[thelist] scripts performing email merge

[Jay Blanchard]

[snip]
Without knowing web server specs or database specs, what do you think
would
be a reasonable rate at which a script like this should send emails?  10
per
minute, 100 per minute, 1000 per minute, ...?
[/snip]

Actually this question is at the crux of the issue. Without knowing
specs about hardware, memory, database, bandwidth available, size of the
newsletter, etc. the answer to this question is, at the very best,
speculation. If a server sent one e-mail each second your best time for
65000 e-mails is 18 hours. 5 per second would get you in the 4 hour
range. Are either one reasonable? That would be for you to judge.

What about an e-mail manager, like the one used to distribute this list?
They are very quick. I do not know what the stats are for thelist, but I
would have no problem imagining that there are 50,000 subscribers. When
I hit send all of them will get it in a fairly short period of time.