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Scripts for Educators: Free Perl/CGI programs since 1996

 

CGI-Subscribe:
Perl/CGI Mailing List Manager

 

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[Demo] [Who's using?] [System Requirements] [Download!] [Bug Fix Announcements] [Changelog] [License]

Program Summary

[Version 2.0.6k Released 12/31/2003]

CGI-Subscribe lets users sign up on your website to be on your mailing list. You can use this for information about site updates, newsletters, announcements, etc.

Configuration options and features include:

"Opt In" settings You can configure the program so that users must confirm their subscription before getting on the list. This prevents people from abusing the system by subscribing people without their consent.


"Opt Out" function: Users can "opt out" permanently, so that they cannot be subscribed again without confirmation.


HTML or Plain Text email: When you send your mailings, you may choose to send email Plain Text, HTML, or both.


Notification of new Signups: You may choose to be notified (or not) whenever someone signs up for your list.


Tested on Windows and Unix/Linux: Configuration options allow email to work on Windows and Unix/Linux web servers. (Tested on Windows 98, Windows 2000 with IIS 4 and 5; BSDi, and Linux with Apache)


Unsubscribe Link in every email: Every email sent by the program contains an "unsubscribe" link so that users can easily get off your list. Or, you can delete them yourself with the Admin interface.
Limitations

Several people have asked me if CGI-Subscribe can do various things, so I'd like to point out a few of its limitations:
  1. It is NOT (in general) good for lists of more than, say 100 members, unless you are allowed to run background processes on your web server. If you aren't allowed to do so, and especially, if you don't know what I mean by that, don't try to use this with a big list. :-)

  2. It is NOT a "fast blaster." CGI-Subscribe specifically waits one second per message in order to not overload your server (too much!), so a list of 85,000 members would take almost 24 hours to deliver. I have tried this myself, and it has worked fine for me under both Windows 2000 and Linux, but I'm also allowed to run background processes on my web servers. Many other people, I'm sorry to say, are not.

  3. It is NOT to be used for buying a list of email addresses from someone so that you can mail people who have not used CGI-Subscribe to sign up for your list themselves. Please note that this is against the license agreement. The whole point of this program is that you can build a list of people who have ASKED to get mail from you -- not that you can have a program to blatantly send mail to whoever you like.

    Please note that most lists of email addresses you buy are not lists of people who have asked for email. They are not "opt-in" lists. I know this because I get many email messages every day that say I have "opted in" when I know for a fact I have not. With CGI-Subscribe, used properly, you will know that your list is okay because people can't get on it without asking, and each subscription is confirmed to try to prevent people from signing other people up without their consent. Remember: Nobody likes a spammer.

  4. It is NOT good for sending huge files, say, 100K+ text Documents and suchlike. It's intended for newsletters and announcements, and not book publishing, folks! :-)

  5. It is NOT a substitute for an email list server such as Majordomo, ListServ, Listproc, etc. You'll need to look elsewhere for something like that.

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Working Demo

You may Try out the subscription form here, or Login to the admin interface here. Use the password "password" to log into administration.

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Who's Using CGI-Subscribe?

 If you've gotten CGI-Subscribe to work, send me the address of your website and I'll post a link to it.



Pró Jurídico
LetsGetFruity.com: Dance parties in the UK.

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System Requirements

The web server where this script will be installed must have Perl 5.000 or higher. Scripts that send email require that "Sendmail" or "qmail-inject" be available on Unix/Linux-type systems.

This script is NOT supported on the following free web hosting servers:

Tripod.com

You must be able to execute cgi programs on your web server. If you're not sure whether you have permission to do this, or are not sure how to configure the files, please ask your system administrator, or check the web pages of your web hosting provider for Help or Support information. For a free web hosting provider who supports CGI scripts, or low-cost web hosting providers, you can try looking at the "Some Places to Host your Website" page I've put together.

Please remember: you get what you pay for, and free web hosting services are often worth what you pay for them.

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Download!

But first, the obligatory plea for funding. :-)
Like the scripts? Show your support! 
(Scroll down if you don't want to read this part. You do NOT have to give money to download these scripts!)

If you like the scripts, you can send me cash through PayPal, Amazon, or through snail mail or you can show your support in other ways. Remember: only about one out of 100 people who download the scripts even says "Thanks." :-)
 

All the files you need are contained in these packages. Download it in the format you wish.

Gzipped Tar format: cgisubscribe.tar.gz
Zip format: cgisubscribe.zip

Extras:


German (version 2.0.4)
Gzipped Tar format: cgisubscribe-ger.tar.gz Graciously translated by G.S. Please note that the German version is unsupported and does not have all the features of the latest version.
Zip format: cgisubscribe-ger.zip

On a Unix-type system, if you have console or command prompt access, you may unzip the tar.gz file by typing 'gunzip < cgisubscribe.tar.gz | tar -xvf -'. If you're not very familiar with Unix, you may want to ask someone who is to help you. The latest version of Stuffit for the Mac will also handle tar.gz files.

If you have MS Windows, there is a program called WinZip (available at TuCows) which will uncompress and de-archive tar/gz files as well as Zip files.

The package contains the following files:

cgisubscribe.cgi:
The actual program that subscribes people, does the mailings, etc.
subscribe.html
This is just an HTML web form that you can modify and use to call the program to let people subscribe.
optin.txt
A file that will keep track of people who have "opted in" for your mailing list.
optout.txt
A file that will keep track of people who have "opted out" of your mailing list.
temp_signup.txt
A file to temporarily keep track of people who sign up before they have confirmed their subscription.
passfile.txt
The password file for you to log into administration.
README.cgisubscribe
contains information on how to get started using the program. READ this before trying to install this!

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Bug Fix Announcements

I strongly recommend that you sign up here for update and bug fix announcements about this script. I will not spam you with advertising: I just want to make sure you have the latest fixes. :-)


The program will send a confirmation message to your email address when you sign up. In order to get on the announcement list, you MUST click on the confirmation link contained in that email message. This is to protect you from someone signing you up as a joke, and to protect me from being accused of spamming. Since update announcements are sometimes few and far between, sometimes people forget that they've subscribed and report me for sending junk mail. Luckily, the system logs the address, time, and date of everyone who signs up so that I can prove I'm only sending to people who asked for it. :-)

After a major release, you may get one or two messages a week. Mostly, though, I'm afraid it's less than once a month. 

You may also sign up for announcements about other scripts on the main Scripts for Educators Mailing List page. 

This list is ONLY for announcements specifically about CGI-Subscribe:

Name:
Email:

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