Mail system

[special]

Hello, this is my suggestion for a difrent system for handeling emails. As known if you send over 200 emails a hour they will be all canceld and you will be bombarded with cancel emails causing much trouble.

Now my suggestion:
Many people have big websites, that do not intend to send spam or have a big forum. These forums dont have a delay system for sending emails so if you got a forum with 2000 members you get deactivated without a valid reason or notification cause not every1 reads agreements and statements by hosts. Is this hostgator problem well no not really but in my point of vieuw it coud be better.

My idea is, to have a delay system meaning 200 emails max per user, since there running phpsux you know the users id and are able to identifiy and delay the emails in a system. The idea is if you send aka 400 emails the system itself creates a waiting lists and divides it up in 2 hours or aka every 10 seconds 1 email for exampel.

Resulting in much less problems, and unexpected suspensions and unhappy customers. This is my idea, if that waiting list is result of more load on the server it might be a option to give people that pay exstra for this option. Tho most hosts alreaddy have this instead of a cancel system.

This is my idea yust my 2 cents lemme know what ye think

[calum]

I got suspended for sending over 200 emails per hour. Non were spam, a few were sent by my forum and directory but most were catchall forwarding.

I do think this is a good idea

[GvilleRick]

While not a bad idea it would be very difficult to accomplish this on a cPanel server. The mail transport system (Exim) is closely tied to cPanel and updated regularly. This means any changes to Exim to enable the delay would have to be redone when cPanel is updated. As has been mentioned in other threads there are programs that allow batch sending and addons to some forums that allow this feature as well.

Email is a cpu intensive task. A host I worked with set up a server with no email limits and customers could request being moved to it if they needed this option. We were then swamped with complaints about server speed from those clients and ended up doing away with the option.

The basic reality is you really can't get everything you want on a shared server. When it gets to the point that you are using too many resources you either need to find a way to get a dedicated server or reduce the load by elimiating features you would like to use but can't afford.

[GatorFord]

Originally Posted by GvilleRick

While not a bad idea it would be very difficult to accomplish this on a cPanel server. The mail transport system (Exim) is closely tied to cPanel and updated regularly. This means any changes to Exim to enable the delay would have to be redone when cPanel is updated. As has been mentioned in other threads there are programs that allow batch sending and addons to some forums that allow this feature as well.

Email is a cpu intensive task. A host I worked with set up a server with no email limits and customers could request being moved to it if they needed this option. We were then swamped with complaints about server speed from those clients and ended up doing away with the option.

The basic reality is you really can't get everything you want on a shared server. When it gets to the point that you are using too many resources you either need to find a way to get a dedicated server or reduce the load by elimiating features you would like to use but can't afford.

These are really good points. Just to note our mail configurations are chattr'ed so cpanel doesn't overwrite the custom changes we have in place. Anyways, delaying the mails would cause an even bigger problem because people would be mad about the mails being delayed. It's just one of those things that either way you do it someone is going to complain.

[calum]

Originally Posted by GatorFord

These are really good points. Just to note our mail configurations are chattr'ed so cpanel doesn't overwrite the custom changes we have in place. Anyways, delaying the mails would cause an even bigger problem because people would be mad about the mails being delayed. It's just one of those things that either way you do it someone is going to complain.

Yeah, I also guess if someone sent around 500 emails in an hour then all of their emails would be delayed a few hours which wouldn't be good either.

[GvilleRick]

Not to mention that if several people sent bulk mailings then once they start getting queued up there would be little difference if there were no limits in place.

Even with the limits in place it is interesting to watch the mail queue just to see how many messages are coming in and going out.

[special]

Originally Posted by GatorFord

These are really good points. Just to note our mail configurations are chattr'ed so cpanel doesn't overwrite the custom changes we have in place. Anyways, delaying the mails would cause an even bigger problem because people would be mad about the mails being delayed. It's just one of those things that either way you do it someone is going to complain.

I disagree on that subject, your saying people get agree cause messages are delayed. Um ye great but they arent even send out at the moment so whats worse... ye... oke.

And the list is a if, I mean if you delay any messages over 200 they got nothing to complain cause they will only benifit from this.. And if people send 2000 mails not the whole server is processing them I mean that woud cause a much higher load if ye ask me. Tho 2000 is a lot if ye ask me lol dont need that personally.

[GvilleRick]

If someone really needs to be able to send out 2000 messages there are options. They can use a listserv service or get a dedicated server and set it up to send as many as they want. I also agree that if they were to set the server up to delay the messages as described plenty of people would complain.

[slapshotw]

The mail limit is also in place for blacklisting reasons. If somebody is sending that kind of mail volume, there's a large chance bigger ISPs will blacklist the server's shared email IP and everybody will be affected. Because the ISPs monitor in 24 hour intervals, you'd have to stretch the 2,000 mails out over many days to make this at all effective. Nobody would like that.

There are very cheap (and free) services available for people who need to send lots of mail at once. Literally a cent or so per email sent for the ones that cost money.

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by special

These forums dont have a delay system for sending emails so if you got a forum with 2000 members you get deactivated without a valid reason or notification cause not every1 reads agreements and statements by hosts.

If ever there were a valid reason for a shared account to be suspended, it would be sending that much mail. Every other account on the server suffers if that IP is blacklisted, and the effect is to punish the innocent (whether the sender means to or not).

Originally Posted by special

And if people send 2000 mails not the whole server is processing them I mean that woud cause a much higher load if ye ask me. Tho 2000 is a lot if ye ask me lol dont need that personally.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say, since your initial example involved a 2000-member forum.

Somebody who is running a 2000-member forum on a shared account should either learn enough about scripts and applications to set up a throttle system, or spring for a dedicated server, or both.