a box for me to copy/paste a group of addresses that need to be removed, and then click Remove to have them all removed from 1 list (or ALL if all checkbox is turned on).

10.) A GLOBAL blacklist, enter a list of Emails that are NEVER sent to...

11.) Backup functions working properly, including gzipping the database for easy download.

That's all I can think of at the moment (oops that's 11), I'll post more as I think of them... good luck, and please keep us informed, or let me personally know about how things might work so we can provide input - you've been great about that in the past  

Thanks for all of your work on LMP, it's really proving itself every day...

[DW]

Thanks for your input and kind comments

Many of your requests are a priority for me as well - I'll see what I can do.  

Regards

[don1]

This is GREAT news...I love the progress this program is making.

I like the suggestions that have already been made but the only one feature that I personally like to add is:
http://listmailpro.com/forum/index.php?topic=815.0

Being be able to ADD followups BETWEEN existing followups.

A) Users on a followup BEFORE the one added proceed as normal, receiving the new followup in turn.

B) Users on a followup AFTER the one added proceed as normal and never receive the new message.

That's it for now...Your doing a great job Dean...Thanks!

Don

[chufford]

"Send From" emails on a per message basis are also under consideration.

This is something I need. To clarify, it is not that every single message gets a different "Send From", but rather when you send a message, you can override the from address so that it comes from a single address which is different from the default address set in the list settings. I have needed this because my list address might be sales@ but occasionally I need to send a message where I want the return address to be support@.

I could also use the ability to put "NOT" in user selection rules.

Thanks!

[DW]

I'm working on it.  I'm sure I got the "Send From" feature from you in the first place, chufford.

The first thing I did was put in a "text-only" domain option so that I could remove the undocumented AOL code (where text-only was sent and links were made "clickable" the "old" way for AOL members).  Due to known problems with HTML messages (from some people.. others reported no problems..) aol.com will appear as default in this feature.  Links will no longer automatically be made "AOL-clickable" and I may not provide an option unless it's requested as I have heard that this is no longer an issue with later versions of AOL.

Next, I think I will be working on custom fields and providing the ability for you to select which type of data to accept (ie INPUT or SELECT).  These types will later be used in the Signup Code generator and a future User Profile page.

Regards

[DW]

Some discussion about the User Profile feature and potential improvements to Custom Fields:

http://listmailpro.com/forum/index.php?topic=900.msg3525#msg3525

[BGSWebDesign]

Hi DW,

I am hesitant to use JavaScript validation as it can be defeated easily. For example, someone could simply set up a form to post to your script to submit unexpected data.

Hmmm... not sure how it is defeated, can you explain?   I see your point about someone submitting unexpected data, that will have to be written into the script server side - that's right, but still, Javascript validation is the fastest/easiest method I know of to validate user entry on forms, so I'm curious how someone would defeat it... unless it's a hacker, in which case the validators you build in server side will prevent that...  so you probably need both....  have a look at Javascript validators, they are really powerful.

While I'm at it, I should also make custom fields unlimited.  Instead of changing the user database table, breaking everyone's custom scripts, I could deprecate the user1 thru user10 fields and remove them later on with fair warning.

Hold on a minute...  I use ALL of them... so if you're going to do that, just provide us with a SQL script to move them over to the new tables if that's what you choose!   Yes, I can see that having them in the user table is limiting, and really not the best way to do it... so put them in a separate table, just provide us OLD users a quick way to update to the new tables and I'll be happy  

[DW]

Hmmm... not sure how it is defeated, can you explain?

As I mentioned, someone could simply set up a form to post to your script to submit unexpected data bypassing all JavaScript.  I know JavaScript is powerful and can probably do the same regular expressions (used for validation) as PHP, and look nicer, without having to "submit" the page to see an error, but it would be redundant along with server-side.

... so if you're going to do that, just provide us with a SQL script to move them over to the new tables  

I don't expect you to move the data yourself.  Instead of providing a script I will build this right into the upgrade.

