fyi....comments, Eric? ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- >Return-Path: <[log in to unmask]> >Comments: Authenticated sender is <[log in to unmask]> >From: "John Buckman" <[log in to unmask]> >Organization: Walter Shelby Group Ltd. >To: "Lyris Inquiry" <[log in to unmask]> >Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 13:54:09 +7 >Subject: Lyris Bulletin >Reply-to: [log in to unmask] >Priority: normal > >LYRIS BULLETIN > >This message discusses recent developments with Lyris, the Internet >email List Server. > >You are receiving this message because you filled out the "more >information about Lyris" web page at http://www.lyris.com. If you do >not want to receive information about Lyris, just reply to this >message and let me know. Lyris was formerly called "WorldBase" - so >you might have filled out that form instead. > >The release version of Lyris has been pushed back until July. In >talking with you, our prospective customers, we received a great deal >of feedback about what you wanted, and decided to make some >significant changes in Lyris to accommodate these. > >Some things you told us you wanted, and what we did to make it >happen: > >EASY ACCESS TO THE DATABASE LYRIS USES TO STORE ITS INFORMATION. > >We were using a proprietary format database, and have now changed to >an xBase file format. xBase is the file format used by DBase and >FoxPro. It can be read by hundreds of programs, such as Word, Excel, >and Lotus 1-2-3. This change makes is very easy to audit, report, >import/export list members, and countless other data-oriented tasks. >An ODBC database driver is also available. > >AUTOMATIC ADMINISTRATION > >Many of you complained that you spend hours with current listservers >finding bad email addresses, fighting bounced mail, and having your >email box flooded with list server junk. We've moved to a system >where all email sent by Lyris is uniquely tagged. This allows us to >automatically determine what email address is the cause and >automatically take the action you specify. Other listservers cannot >do this because their email sending program cannot handle the >increased load. We've written our own, super-high performance mailer >to address this. > >SPAM PROTECTION > >Unwanted email is becoming more and more of a problem. There are now >companies who will spam the entire Internet for a few hundred dollars, >as well as programs that will automate the task. The usual way for >list owners to fight spam is to manually approve every message sent to >the mailing list. Unfortunately, this is a lot of work for the list >owner! We've introduced a hybrid approach: the list owner only need >approve messages from new members. After a new member has been >approved a few times, they no longer need to be moderated. Since >spammers rarely contribute anything of substance to a list, this >technique effectively shuts them out. Spam protection is optional: >you don't have to use it if you don't want it. > >DO EVERYTHING ON THE WEB > >We have added dozens of features to the Lyris web interface, so that >you can completely control all of Lyris directly from your Web >browser. We separated the interface into three sections: one for the >general public, for list owners, and for site administrators. Every >function in Lyris is now point-and-click. > >DEFINE PEOPLE'S ROLES AND RIGHTS > >On many mailing lists, there are often several people who can act as >administrators. For instance, you might only want one person to be >able to remove people, but have several people who can approve >moderated messages. Or, you might want some people's messages to >require approval, while other people are automatically approved. Lyris >now allows very fine grain control over people's roles. You simply >check the attributes you want someone to have. > >SCALEABILITY AND CUSTOMIZABILITY. > >While many of you want to run Lyris "out-of-the-box", others want to >customize Lyris for your particular needs. To support this, we've >completely separated the Lyris "engine", the part which provides all >the functionality, from the user interface, which is completely Web >based. Lyris now has an Internet "protocol" which the web interface >uses to talk to the Lyris server. This protocol is based on the >syntax of the Perl programming language, and allows any program to use >Lyris' functionality. You can even "telnet" to Lyris, and issue >commands interactively with it. If you want, you can run the Lyris >Web interface on a different machine (your regular web server, for >instance), or on as many different machines as you like. For high >loads (over a million messages a day), you can have multiple machines >running Lyris, all acting as one server. > >There are many other things inside Lyris. If there is something >that is important that you want to make sure is addressed, please >write us. > >A specification sheet is available. Please visit our web site at >http://www.lyris.com or email me if you would like a copy. > >Beta testers: if you received this email message, then you will also >receive our beta testers announcement. At that time, there will be >information on joining the beta test program. > >John Buckman >Walter Shelby Group Ltd. > >John Buckman [log in to unmask] http://tile.net/john/ >Internet Software Developer @ Shelby Group - http://www.shelby.com/ > Dan Lester [log in to unmask]