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2.10 is all about revision - why 2.10 and not 3.0? Because we're not finished on the good ideas we started with, five years ago.
Dada Mail isn't simply a mailing list manager - it's a way to communicate, syndicate, add content to your website. Dada Mail helps you with collaboration, sharing ideas and making sense of everything.
So why, "email messages" as the central vessel for everything? Email is universal - have a connection to the Internet? You can send a message out. Use the Internet at all? You have an email address too, don't you? Most likely... actually exceedingly likely. So that's your audience: Everyone. Everyone understands the basic concepts of email - there's little new to learn to have Dada Mail facilitate you to do incredible things.
What's your current mailing list's online archive look like? Does it look like a long, complicated list of links, that lead to uninspirational copies of text messages? Does it look like your website? - or does it look like a webpage from 1994? Does it have text? Graphics? Attachments to download?
...no?
Why not?
Dada Mail's list archives provide many of the key features that one expects from even a desktop mail reader - right on your website. Go ahead, send a message with an attachment, have the message and its attachment available to be viewed and downloaded.
Dada Mail has the ability to create email message content that have formatted text, inline images (even embedded inline images) and file attachments. All messages are created cleanly - no sloppy anything. If you don't think that's important, tell me about the last time your mail reader bounced a message back with HTML in it. Every message from Dada Mail is created with the industry's best-practiced methods - HTML messages always always have a plaintext version along for the ride - no one is left out in the dark when receiving your message.
For example:
There are many ways to send a message using Dada Mail - the two main ways are using Dada Mail's own web-based interface, or by simply using your mail reader. Below is a screenshot of a richly formatted message, including an inline image and an attachment message being created right within Dada Mail:
Above: Creating a richly formatted message, with attachment. (large version)
Messages sent using Dada Mail should reach your subscribers almost exactly as they appear when you're creating them:
Above: Viewing the richly formatted message, with attachment in the Mail.app mail reader for OS X. The attached print-friendly image has been opened in a separate window. (large version)
So, what happens to your message when archived? Are you required to only see it as a non-formatted version of its original self? No! Dada Mail's archives allow you to have the ability to view richly formatted messages and allow you to have attachments available for download - just like reading it using your mail reader. Have people that aren't even subscribed to your list enabled to view your messages, just as you've originally wanted them to look:
Above: Viewing the richly formatted message, with attachment in Dada Mail's own archive. The message appears correctly and the attachment is available for download. (large version)
And don't forget - archives can be resent, syndicated via rss/atom, browsed, searched and provide valuable content on your website -
Your mail reader should look like a mail reader - viewing an archived message on your website shouldn't remind you of that- why not have it look like additional content available on your website - because that's exactly what it is! Why should your company's branding stop? If you have five minutes, you can apply a template to your mailing list HTML screens that looks frighteningly like the rest of your website:
Above: The same archived message in Dada Mail's archives, with a custom template applied. (large version)
Speaking of sending out a message - what do you do if you have a message that needs to get out to EVERYONE - or just a select few? Having multiple lists for different, say, geographic locations used to be a nightmare - we said used -
Above: Sending to more than one list at a time (large version)
Sending to more than one list at a time now means checking a box. No duplicates will be sent out - we took care of that. You can also turn on Global Unsubscribing and have a Global Blacklist - but nothing more to think about, it all works behind the scenes. Take a rest...
While Dada Mail looks over your list -
Dada Mail's Clickthrough Tracker (a part of the Magicbook) - once only able to track specific links in email messages, has been turbocharged.
Now, track message opens, how many subscribers you have when each message is sent out and even bounces:
Above: A screenshot of the clickthrough tracker, live in action: messages sent with Beatitude, the scheduled mailer for Dada Mail, are automatically sent out with a daily literary quote every night. The clickthrough tracker then takes count of Subscribers, Clickthroughs, Opens and Bounces. Additional work you have to do: ZERO. Your statistician is salivating. (large version)
All this is done with privacy in mind: NEVER is a subscriber's email or IP address logged for Link Clickthroughs or Message Opens. No dirty tricks means your messages continue to get through. Get a pulse on the effectiveness of your list mailings.
What's the key to a successful relationship? Communication! No one wants to be left in the dark and no one wants to be misunderstood. Take advantage of Dada Mail's group discussion features to talk to people around the world - using no special software at all, just email - a tool everyone already knows and uses.
Discussion Lists being used, "in the wild" and this time, it's us:
Above: an, "in the wild" screenshot of an archived discussion list message. (large version)
Wrapping some concepts introduced earlier up:
See it yourself. The Dada Mail Developers discussion list was used immensely in communication between the developers of the Dada Mail program and interested parties. Dada Mail creating itself. The chicken and the egg have never been more confused.
Download Dada Mail - it's free!
Get a Professional installation, done by the creator of the program - it's cheap!.
The painting, FRIEND. used in some of these examples was painted by Justin Simoni and can be viewed here. Justin also wrote Dada Mail. Small world.
Dada Mail is Free Software and is released under the Gnu
Public License.
Dada Mail is written in Perl because we love Perl.