Unlimited custom fields with styles and options is a tough feature that will take several days coding to get right.  I plan to allow you to set your own variable names (with a few exceptions).   For compatibility with the old-style, where each list can have variables named user1 thru user10, I plan to make the feature similar to message codes, with Global and list-specific fields.  I am still debating as to whether or not to allow customization of the first name, last name, and email fields.  Default text, a few options (auto capitalization, for example) could be implemented for these.  I could even allow list-specific fields for them to complete the customizability.  It doesn't make a lot of sense to visit the "Custom Fields" page for these standard fields, however..  Of course, it would be useful as far as functionality is concerned.

Work, work, work  ListMail is going to be the hands-down best mailing list manager available.

I'm still working on the new site, too.  I plan to change licensing.  I'd like to offer bundles of licenses at a discount that can be applied to your account, for additional sites/domains (when applicable), or turned into NEW accounts, for resellers!

Regards

[BGSWebDesign]

Hi,

I see your point on the Custom Fields...

Back to my Top 10, I have one thing to add here about Split Testing...

Please, please also provide a way that the SUBJECT of the Email can be entered as part of the split tested message.  That way if we do NOT want to change the BODY of the Email, we can just type in new Subject lines in the block of Subject/Body provided for Split Testing and get an Email that will have the SAME body, but different subject lines!

Right now this is a big pain, as I have to setup Link Tracking, and try to send to small groups on my list, to determine the best Subject Line...

Subject Line testing is an integral part of Split Testing.

Thanks, and keep us posted on the update...

[davenet]

Hi Dean,

I need the first feature you mentioned in the original post.

1. Message Importance: high, medium (normal), or low

One client often wants me to mail out an urgent email to his list and I can't accomodate this request when he does.

Thanks,

David

[BGSWebDesign]

Hi DW,

I'd like to add another feature request, one that I forgot earlier:
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BOUNCE LIST MANAGEMENT: I'd like to see a much better way for managing Bounced Users, for example, I'd like a utility to MOVE them to another 'Bounced List' at regular intervals, or manually, AND, when that happens their Bounces are REMOVED, and they are back to ZERO bounces, so I can try mailing them again, with a 'Lost Email'message or something similar, this is way to attempt to recover bounced users...

Also, regarding:

One client often wants me to mail out an urgent email to his list and I can't accomodate this request when he does.

I believe that 'Header Controls' would let you do that as well, without the need for Urgent messages, I can't see much value in 'Urgent Messages', I've never used them, or known them to work at all, perhaps you should ask your client why they find value in using them?

[davenet]

My client is not highly technical. He just knows that when someone sends him an important message, the little red ! shows up in the email list of his Outlook program. If there is another way to accomplish the same thing, that is fine with me.

David

[greg.russell5]

Hey Dean,

Awhile back, I posted something like this image (form).  Can it be done in 1.85?

Thanks,
Greg

[BGSWebDesign]

Hi,

Here's another one I thought of, I really hope you can implement this in the next release, as it's very important to my marketing schedule.

I really need to have Day of Week scheduling, for example, schedule a Followup on Monday, that means that if the User joins the list on Sunday, they won't see their first message until Monday, likewise if someone joined up on Monday (after the followup went out) - they wouldn't see their first followup until ONE WEEK later, on the next Monday...
Followups after that also proceed on DAY OF WEEK, for example, next followup on Wednesday, then on Sunday, then Friday, etc...

Also, if you could provide CALENDAR date scheduling that would be great too, for example, Followup1 goes out on March 3rd, Followup 2 on March 10th, and Followup3 on April 3rd....  This type of scheduling would NOT indicate the Month, but instead the Calendar Day of the month.   Perhaps a schedule Column titled 'Calendar Day', selectable as 1-27 (not sure how you'd handle 28-31 because of February and other months less than 31)... I don't really need them, but others might?

I see these as being TWO SEPARATE schedule types, for example EITHER one, or the other, but NOT both at the same time, for example, if you Choose the DOW (day of week) scheduling, you cannot ALSO choose the Calendar Day scheduling, and likewise if you choose the Calendar Scheduling you cannot also choose DOW scheduling.

That's it... the list is getting longer, I know, sorry about that... keep chugging along Dean, maybe release this one as two separate releases, so you're not trying to fit it all in one?