[pmwiki-users] ZAP News Machine--another cool ZAP app

[The Editor]

Announcing:  the ZAP News Machine

Just completed testing on the ZAP News Machine, a PmWiki-based mailing
list manager for newsletters built using ZAP. My goal was to make it

# Easy & secure for subscribers to join/drop lists.
# Flexible and powerful for administrators to use.
# Simple to plug into existing sites.

You can give it a try at www.fast.st/zapnews.  To login as a
webmaster, use Admin/test for access.  Currently, only webmaster's can
send newsletters, but it could be easily adapted to allow member
submissions, for a community based forum, for example.

You should also try it out as a user (requires a real email)--just to
see how easy it is to subscribe/unsubscribe. One step authentication,
and one click subscribe/unsubscribe. I'd appreciate feedback on the
approach I've used, as it is a bit innovative.  Note that while no
actual newsletters will be sent (the site is in demo mode)--your email
could be seen by others logging in as webmaster, so you may wish to
avoid leaving your email on the lists.

Member Features:
* Members enter an email address into the homepage, then they are
emailed a random passcode, which enables them to subscribe/unsubscribe
that address to any maillist on the server.  No member names, accounts
or passwords to worry about.
* Passcodes are only valid for a specified period of time, by default
20 minutes.
* Subscribing/unsubscribing is as simple as picking a list from a
pulldown menu and clicking a button. The subscriptions list for that
email is automatically updated and displayed.
* Members can view archived messages, sortable by date, maillist, or
subject, or searchable by phrase or key word(s).
* Extremely simple, streamlined interface.

Administrator Features:
* Multiple "webmaster" accounts can be created, with separate login
information.  Webmasters can do most actions on ZAP News, but not edit
the site.
* Maillist creation is simple cut and paste of email lists.
* Maillists have one click cleaning, which sorts alphabetically, and
deletes duplicates.
* Newsletters are fully templated, and can even include html
formatting if desired (but not wiki markup), by simply editing a
template page. Each list can have it's own optional template.
* Recipients email addresses can be dynamically inserted into the
newsletter template, as well as the subject, sender, list name, or
other form fields.
* Newsletter sending can be scheduled up to a year in advance.
* Newsletters can be throttled, with configurable options per list of
batch size, and seconds delay between batches. Settings are saved
between sendings, but can be updated at any time.
* Newsletters can be sent manually, but the news engine is designed to
operate automatically, in the background, using cron.
* The mail queue is viewable, allowing you to check progress on
pending messages, stop sending, and/or modify the
message/settings/mail list, while in process.
* Completed newsletters are fully logged.
* Custom Newsletter forms can be created allowing even greater
flexibility and control over how newsletters are sent.
* Sent messages are automatically archived (see above).

Would appreciate any feedback anyone has on the app.

Cheers,
Dan