GroupMail and Mass Email

Lisa Tomalty

Information Systems and Technology

Sending email to many recipients (mass email)

• No more than 100 emails/2 hour period• Each email should have no more than 150

recipients per message • If you need to exceed these limits:

– Use a mailman list – Or, use an application such as GroupMail

(renders HTML email –e.g. evites well)– Or, investigate the bulkmail server as an option

Why?• These limits actually help to ensure that your

email is delivered.• Increasingly, compromised account credentials

have been used by spammers to send their email via UW email systems.

• To preserve our reputation with other service providers (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Rogers)

• Mass mailing is what spammers do. You need to ensure that your email does not look like spam.

What if I exceed the limits?• In some cases, not all the mail will be delivered:

– The receiving email server will refuse to accept further email after a certain limit

• In other cases the mail will be delivered but at a much slower rate

• In all cases:– Your email can create a backlog of other messages

destined for the same company or institution– This can cause uwaterloo.ca mail to be blacklisted

(refused) by recipients (e.g. to Rogers, etc.)

Mailman Option

• How– To request a mailman mail list send email to:

rt@uwaterloo.ca – Mailman Documentation webpage:

http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~kdpeck/mailman/Mailman.pdf

• Assistance – Contact your IST Account Representative

GroupMail Option• Groupmail Website: http://group-mail.com/• How?

- Contact your IST Account Representative for installation (cost for software may be involved)

• Cost - Varies depending on needs; currently investigating

• Documentation webpage: http://group-mail.com/getting-started-with-groupmail/step-by-step-guide-for-email-setup-and-delivery/

GroupMail Details• Account Configuration in GroupMail

– Pause every 50 messages for 1 hour • If you need to send messages out at a higher rate, you

may request access to the bulkmail server (consult your account rep for assistance with this)

– Additional documentation coming soon

Other Mass Mail Tips

• If you get a bounce back regarding an invalid email address– Be sure to remove or fix that address in your

list ASAP– A large number of bad email addresses can

increase the risk of your email being treated like spam

References• https://uwaterloo.ca/information-systems-

technology/about/policies-standards-and-guidelines/email/sending-email-many-recipients-mass-email

• https://uwaterloo.ca/communications-public-affairs/mass-email-guidelines

• https://uwaterloo.ca/registrar/faculty-and-staff/blast-email-request

Questions?

• Please contact your IST Account representative for more information or assistance