Page 1 of 1

Help with mail() function.

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 2:03 am
by jp_css
What I am trying to do is send an email to about 100 yahoogroups addresses (to post my ad). I know I have to do it only a few at a time, which isn't the problem. Since I signed up for these yahoogroups from a personal address, I can only post to these groups from this account. I have tried using the mail() function to do this, yet even when I change "From:" in the headers it won't work. Is there any way to actually send emails from my account on my domain or to "fake" yahoogroups into thinking I am actually sending it from that address?

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 2:27 am
by Gen-ik
Sounds like SPAM email to me. Yahoo! has probably got something set-up to prevent this type of emailing.

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 2:29 am
by jp_css
Yahoogroups are opt-in email lists not SPAM. That's not the problem though.

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 2:35 am
by Gen-ik
Sending an un-solicited email to hundreds of email address which contains any type of advert is SPAM, and you really should read the Yahoo! Terms and Conditions before you do it otherwise they could hit you with the Legals.

SPAM or not though Yahoo! will probably prevent mass-emailing like I said previously.

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 2:42 am
by jp_css
I don't think you understand. Check it out at yahoogroups.com. People sign up for these lists to, by there own free will and choice, and I subscribe to this list myself. They want the information (it's not unsolicited). Basically anyone that is part of a specific group can email each other. It's easy to unsubscribe. I can't explain it that well, but you will have to figure it out yourself. I personally hate SPAM and would never do anything that is related to SPAM. It is a wrongful practice.

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 3:18 am
by jp_css
Can anyone offer any help?

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 4:34 am
by volka
isn't the purpose of such mailinglist-groups to send emails to the group-address and have it delivered to all members automagically?

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 5:03 am
by jp_css
Exactly, but I have a lot of those groups and it's a pain to send about four at a time.

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 5:14 am
by volka
and all those groups want this single email?

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 5:26 am
by jp_css
Obvisoulsy no one understands the concept of opt-in groups. I am not running them. No one is depending on my email. I ask for some help, but no one seems to want to.

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 6:32 am
by volka
it's just the fact that you want to send one email to dozens of groups that escapes my understanding of topic-based mail-groups. It's not up to me to judge that. But I have no solution at hand and need to be convinced that it is for a useful cause before I start searching for something.

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 8:57 am
by Gen-ik
jp_css wrote:Obvisoulsy no one understands the concept of opt-in groups. I am not running them. No one is depending on my email. I ask for some help, but no one seems to want to.
What email program do you use... I'm only asking because most email programs allow you to send multiple emails.

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 11:31 am
by jp_css
Okay, I am posting to multiple groups who are looking for business opportunities and others who are looking for free offers. The two are sepearate. Also, for some reason yahoogroups will only allow someone to post to a few groups at a time. It would make things easier if I could send the messages in small groups. I have done it before with outlook but it some what of a pain. It's not torture, but I am also trying to learn php so this might be useful in the future.

Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 3:54 pm
by volka
it's likely your isp will not allow you to send emails with arbitrary sender-addresses. You probably have to use the smtp-server of the isp that handles email-address you've signed up with at yahoo.
http://phpmailer.sourceforge.net/ might help you as it implements its own smtp-client. You can specify which host it should connect to to send the emails. Use the same settings as in your mail-client. But you need fsocket-support on the php-server for that.