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The users of mailchimp don't need to make another mailchimp. They just need to handle their own email needs. That's a big difference. It's still not easy, and I

The users of mailchimp don't need to make another mailchimp. They just need to handle their own email needs. That's a big difference. It's still not easy, and I would never be glib about it, especially since I've never run my own mail server on my own domain name before. But...several full-time jobs? How much mail do you need to send before postfix on a $5 VPS falls over? In terms of composing html mail that looks good, that would take some time to learn. A day to get something passable, especially with LLM help? As for tracking, I am against image/pixel tracking in emails, I think it undermines trust, so I wouldn't implement it (or use it).

kxrm 4y ago
> But...several full-time jobs? I think it depends on how important delivery is to your business. If your business team expects near 100% delivery and they want all the tracking features that give them insight into their promotional campaigns, then running email promotions on your own is quite a steep hill to climb. I run my own MTA on my own domain and only use it for verification purposes and I still have to fight with the free email providers every few weeks. It's definitely not a full-time job but I also have the joy of just not caring if a user doesn't get an email from my system. A agree with you somewhat that people reach for mass mail services too quickly sometimes but I also understand the perspective of engineers who have things like deadlines and other work to do where if I have the choice of working on truly new things to help grow the business I work for or handling email logistics, I know where I will point the my company.
- javajosh 4y ago
  >I know where I will point the my company That's why "use another service" was first on the list of alternatives.
JohnBooty 4y ago
It's not the amount of mail you send. Sending 1,000,000 emails is as easy as sending 1,000. As I said though compliance with spam regulations will be a constant battle. If you don't care if e.g. Google blacklists you from gmail.com, cool. That makes things a lot easier. The users of mailchimp don't need to make another mailchimp Right. I said that I'm assuming you can skip the consumer-friendly UI bits. However, I'm assuming you do at least want the analytic and tracking bits in this theoretical situation. Otherwise, why use something like Mailchimp in the first place? There are other ways to "just send mail." You choose Mailchimp for the extra bits.

kxrm 4y ago

> But...several full-time jobs? I think it depends on how important delivery is to your business. If your business team expects near 100% delivery and they want all the tracking features that give them insight into their promotional campaigns, then running email promotions on your own is quite a steep hill to climb. I run my own MTA on my own domain and only use it for verification purposes and I still have to fight with the free email providers every few weeks. It's definitely not a full-time job but I also have the joy of just not caring if a user doesn't get an email from my system. A agree with you somewhat that people reach for mass mail services too quickly sometimes but I also understand the perspective of engineers who have things like deadlines and other work to do where if I have the choice of working on truly new things to help grow the business I work for or handling email logistics, I know where I will point the my company.

javajosh 4y ago
>I know where I will point the my company That's why "use another service" was first on the list of alternatives.

JohnBooty 4y ago

It's not the amount of mail you send. Sending 1,000,000 emails is as easy as sending 1,000. As I said though compliance with spam regulations will be a constant battle. If you don't care if e.g. Google blacklists you from gmail.com, cool. That makes things a lot easier. The users of mailchimp don't need to make another mailchimp Right. I said that I'm assuming you can skip the consumer-friendly UI bits. However, I'm assuming you do at least want the analytic and tracking bits in this theoretical situation. Otherwise, why use something like Mailchimp in the first place? There are other ways to "just send mail." You choose Mailchimp for the extra bits.