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Topic: Email
Audience: Students, Faculty and Staff
Date: May 7, 2004
Guidelines for Sending Bulk Emails
Although the use of bulk email can on occasion be in the interests of the University, it can nevertheless cause mail server problems. Please use the following recommendations when sending bulk emails.
How is Bulk Email Different from Unsolicited Email (Spam)?
Bulk email is defined as a single email message that is sent out to multiple individuals. Methods include, but are not limited to, sending and forwarding a message to multiple recipients or sending and forwarding a message to a mailing list address.
Unsolicited email (SPAM) is email of a category that the individual did not request, irrespective of whether it is welcome. You may not be able to determine the true sender of an unsolicited message. For more information regarding unsolicited email, please see our document regarding unsolicited messages at http://www.oakland.edu/uts under the Email Services section.
“The federal CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing), designed to control unwanted e-mail, was signed into law in December 2003 and took effect January 1, 2004. E-mail send by the university community for the primary purpose of promoting the university’s commercial products or services must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act. The e-mail must include a “clear and conspicuous identification that the message is an advertisement or solicitation” unless the intended recipient has previously permitted the sending of such messages. The e-mail must include an opportunity to “opt-out” of further messages, and that must be acted upon within ten days of receipt of the request. A valid sender address must be included in the mail. University employees intending to send individual or build mail messages for commercial purposes need to follow these steps. If you are not clear about the purpose of your e-mail, please review with Communications and Marketing.”
How Can I Minimize Mail Server Impact when Sending Bulk Email?
Caution should be used before sending bulk email. Use the following guidelines to minimize recipient frustration and server impact.
• Email should be legible on the most basic equipment. The email
should not require special software or processing in order to be legible.
• If special software is required for an attachment, it should be
detailed in the email message.
• Email should be sent in plain text and not html formatting.
• Subject lines should present a clear and concise purpose of the
message.
• Keep the email short and concise. Avoid quoting previous replies if
possible.
• Set appropriate reply-to header fields to avoid replies going back to
the entire list unless necessary.
• Where possible, refer users to a website or a bulletin board posting.
What is the Impact of Email Attachments?
There are several major problems with sending bulk e-mail with attachments.
First, there are still a large number of email users who use a text based email reader such as Pine. This type of client has to take extra steps to read the attachment. It is also possible that the message recipient’s computer does not have the software installed to view the attachment. Many times the recipient has little to no computer knowledge and he/she may not even realize there is an attachment.
Second, an email message with attachment sent to a large number of
Third, if a message with a 26kb Microsoft Word attachment is sent to a mailing list with 2000 OU recipients, the message is processed 2000 times by the mailing list software and 2000 times by the mail server. The larger and more complex the message, the bigger the load is for the mailsever.
Fourth, many e-mail systems, including the OU e-mail system, block the sending of some attachment types, or in some cases, all attachment types, due to risk of virus or worm transmission. There is no guarantee that material sent in an attachment will actually be received by the intended recipient.
Summary
Email is a shared resource at